Candy Containers

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I love it when I can find items that I own in vintage magazines!  Today I am sharing a few vintage candy containers I have had for decades along with their corresponding ads!

The full page image seen above is from the 1949 Christmas Sears Catalog. 

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The top header item is this amazing plastic Santa with 8 tiny reindeer carrying a sled full of lollipops!

This thing was such a big deal that it was the front cover illustration for the catalog!

"Merry Old Santa and his Eight Tiny Reindeer, with a pack of sweets, all set for their yearly ride.  Santa's Candy Express is truly unique..designed of gleaming plastic, to serve as toy or Christmas ornament.  60 inches of ribbon included to join Santa and reindeer, and 18 cello-wrapped pops are in his pack.  Laughing red-suited Santa and his sleigh, drawn by snowy white reindeer, form a cheerful centerpiece...trim for your tree, or an entertaining toy.  Use pieces separately or as a unit.  Each piece has a ring for hanging.  Size, as shown, about 25 in.  Packed in handsome box with famous poem "Night Before Christmas" printed on side.  Shpg. wt. 2 lbs. 8 oz.   Complete 98 ¢"

2 1/2 pounds?!  Either those pops have a lead filling or the deer each chowed down at a Chinese Buffet before heading out for the night.

Here is my Merry Old Santa sans his reindeer.  Until coming across this ad I didn't know they were included.  On Santa's mitt I had always noticed it had a notch cut in it; now I know it was for the 60 inches of ribbon.  I added a few cello-wrapped (dum-dum) pops to his sleigh so he could relive his glory days:

But wait!  There's more!

There are two other candy containers I possess included on this same page:

"Four Plastic, Candy-Filled Toys:  A delightful assortment of children's favorite plastic toys.  Includes (1) A candy-filled Trojan horse with 4 candy pops astride it.  Candy comes out of secret opening in under side of horse.  On wheels, the horse is 5 1/2 in. high, 5 in. long.  (2)  Jolly fat plastic Santa on skis with 10 pops in his pack.  Red and white Santa stands 4 1/2 in. high, on green plastic skis.  (3) Cunning white plastic snowman, 5 in. high. with coal black stovepipe hat, buttons, pipe.  He carries 10 pops in pack.  (4) Large Santa Claus Boot, 4 in. high, with 18 pops.  Shipping weight 2 pounds 4 ounces.  Set of 4 toys with 42 pops.  98 ¢"

Man, that was a bargain wasn't it?

I don't own the whole set (and frankly I don't want the dorky looking horse or Santa's old smelly boot) but do have the 2 best ones:

These babies go for 25+ bucks now on the black market... I got both of mine for pretty cheap over the years.  The Santa was part of a pile of stuff I bought at a downsizing sale so it was a group price but I would estimate I gave a buck for him.  The snowman was 25 ¢ from the Salvation Army thrift store.

Here is another Sears catalog from 1951 showing another item I own:

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Here is a super pixeled close-up:

"Santa's Red Plastic Candy Cart.  Trumpeting Santa stands in two-wheeled cart drawn by three white reindeer.  Holly leaves and berries decorate wheels.  Contains 30 assorted cello-wrapped pops with safety sticks.  Shpg. wt. 1 lb, 8 oz.  98 ¢ "

 Here is my Santa's Red Plastic Candy Cart, however we see that it actually is "Santa's Candy Wagon".  I added in a felt covered Santa and a small group of pops but it's just nothing as glorious as the original:

I bought this at a really creepy, dilapidated thrift store over 20 years ago that has since gone out of business.  The original Santa and his trumpet both jumped ship but check out it still having it's original ribbon!

And as a side note, did you see what has fallen from it's 1949 prestige?

Santa's Candy Express is now on the bottom of the page sharing a small image with Santa and his Workshop goons....

and then with the extra insult of being offered together as a discount package price!

Vintage holiday craftin'

Today I'm going to share with you all a few of my vintage crafted felt items.  These aren't things that I crafted using vintage materials, they were crafted by some poor already over-worked wife out there 50-60 years ago under direction of either a PTA or church group in the name of a bazaar.

You can tell these aren't things that were made with love but rather in speed and quantity with all the attention of a fast food sandwich maker dealing with a double case of pink eye....but even still they are great!

The above are clever Santa napkin holders with the white napkins folded in such a way that they become the hat details and beard.

These babies were fashioned by someone that gave zero f*cks.  They are still pretty neat though.  They are door hangers with little bells.

You may recognize these guys as I hang them off of my lamp shades every year.  They are actually felt napkin rings where the white is the tip of his hat and his long ZZ Top beard.

These guys are...or were more of a fancier craft item (kit from Brucilla?) that was made as a gift with real care only after ages of wear and tear they look like holiday dumper dredges.

 Also in my collection I have this one pattern for making felt lovelies.

You see that Merry Christmas table cloth above?

Check out the other side!

And I also found a few felt Christmas crafts in one of my vintage Better Homes and Gardens 'Christmas Ideas for 1958' that would be great for some modern day craftin'!

A Santa Belly card holder.

A stocking and cafe curtains.

Placemats.

A table runner, covered match boxes, and a clothes hanger slip cover.

And this super cute tent tunic!

If you want to try your hand at making some vintage inspired felt items I'll give you a hint.  Don't use felt, or craft felt, or what ever those scratchy small sheets of brillo pad they sell in the store are.  It always was so frustrating to me when I would see and own all these vintage crafts that were made out of "felt" but clearly felt of today was sub-sub par.  I just figured felt had become a victim of  'evolving' into garbage as everything has over the years.  Then while I was helping my stepdad downsize my mom's MASSIVE craft hoard I came across a couple of bolts of this solid colored fabric material....and it felt just like vintage 'felt'  but it wasn't vintage.  I then put it together that mid century felt is today's FLANNEL!  Maybe all you ultra crafty folks are already in the know about that but for the few that weren't aware there you go, that info is your gift from me, Merry Christmas!

Santa Egg Cup

I have had this ceramic Santa head for ages.  I got him at a thrift store, probably gave a quarter for him.

For those that care about brands, he has a "Lefton's" sticker on the bottom.

His hollowed out brainless cranium has always been a bit off putting to me so this year I decided to do the overpopulated idea of having a tree growing out of his noggin, but better since it's actually a super neat looking vintage plastic branch:

Then I thought, why not do him up proper and style him with his intended egg head as I would see fit:

Now that's adorable!

Holly Boy Hunt 2023

We haven't had a good old fashioned Holly Boy hunt here on MHICTY for a couple of years now so I did a bit of internet scavenging and came up with a few new items!

If you aren't familiar with all the Holly Boy Hype where have you been?!  Check out these past posts to get in the know...It's quite the saga! (The Holly Boy 2020 and Holly Boy Sightings 2021)

So first up are these Finger -tip paper towels and soaps available now on ebay for 24 bucks:

The box cover says the set includes 10 scented towels and 3 cakes of guest soap.  Hmmmm....so the towels are scented but not the soap?  Weird, but I am going to believe the soaps smell like the Holly Boy!  I think his lovely little self would smell like a crisp winter day in the wilderness, fresh snow, a pinch of fir tree and a dollop of raspberry jam.

Also included is a card with an extremely watered down and misconstrued blurb about The Holly Boy:

"I was conceived through the imagination of a little girl who could not understand why a living tree had to be sacrificed to make a holly wreath, so the holly wreath turned into a "Holly Boy".

Let me bring into your home the Christmas spirit and let me bring to one and all the happiness that you deserve."

Shall we Holly Boy fanatics pick this apart!?  First off, Linda never gave a rat's ass about the death of the holly tree being sacrificed.  As a matter of fact, the story doesn't make a point of saying the holly tree died.  It just says branches were cut to make a wreath.  And I quote:  " Is the Holly Wreath happy?  she wondered.  Just a few days ago it was part of a beautiful, living holly tree.  But Daddy cut off the branches and tied them together to make Christmas wreaths.  How can those holly branches be happy...all cut up and tied so tightly!"

I only have access to part of the story through the pages photographed on Always Crave Cute.  Maybe in the intro there is a brutal tree slaughter and Linda is traumatized early on.

Either way this little card included with a set of soap reveals a deeper, darker side to The Holly Boy Story.  Linda definitely later in life founded one of those eco-activist monkey wrencher groups.

Also let's talk about the over worldly promise included on the card claiming that if you let him, The Holly Boy will bring to one and all the happiness that they deserve.  I mean.  That sounds like some some Christmas voodoo.  I never knew the Holly Boy to possess the power of life fulfillment...

maybe it's within the soap!

  

Use Holly Boy soap and all your wildest dreams will come true!

And speaking of soap, I also found these Holly Boy Bars with a colorful print:

I have the feeling these soaps contain no magical powers...Just look at them all dry and blotchy.

Last found on the hunt is this set of notecards, envelopes, and beverage coasters :

There are no secrets revealed within these items.

Those are cute envelopes though!

The Holly Boy hunt, as always, leaves us with more questions than answers.....

(I have a Pinterest sub-board called Holly Boy Sightings if you want to see a visual catalog of everything)

Christmas Collection: He's a Brick House!

One of my favorite icons of the season is kinda an odd one but it's Bricks!  Fireplaces, chimneys, facades... I just love it!

The above piece is one I have had for 17 years or so and probably my most favorite Christmas collectible I own.

This is an odd broken bit of brick decor I picked up from a thrift decades ago.  It's a music box (and still kinda works playing a very dragged down version of Here comes Santa Claus) missing the plastic dancing Santa.  You can see his broken boot he left behind in the middle of the gifts.  I have several of these kind of flocked dancing Santas that I shove one into the shoe when I set this up.  I like the bonus idea here to wrap mini gifts in aluminum foil then covered in colored cellophane with sparkly pipecleaners for the ribbon.

I put these two guys together since they have the same thing going on, popping out of chimneys.  The one on the left is plastic and the Santa can be pushed all the way to the top.  He's also one of those puppet deals where you push the spring up and his limbs are on strings and he goes limp and dead.  He's got a really 'duh...." face.  Not much going on upstairs.

The other Santa on the right is a homemade ornament that I picked up at a thrift.

I love this guy!  I got him and the pop up Santa above at a huge vintage Christmas downsizing sale I went to several years ago.

Aren't these drinking glasses fun?  They tell the story of why you need to leave Santa a veggie tray instead of cookies.

I have had these plastic houses for decades.  It wasn't until setting them side by side for this photo that I realized they are exactly the same, only each is missing bits and/or something has been relocated.  I got thses at a thrift 20+ years go for 50 ¢ each.

I found this card holder a couple of years back at a thrift store.  He's a bit bedraggled but worth it for the long brick chimney.  We clip our past family Christmas photos on it each year.

This vintage little paper chimney is a coin bank/saver freebie gift from a bank.

I have a love/hate relationship with this ceramic Santa planter.  I picked it up many years ago at a thrift.  Once I started looking at it I became disturbed by Santa's inappropriate spread eagle stance.  However PB thought it was hilarious and loves this tacky thing because I hate it.  I wanted to re-donate it but now I pull it out every year, even decorate with it, and remind PB that when he moves out "Santa asking for a diaper change" is coming along with him.

If you love Christmas brick as much as I do then the ultimate item to have is a cardboard fireplace!

I have two.  

Here is the neat back on the box.  I would love to be able to copy that and make a wall decor piece from it...not cutting up the original box!

This is the box to my second fireplace.  Each one is a little different so I have just kept them both.  I got the first one from ebay over 20 years ago.  The second one was won for me by a family member at a local auction around the same time.

Here is the above fireplace set up:

(Side note of how to make Tacky Sweater Stockings)

I also like to make Christmas Crafts for gift giving featuring fireplaces, brick chimneys:

This cardboard fireplace is the vehicle for the loaf log tucked inside.  I couldn't find paper with a brick pattern so I used a red and black buffalo check wrapping paper that had the bonus of being reversible with wood grain on the other side. More on the How To: Log Loaves and Fireplaces

For Christmas Sweets giving in 2021 I made these chimney containers:

Gosh these are so cute!  I wish I would have made myself one.  

(The How To here: Santa's Chimney of Sweets)

So there is my Christmas Brick House doodads and what-nots.

 As a side note, do you remember when grocery stores would wrap the interior support columns in a corrugated brink cardboard at the holidays?! I miss seeing that!

Here's a couple of mid-century grocery views featuring brick decor.

I'd sell what's left of my soul for that inflatable snowman....

 And I just realized!  That's the same woman in both photos!  She's making her rounds to all the great brick Christmas displays just like I would have done!

Christmas Collection: Nativity Sets

Today I am sharing one of my collections that I have amassed over the decades, vintage nativity sets:

I love the MCM design in this one.

No room in the inn, and barely any in this stable either.

This was the first set I bought decades ago and it's pretty big.  I absolutely love the styling of the figures.

I also have several plastic kitschy sets as well:

And some micro versions with original boxes:

That one on top of the green box glows in the dark!