Mid-Century Christmas

Christmas in America from the 1940s through the 1960s meant aluminum trees, department store Santas, and cartoon specials on TV. Every kid in the suburbs had to have an Easy-Bake Oven, a G.I. Joe, or a Slinky. The coolest houses had rotating color wheels for their trees.Historian Leslie Goddard explores this optimistic era in a new illustrated lecture, using photographs, advertisements, greeting cards,and catalogs to explore why this era was aturning point for how we celebrate the holidays.