Christmas wish book

I recall the train sets, that auto race set-up and the Tonka vehicles as well as many of those pages from the Sears Wish Books. Oh to be that age again!  

Thanks JB. A fun look at yesterday. Like Tony I looked for the trains, slot cars and Tonka Trucks

Christopher Radko reproduced the Shiny-Brite decorations in the same, box as shown in the '62 catalogue, some years ago. I managed to get three boxes in the different sizes plus extras, so my 1940s U.S. Christmas is well stocked.  There is a great story behind these U.S. decorations, which are very different to the European ones.  Up to the late '30s almost all the world's Christmas baubles came from Eastern Europe which had a long-established glass-blowing tradition and structure of small crafts houses producing these hand made decorations for most of the year, ready for the season's export. Suddenly all that changed in September 1939, when much of Europe was well stocked, but the U.S. had import difficulties.  One man knew a friend (details not to hand 😐) who had a light-bulb factory, and this man had seen how machines blew air from pipes into molten glass blobs which expanded and were constrained on the outside by pneumatic rubber cushion/moulds.  He contacted the friend and asked if these moulds could be formed into different shapes: bells; spinning-tops; simple stars, and the like. And the answer was affirmative. And so the original, mass-produced U.S. Christmas decoration was born - and saved Christmas day for 1000s of good little boys and girls up and down the country. 🎶

In lieu of my nice, Shiny-Brite 1940s decorations, I post the next best thing, to keep in the spirit of John's post.

@charles-rockett Wow Charles what a wonderful story and picture of your Christmas tree.

@bob-jackman +1

@bob-jackman +2!

I remember looking through the wish book for a new sled, GI-Joes, slot cars, and one year I got the Man From Uncle gun set.  I wore that UNCLE badge every where I went till I lost it.

Thanks for this post JayBee; what memories it brought back.

Oh, how I miss those days.  Looking forward to receiving the Sears, JC Penny Christmas Catalogs was the highlight of the year.  I too looked at the trains, models, race cars building sets.