I am dreamin' tonight of a place I love even more than I usually do.

You probably recognize the post title - it's from the song "I'll Be Home for Christmas". Some people have suggested we hang Christmas lights to brighten the mood during what we know as the Coronavirus pandemic of 2020.

I like that idea.

Because you, reader, cannot see my Christmas lights, and I cannot see yours, I will post a bunch of my most favorite nostalgic decorative Christmas items and sincerely hope you find enjoyment here.

So, without further ado, here's some neat holiday décor from my childhood: 

I don't know why I thought of this first item, but they were among the first things to come to mind. 

These are Santa hangtags from when the milkman delivered bottles to the house. 

My family did not have a milkman but my Nana saved some of these hangtags from the days when she did and displayed them on her tree. 

I still send cards. 

Grateful for friends and family, we still receive a good number of printed cards as well. 

However, I do miss the days when everyone sent Christmas cards 

and they all looked something like this.

Or this.

This holiday dish is a little fancier than what my Mom would put together in our white plastic Tupperware mold but Mom's sure was amazing. 

Strawberry jello, canned fruit cocktail, & walnuts.

 I would love some right now. 

Look at these aluminum cookie cutters! 

We had the same ones which we used to make cookies every December.

Mom always put out these amazing hard candies. 

My Nana used to offer me ribbon candy, a favorite. 

My Moo Moo's aluminum tree with the color wheel looked a little like this.

If you can look close enough to see the prices in this ad you will chuckle. 

We still have two of these at my house, one green, one white. 

Christmas windows downtown were magical and fanciful. In the community where I live, many merchants still make a grand effort to put pretty window decorations up at Christmastime. 

Don't touch these suckers...and don't leave them lit all night on a dry tree, either. 

Hot!

My favorite decoration at my Nana's house was her Aerolux filament Christmas light bulb 

which she always displayed on top of a doily on the same end table, year after year. 

I was totally mesmerized by it. 

Cardboard fireplaces were in all of my friend's homes who didn't have actual fireplaces;

ours included, and we had a built in light bulb to provide a nice yellow glow. 

Mom and Dad would thumbtack our stockings on the mantle. 

We used to call these "sugar" candles because they had a granular surface. 

I think we had one Santa one and one manger scene one in our home.

You could put new tall pillar candles in them year after year, 

preferably bayberry scented for the holidays. 

I know it wasn't much but I hope this provided a little distraction during these odd times. 

I find my sadness dissipates a bit with a little trip down memory lane to a simpler time.

Please be well.