Christmas Carol Contemplation

Do you have a favorite Christmas carol or holiday tune?

They've been piped into the stores since Halloween, so you've had plenty of time to enjoy them (or get sick of them, as the case may be). I know for me, I've got to be in the mood to listen to them, otherwise I tune them out. 

Sometimes my family used to have them playing in the background while we trimmed the tree. I think Republic Steel used to sponsor a nonstop, commercial-free Christmas music marathon on FM radio back in the 1970s and we might have tuned into that. Either that or we had Herb Alpert's Christmas album (a Brady favorite) playing on the stereo in the living room.

Anyway, my all-time favorite Christmas tune is one that really isn't a Christmas tune at all, but it might as well be because it's only played around the holidays: Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride." 

Why? Because it's timeless. It's come to symbolize the holidays for me.

As a little kid, I remember listening to it being performed at various holiday programs by a choir and enjoying the clippity-clop sound resembling a horse. Later, I remember either playing it and/or singing it at Masson in the various bands, orchestras or choirs. And even later, we performed it at Admiral King High School with my brother Ken doing the horse whinny on his trumpet at the end. So it's the one melody that seems to tie together every Christmas over the years for me. I never get tired of it and I always get a little teary-eyed when it comes over the radio, because I feel like a kid again.

As for some of the other Christmas tunes that come over the radio, I must confess that I'm pretty burned out on many of them. "Santa Baby" is one that is played a little too often; same thing with "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch." But who doesn't break into a smile when they hear Burl Ives singing "A Holly Jolly Christmas?"

Be sure to leave a comment about your favorite Christmas melody.

Christmas 1985

Detail from a Journal ad

Before I scurry back to the safety of the warm and fuzzy 1950s and 60s, let's sneak at peek at Christmas 1985.

The year 1985 was a big year for me. It was my first full year in my apartment at the Lorain Overlook (after moving out of my parents' home in late 1984). I also started working at the Downtown Cleveland printing company that would be my home for the next 35 years (until Covid hit).

The Journal didn't seem to have very many holiday-oriented ads in the days leading up to Christmas. Here is a not-so-ample sample. I love the Fotomat ad, having forgotten all about those things.

The Journal was still running the Christmas greeting pages (as regular contributor and ex-Journal employee Todd described them). There was only one full page and two half pages of them that ran in the Christmas Eve edition of the paper.

The movie ads were getting a little skimpier. As you can see, Back to the Future was the big movie of the season.

Not bad – Tom & Jerry AND Woody Woodpecker cartoons!

Lastly, the Journal delivered a great editorial on Christmas Eve.

Christmas 1975 – Part 2

For Christmas 1975, the Journal featured full-page advertising grids with each participating business sponsor occupying a square (or rectangle if you want to be specific) with a small, unique holiday graphic like the one shown above. I guessing these templates were largely ready-made, with only the company name and address to be added.

The December 24, 1975 edition of the paper contained three full pages of these ads, as well as one partial page.

The pages are all fun to look at, and contain businesses from all over Lorain County. I'm sure you'll recognize a few businesses that you may have patronized, but forgotten about due to the passing decades. The cost of appearing in these pages must have been very reasonable to achieve such incredible participation.

A look at the movie pages of that December 24, 1975 Journal really drives home the realization that it was a long time since the 1950s, and that the 1970s were half over.

On one hand, you have some traditional holiday fare. The Walt Disney Company was continuing its practice of re-releasing its cartoon classics every seven years to a new generation of kids with Snow White. (Who could have guessed that the classic would be pointlessly remade in live-action in 2025?)

On the other hand, the era of raunchy movies was well underway, with pictures such as Hooker's Revenge showing at the Lorain Drive-in, and the expected X-rated fare at the VL Cinema.

It was a time when disaster movies were big-big-big. Earthquake was showing at Amherst Theatre. 

On a positive note, there were still movies with such popular Hollywood stars as Charles Bronson, James Coburn, James Caan and Burt Reynolds. And the Monty Python comedy troupe's feature And Now for Something Completely Different was showing at Oakwood Twin Cinemas – along with Three Stooges and Mister Magoo shorts!

Christmas 1975 – Part 1

Let's spend a few days experiencing Christmas 1975. (I tend to favor the 1950s and 60s here on the blog so it's good for a change to focus on an era that some readers might actually remember.)

Above is some nice holiday artwork by the great editorial cartoonist Herbert Block. His wonderful, memorable panels graced the pages of the Journal's Page of Opinion for many years. The above cartoon ran on Dec. 24, 1975.

Here's the editorial from that same page.

The "Peace on Earth" cartoon with the little angel in the editorial was by another Journal editorial page regular, Hugh Haynie.

And here's a corny-copia of holiday ads that ran in the Journal on December 24, 1975. The first one is a business that I patronized for many years.

My parents bought an awful lot of Oldsmobiles from this Milad's in Amherst.

I bought one of my first cars (a Chevy) at the Lupe dealership in Avon Lake.

I never bought a car at Sliman's in Amherst but I sure am glad they are still around.

Hey, it's another appearance of the Kmart raccoon that Google AI insisted never existed!

I think of Carek's every time I go to Center of Sheffield and see the Carek name on a street nearby. I bought a lot of flowers there over the years, including corsages for the high school prom and formals.

And up until I finally closed out some ancient accounts there a year or two ago, I was a First Federal Savings of Lorain customer since I was a baby.

And Mom patronized both of these stores: Ted Jacobs and Hills Dept. Store.

Tomorrow: Omnibus ads and 1975 Holiday Movies

Christmas Tree Clippings

Detail from a 1926 ad

Christmas trees were – not surprisingly – a popular news subject in the Lorain Journal over the years beginning in November. The arrival of the first load of Christmas trees on the train was big news each year and often warranted a photo.

It's interesting reading about where the arriving trees were from.

Once the trees hit the market, however, there weren't a lot of ads advertising their sale, at least in the oldest online Journal archives from the early 1920s. And it seemed that many different businesses sold them, including grocery stores. Eventually there were even early versions of 'pop up' stores selling them.

By the time of the 1950s, there were many more ads for Christmas trees for sale, including both real and – gasp! – artificial.

What follows then is an ample sapling sample of articles and ads about Christmas trees that I collected from the pages of the Lorain Journal.

Dec. 1, 1923

Dec. 6, 1924

Dec. 19, 1924

Dec. 17, 1926

Dec. 11, 1930

This article is kind of cute. It features a group of talking Christmas trees that are discussing what it was going to be like to be sold in Lorain.

Dec. 23, 1931

Dec. 20, 1935

Dec. 15, 1939

Nov. 26, 1940

Dec. 20, 1940

Nov. 14, 1951

Dec. 11, 1952

Dec. 17, 1952

Dec. 5, 1953

Dec. 1, 1955

Nov. 30, 1957

Nov. 22, 1958

Dec. 17, 1958

Lastly, this article from November 23, 1961 nicely sums up the Christmas Tree market, with information about the number of artificial trees sold at that time.

It's interesting how many of the ads are selling trees about a week before Christmas. That seems to be the timeframe that my parents adopted towards putting up and trimming the tree. We did it a few days before Chistmas. Nowadays, many people see it as a chore to get out of the way as soon as Thanksgiving is over.

*****

I wrote about the arrival of the first load of Christmas Trees for 1949 on the B&O railroad back here.