Holiday Wishes

Out My Front Door

No, we don't have snow right now but on occasion we do have snow and it is beautiful.  In this picture taken from the front steps of my house you can see the sun beginning to rise and melt it all away.

2013 has been very busy year.  Some of the events have been exciting and welcome while some have not been so welcome.  Life is like that.  A mixed bag of events which we all have to learn to embrace and move ahead.

I'm looking forward to this week as I plan to focus on completing a large project, wrap my holiday gifts and savor the thought that next week my family will be here with me.

Thank you to everyone who has shared with me this year via Studio 24-7.  I send you all best for a wonderful holiday season no matter how you celebrate and I'll see you again in 2015 (opps! that should read 2014).  Now go bake some cookies or something!

xo, T

Day Seven of Seven Days of Christmas Celebration

The Saturday Evening Post - December - 1925

I grew up reading The Saturday Evening Post.  It was just as entertaining as People Magazine and certainly more educational.  The covers were often a highlight.  

This beautiful and nostalgic image of Santa giving the toddler a hug was created by Norman Rockwell who likely was the Post's most famous cover illustrator.  Rockwell had a very particular view of life in the US and a great sense of the common man and a special interest in children.

Rockwell began his career illustrating for a magazine I'd not heard of previously, St. Nicholas Magazine which featured stories for children by many very well know writers of the time.

I hope those of you with children or grand-children, nieces, nephews or children etc. will find a nice book to read tonight as they snuggle in their beds waiting for sugar plums to dance in their heads.  The warmth will last for years and the memories forever.

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Thank you for spending time at Studio 24-7.

I hope you have enjoyed my Christmas 

Celebration and thoughts on Santa.

Enjoy your family and friends.

I'll be back soon.

Day Six of Seven Days of Christmas Celebration

One of the famous Coca-Cola Santas.

Well I hope none of you work for Coca-Cola.  If you do, please don't tell them I'm using this image as they might require that I remove it and then cut off my supply of diet Coke.

We live in a culture where we see lots and lots of advertising but there are some images that just stick.  This vision of Santa is one of those that never seems to loose it's charm.  I'm sitting here trying to think of other advertising icons that come close but while I can think of a few, Tony the Tiger, Smokey the Bear for example, I think the Coke Santa wins hands down.

My judgement about this is based on the fact that growing up, we actually left Santa a plate of cookies and a coke for his snack at our house!  Lordy.....powerful stuff.

Well no matter how your Santa looks or what he likes for a snack, the "big" night is getting close.  Hope you have all your shopping done, gifts wrapped, food in the fridge, Santa cookies baked and don't forget the Coke!

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Thank you for spending time at Studio 24-7.

I have only one gift left to wrap but

I still need to grocery shop.  I'm making a 

banana pudding and some jelly-doughnut

cupcakes....I'm taking care of

the health food portion of

our meal.

Day Five of Seven Days of Christmas Celebration

The real Santa?

While investigating images and ideas for this series of articles I did a search for ethnic Santas.  One caught my eye on a site titled: Rasta Livewire. Here you will find an interesting article telling the story of a man named Nicholas who the writer states is the person who inspired the idea of Saint Nicholas or Santa Claus..  The website states that the story was  fashioned after a real person named Nicholas who was  a member of the dominate class of Muurs and lived in Turkey.  I am not a historian so I have no idea as to the true history of this person but I thought it was very interesting.  You might enjoy checking out the article and perhaps expanding your idea of the origin of this popular cultural icon.

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Thank you for spending time at Studio 24-7.

I love the idea of Santa no matter what 

the origin.  He is magic.

Day Three of Sevens Days of Christmas Celebration

I'm not sure this Santa qualifies as a "jolly ole efl".

Those of you whose families celebrate Christmas likely have a collection of photos of you sitting on Santa's lap taken at a department store, church or other gathering.  I suspect as many as 75% of these images feature you screaming, terrified of this strange man with the too red cheeks and cheesy synthetic beard.  Parents who subject their smaller children to this trauma are exposing a little streak of naughty.

This above particular santa's come hither look is far too suggestive for my taste but he does have a nice hat and great beard.

The best Santa I've ever seen was at Phipps Plaza in Atlanta, Ga.  His beard was real, his suit was velvet and he kept his hohoho in check.

The worst Santa I recall was sitting in front of a country grocery store on a platform which was being pulled by a ram-shackled unwashed pickup truck.  He was far too skinny and his lack of gloves revealed a tattoo on the back of one hand which said "deal maker".  

I love the idea of Santa, someone who tries to make your dreams come true.  Of course the dreams of many are never fulfilled under the Christmas tree but if you see one of those Angel Trees in your community you might consider playing Santa for some boy or girl in your area.  This will qualify you as a Real Santa.

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Thank you for spending time at Studio 24-7.

May all your dreams come true.

Day Two of Christmas Celebration

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,

And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;

He had a broad face and a little round belly,

And it shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly.

I have a huge storage area for my Christmas things.  That might not be too amazing except I live in a house with only 2 built in closets.  I do admit that the closet where I keep my holiday things is very high and not good for everyday storage so I don't feel too bad.

We have a Smoking Santa (he hadn't heard it's bad for his health) but not this specific one.  I find all these little objects charming and it's always fun to pull out the boxes and unwrap things we've been unwrapping and collecting since we were first married.  Actually, the first year Tom and I had a christmas tree we cut a cedar tree from a field and made ornaments.  On about the third or fourth day the tree was in the house a pod of praying mantis hatched and we had thousands and thousands of them everywhere. I didn't want to kill them so I carefully collected them and put them outside....effectively killing them as it was cold and not time for them to hatch.  Oh well...good intentions and all.

Like many of you we have all sorts of things that hang on the tree.  Things our son made when he was little, things my sister and I made and sold (I paid my way through graduate school selling christmas ornaments...really) and things I've bought and collected over the years.  It's always fun to open the boxes where the ornaments are stored and unwrap them another year.  One day someone will sort through my boxes and possibly discard the silver foil paper with a fish on it...it's really a candy bar wrapper ... ditch the funny looking handmade alligator .... bought at a thrift store...or discard the tin can with toothpicks and glitter....made by a college friend... and that's ok.  Many of these objects are connections to friends I've know and places I've been that they know nothing about.  They will need to make their own collection of things for the Christmas tree and I hope it is as rich and meaningful for them as mine is for me.

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Thank you for spending time at Studio 24-7.

This is a busy time of the year 

but I hope you are having fun

with your loved ones.

Seven Days of Santa

This European style Santa is looking rather weary and I'm a little concerned

 about that bundle of sticks he's carrying.....

As many of you know, I worked as a designer for several textile companies and all made jacquard woven home interior products.  A large part of the product lines were devoted to gift items and of course Christmas was the biggest part of this segment.

We worked on products for Christmas 12 months of the year in one of those companies.  Santas, elves, reindeer, gift boxes etc. and then manger scenes.....endless manger scenes.  Each design had a production number for in-house tracking but we also had to give each design a name.  Imagine creating 25 manger scenes and coming up with 25 unique titles.  Sorry....Manger 1-25 won't work.

One late Friday afternoon we were finishing up and one of the designers was trying to give a name to her most current manger design.  She finally announced she had finished and send the file over to me.  She had managed to give her work a most memorable title ....Manger Boy.  Very cool indeed.  We laughed and laughed and decided to send it on up the line knowing it would never fly.  It was of course kicked back for a new title but I hope it gave a few other people a laugh too.

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Thank you for Spending time at Studio 24-7

and

Merry Christmas!

I will be posting a new santas for the next week each

with a short little story or memory.

I love hearing from you and I appreciate all of your

support and wonderful comments.