AA-2026-825FF3
On the image
Somewhere in postwar America, a family has achieved the 1950s ideal of Christmas: a real pine tree so thoroughly encased in silver icicle tinsel that the branches are visible only as vague suggestions beneath the glitter, with coloured glass ornaments providing the only proof that a tree exists at all. The pile of wrapped gifts underneath is large enough to suggest either genuine prosperity or a family that had been reading the new consumer magazines very carefully. A teenage girl reaches toward an unwrapped toy at the edge of the frame, already mid-task, which is how you can tell this is the real Christmas morning rather than the posed-before-breakfast version. Two stuffed animals — a standing bear in a neckerchief and a sleeping dog — sit among the packages with the slightly glazed dignity of toys that do not yet know they will spend the next decade in a closet. The living-room furniture, the tangerine lamp shades, and the Venetian blinds framing the tree together form a period room so complete it might have been staged, except that no one in the 1950s would have staged it any differently.
Visually related — by likeness
American Living Room Christmas Morning, 1950s. 1950–1959. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-825FF3. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/american-living-room-christmas-morning-1950s.
@misc{aaAA2026825FF3,
title = {American Living Room Christmas Morning, 1950s},
year = {1950–1959},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-825FF3},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/american-living-room-christmas-morning-1950s}
}TY - ART TI - American Living Room Christmas Morning, 1950s PY - 1950–1959 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-825FF3 UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/american-living-room-christmas-morning-1950s ER -
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