Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion is filled with 999 retired spooks and spirits who have taken up permanent residence at this California theme park. Sneak a peek!
Vintage holidays
Old-fashioned holidays and traditional celebrations
Take a step back in time and revisit these vintage articles and authentic guides to old-fashioned holidays and traditions from celebrations of the past! We have hundreds of classic holiday recipes, plus home decor, party plans, photos and much more!
You can easily browse recipes, articles and more by your favorite old-fashioned holidays — Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Valentine’s Day, Easter — by event, such as birthdays, weddings — or by season: spring, summer, winter & fall.
See how gazebos became one of America’s favorite outdoor retreats with a look back at some vintage styles and backyard designs!
The charm of a New York City summer vacation — the ideal place for a summer resort? — lies in the unrivaled transportation facilities of the great seaport.
This recipe for savory crescent chicken squares was a winner at the Pillsbury Bake-Off contest in the ’70s because it was tasty and so easy to make.
Before air conditioning and refrigerators existed, see some of the ways people managed to stay cool in summer during the great New York heat wave of 1911!
Step back into the 1960s and discover how swimwear went from simple to splashy with vintage photos that bring this iconic beach fashion to life.
Remember these vintage above-ground pools – the kind that were big enough to actually swim in, but that you didn’t need to dig a big hole for?
Red, white and blue flag cakes are always fun to have for patriotic holidays, and this stars and stripes dessert – covered with bright berries – has one of the simplest recipes around!
How was vintage July 4th celebrated in the past? It varied a lot over the decades, but early on, there was cannon fire, great communal feasts in the village green, and all kinds of noisemakers and thundering sounds.
Right from the ’50s, here are some classic tips to keep your kitchen cool when it’s hot outside, plus some easy recipes to help you beat the heat.
If you’re bringing dessert to this year’s 4th of July potluck, these easy patriotic desserts have an all-American appeal that everyone will love.
Take a look at these modest old-fashioned swimsuits for men and women, seen on real beachgoers and early movie actresses, with many high-quality and colorized vintage photos!
Teens and girls were wild about having blonde hair in the ’70s, trying at-home methods and a variety of new products to lighten and brighten their hair.
If you’ve ever been curious as to why neckties and aftershave are considered the quintessential Father’s Day gifts, wonder no more. We also found some great modern-day gift equivalents just for dad.
Take a look back at dozens of vintage gift sets for men from the ’60s, with popular aftershave, cologne, shaving sets and other grooming products.
Dig this crazy caramel popcorn – it’s positively wild, all candy-coated and crunchy with almonds, pecans or peanuts, made with corn syrup.
Here’s a look back at some sweet vintage Mother’s Day cards from the 20th century, including a few of the 240 million greeting cards for mom that were sold in just one year, back in 1959.
If you want to have a little more fun with the holiday, pick a decade and try for a Mother’s Day celebration with vintage flair! We’ve rounded up a little inspo for your effort.
Step into a world of timeless grace with 1950s wedding dresses — where lace meets luxury for peak vintage bridal elegance.
Find some elegantly vintage Easter egg crafts and artsy inspiration right here! The ideas may be old, but they’ll probably seem new to you.
How did these Easter egg shrink wraps and egg decorating sleeves work? Find out here and see a retro collection of Disney decorations & other holiday designs!
Planters Easter Egg Cake: This pecan Easter cake is a nostalgic, nutty delight with an optional twist for a festive shape.
Step back in time with our collection of retro St Patrick’s Day cards, capturing the lively spirit and celebrations of the 1970s and 80s.
Want to make natural Easter egg dyes the old-fashioned way? Find out how to use roots, berries, herbs and vegetables to color eggs for a vintage-style celebration.
See our collection of vintage St Patrick’s Day postcards — these sweet little hello notes offer a nostalgic peek into early 20th-century celebrations.
With strawberries appearing in the supermarket, now is the perfect time to try the simple favorite Cool ‘n Easy Easter Pie.
Believe it or not, retro Easter candy like chocolate Easter bunnies, creme eggs, jelly beans and Peeps candy didn’t exist at all prior to the 20th century. Here’s a look back at what the bunny has been bringing.
Do you remember any of these 1970s Valentine’s Day cards? Here’s an assortment of the options available for the classroom Valentine’s exchange!
Here’s a sweet selection of vintage Valentine’s Day cards – little love notes people sent to each other by the millions around the early part of the 20th century.
Try a smooth green Bacardi daiquiri pie that brings a taste of the 1970s to your dessert table! Easy to make, this retro no-bake treat merges lemon pudding’s tang with the lively taste of lime jello.
A cup of good cheer – that’s Dr Pepper served hot. It’s deliciously different. If you’re dreaming of happy holidays, join the proud crowd and enjoy a hot Dr Pepper!
This exceptional Bacardi rum cake is a pudding cake baked in a ring pan, and flavored with Bacardi dark dry rum. You may be surprised at how easy it is to get an elegant cake – perfect for the holidays!
Why do so many people love vintage Snoopy stickers? ‘You’d be astounded at the enthusiasm of Peanuts collectors,’ said cartoonist Charles Schulz.
The old Sears Wish Book catalog was perfectly named – it was where kids and adults alike would dream about all the things that Santa (or a special elf) might bring for Christmas. Find out its history here!
Try this tasty and easy recipe from the early 1960s for old-fashioned rolled sugar cookie cutouts, accompanied below by step-by-step photos!
In the 1974 Rankin-Bass holiday spectacle, The Year Without a Santa Claus, the unforgettable Heat Miser and Snow Miser captured imaginations with their signature musical showdown. See it here!
Vintage Christmas TV specials were as much a part of the holiday as gifts and Christmas trees. Millions of people – especially kids – looked forward to them year after year. Look at more than 100 of these classics.
That characteristic mid-century modern flair — with an abundance of color, clean lines and geometric patterns — translated perfectly in these examples of 1950s Christmas wall decorations
There’s a reason that advertising has evolved over the decades – and these bad vintage Christmas ads from years ago show you exactly why!
Having a retro party for the holidays? Here are lots of crazy kitschy vintage Christmas appetizers you may want to serve… at your own risk.
Remember these classic 70s Christmas cookies? Here’s our collection of the best and most delicious old-fashioned treats of the decade!
Check out this fascinating collection of 1970s Christmas photos and magazine clips, showcasing the unique holiday spirit and trends of the era.
Step back and time and enjoy these charmingly vintage Christmas scenes celebrations from the 1940s through the 1970s, showing holidays that were picture perfect.
Get seven sassy snack mix how-tos from yesteryear, including the granddaddy of them all: the original Chex mix recipe!
These rich and tender cherry thumbprint Christmas cookies have bright and colorful button centers, made by placing pretty halved red or green candied cherries into the middle of each one.
Take a look back at the evolution of Thanksgiving traditions — and holiday meals — from the 1940s through the 1990s, plus see how the best parts of the past have influenced our modern-day celebrations!
Get ready for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays with the help of these old-fashioned stuffing recipe, made with simple ingredients and fresh foods.
Dive into the nostalgia of 80s toys! From Transformers to Strawberry Shortcake, explore the iconic playthings that made the 1980s a decade of fun.
Take a look back at how people celebrated Thanksgiving Day with these antique Thanksgiving postcards from around the turn of the century!
Though many have tried, no cook has ever been able to improve upon the taste of traditional pumpkin pie. Carnation’s famous pumpkin pie recipe is a Thanksgiving classic – and we have the ’50s recipe right here.
If you want to serve something different this year for Thanksgiving or Christmas, a retro cranberry souffle salad may be just the thing! Bring back some of the flair of the fifties with these unusual little side dishes.
With songs like the title tune and ‘Have a Holly Jolly Christmas,’ the holiday TV special ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ was a delight for the ears and, thanks to the stop-motion photography, for the eyes.
A lot of 80s candy endures to the present, but you’re still going to love these retro ads & packages from back in the day! Which were your favorites?
Pumpkin pie doesn’t have to be light in color and light on flavor! Try these recipes for dark and delicious old-fashioned pumpkin pie with molasses & brown sugar – and see some other tasty variations, too!
Before individual stickers-by-the-yard became popular, sets like these Halloween stickers were the big thing with kids in the 70s and 80s! Take a look back!
The melted plastic Halloween decorations popular in the ’70s were ‘delightfully different’ and ‘captured the happy Halloween spirit.’
See portraits of vintage Halloween pin-up girls from the 1930s and 1940s – themed photos featuring famous actresses and beautiful models.
Try not to be too creeped out by this collection of vintage Halloween party ideas spanning over a century!
These cheap vintage Halloween masks & costumes proved that when you spent a couple bucks to get ready for trick-or-treating, you got what you paid for. But the kids? They loved it.
Sometimes the basics are all one needs for memorable adventures. Take a look at some vintage tents that were available in the last century!
Backyard decks have become a staple of American architecture for relaxation and socializing. See dozens of different deck designs from the second half of the 20th century here.
Take a look back at the history of Knott’s Berry Farm – the fun California amusement park known as a Disneyland alternative, but one that boasted its very themes and even a ghost town.
These little vintage plastic wading pools were the perfect size to help introduce babies and children to water fun in the safety of their own shallow kiddie pools!
Here are some fun ideas and recipes to give your July 4th holiday a truly retro vibe, plus a look back at the history of Independence Day!
From awful double entendres to horrible diseases to the just plain bizarre, here are some vintage bad product names that used to appear on grocery store shelves.
Let’s consider for a moment the soap on a rope phenomenon — a peculiar fusion of the useful and the whimsical that once occupied a
This curated collection of vintage photographs invites you to explore the classic charm of screened-in porches, patios, lanais, and pool enclosures from bygone decades.
These cute and child-friendly vintage Father’s Day cards show the sweet sentiments that kids expressed for dad (and grandpa) in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s.
With their daring cuts and bold designs, 1970s swimwear wasn’t just about catching some sun – it was about making waves.
From neatly organized tool racks to clever storage solutions, these 1950s (and early 60s) home workshops maximize space and productivity.
The Juice is Loose! SNICKERS really satisfies. Melts in your mouth, not in your hand. First it’s a candy, then it’s a gum. These iconic
Rediscover the most tantalizing, old-fashioned sandwich fillings that once graced the humble bread slices of yesteryear.
Gain insights into the struggles and aspirations of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Rewind to the summer of ’77 — an era of iconic fashion trends and memorable tunes — and rediscover some of the best non-alcoholic drinks from that time.
Drafted in secret during the summer of 1787, the Constitution of the United States established the government of the United States. Here, the original US Constitution text.
Listen up: You might think our Victorian forebears did everything with grace and elegance, but have you considered that may be fake news? In reality, the dames of high society were basically just influencers.
Here is a collection of 24 colorful vintage Easter cards from the early twentieth century!
Who had one of these ‘My Name Records’ when they were kids? We found a few vintage covers from personalized 45 RPM record singles featuring Captain Kangaroo songs!
Everyone knows the pastel little Valentine’s Day sweets that say Hug Me, Cutie and more. Where did those candy heart sayings come from? Look back here!
Remember vintage TV dinners — shiny foil trays filled with delicious-looking dinner delights, waiting in the freezer for a special night? Plus find out the history of TV dinners!
The party favorite – more fun than throwing custard pie! Wham-O Silly String shoots a plastic stream of plastic string 1/4 mile long!
These beautiful Victorian Valentine’s cards were carefully and creatively handcrafted, and were so much better than what you usually see today.
Here’s an old-fashioned hot cross buns recipe from the 1960s, plus two more from 1912, so you can pick your favorite way to make some classic Easter buns with real vintage flavor.
This fantastic old-fashioned monkey bread recipe – essentially a cinnamon-pecan coffee cake – can be made with your favorite biscuit recipe, or you can also try using brown-and-serve rolls or refrigerated ready-to-bake biscuits.
Try this beautiful melted bead suncatcher DIY! These decorative plastic crafts can even be embedded with foil, glass nuggets, marbles, shells, and more for countless interesting designs.
Here’s a look back at snow removal 100 years ago, so you can see how much work went into clearing cities after blizzards and other big winter storms.
The long-expected wedding day of Elvis Presley and Priscilla Presley (neé Beaulieu) was a surprise event that brought the King of Rock and Roll and his queen together at last.
Check out these photographs and illustrations that show off some of the most popular styles of 1920s lingerie – and that’s not like much you see today.
Take a look back in time at some vintage postcards sent by people in the first two decades of the 1900s to wish friends and family a happy new year!
In 1922, Washington DC had their biggest blizzard in 34 years, and in many ways, it brought the city to a halt. Here’s a look at the nation’s capital covered in snow so long ago.
This recipe for tasty Greek Christmas cookies uses half almond flour and half all-purpose flour for the dough – which is spiced with cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon, then topped with a candied cherry.
These retro Christmas ornament craft ideas may be more than 50 years old, but that doesn’t mean they’re any less festive than you’d expect to see today! Take a look at how easy they are to do.
This amazing peppermint fudge recipe from the 80s combines the flavor of peppermint with creamy white chocolate for a treat that practically tastes like Christmas.
Here’s a collection of gingerbread houses to inspire you this holiday: a fairy-tale cottage, half-timbered country house, marvelous Victorian mansion, and many more – along with details on how to make your own classic gingerbread house.
Want to have a holiday get-together with a little retro charm? Check out these creative and colorful 1960s Christmas party decor ideas!
Rocky Road fudge — with its tried-and-true combination of chocolate, marshmallows and nuts — reaches new heights when made in fudge form.
People of all ages will love these cute vintage Christmas cookie houses, which can be made easily and inexpensively. See examples and get directions here!
A Rice Krispies gingerbread house – or Christmas cottage – made from crispy rice cereal is easier and faster to put together than most conventional gingerbread houses! Here’s how to do it.
