How to celebrate Christmas the Art Gilkerson Way, part I

I don't know why, but of all the pictures I scanned last year, I keep coming back to this one of Grandpa Gilkerson. Mom told me that they didn't do a lot in terms of decorating for Christmas (did they even do a tree? I've never seen pictures of one. And we don't have any ornaments from those days). But she told me that Grandpa loved getting this lamp post contraption and putting it up every year. To him that was special and made the house seem festive. It was "his" thing, from what Mom shared with me.

  A little seasonal decoration, a bit of garland on the stairs. A fireplace thingy that made the sound of the real deal but wasn't. I'm sure there was church and lots of wonderful muic in the house--the girls playing and singing, records (Spike Jones in the mix at some point?), friends in and out. Grandma probably made some killer pot roasts and probably a ham dinner or two. There might have been a few toys and games to look forward to and some new clothes for the girls, probably some candy and small trinkets in the stockings.

And that was it. Simple 'n' good.

It's fun to try to imagine Christmas during that era and even to try to learn something from it, I think. I look at Grandpa's face here and I don't see a picture of a man who looks like he urgently needs to go out and string 20 more strands of light on the outside of his abode. He looks contented and at peace. Thanks for the lesson, Art!

thanks to Em for doing some tinting of the original photo of Grandpa