Collecting | A vintage Christmas book

vintage Christmas book
As I was leafing through my stash of Christmas books this morning, I came upon this gem, published in 1968, that I thought I’d write a quick post about. I picked the book up at an antique store about 15 years ago.

A Holiday Book illustration

I love the cover of the book, and the inside illustrations are divine. But the real reason I bought it …

vintage Christmas book
… is because it was retired from the Lincoln School Library in my hometown.

vintage kids Christmas book
I didn’t attend Lincoln School and those due dates are all a little before my time so I don’t recognize  any of the borrowers’ names, but I love that sweet reminder of how the world used to be, before books were checked out with bar codes and scanners.

Lincoln School Library Waupun
The cards from the card catalog had also been saved and stored in the back pocket.

illustration of wreath hanging
This might be my favorite illustration from the book: a very Ward-and-June-Cleaverish couple and their 2.0 kiddos hanging a wreath on their front door.

vintage Christmas book
I also like this one, mostly because it has a “LINCOLN SCHOOL LIBRARY” stamp directly above it.

Santa Claus illustration
And then there’s this quaint two-page spread of Santa Claus delivering presents. I’d say this is one svelte Santa, but the book refers to him as “roly-poly.” Apparently our standards have changed a bit in that regard since 1968.

vintage children's book
Anyhoo, thanks for checking out my little Christmas story.

vintage library book
The end.

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