Anre there any books on decorating your home for the holidays in the time period when the arts and crafts movement was popular?
I know you can get some books from Schiffer Books about old Christmas ornaments,but was wondering if there are any books with suggestions for decorating and entertaining during this period of time.

You know a book with decorating tips,directions on how to make things, and recipes from the time period as well.
I have a couple of cookbooks from the heyday of the bungalow.Like A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband,with Bettina's Best Recipes,by Helen Cowles LeCron, and a Modern Priscilla Cookbook.
Think it would be interesting if we could swap ideas and recipes with the holidays coming up.

Hilda --

Lauren and I were talking about exactly this subject yesterday. I have some stuff but it's later from the 20s and 30s, and not much on bungalow or A&C style. We are looking for sources, but right now I have only a copy of the 1908 Good Housekeeping Handicraft Book and a few period magazines. The GH book has some craftsman-style handicrafts and suggestions for the "Christmas problem" but no decorations. (Gift giving issues have been with us for a long while ... ;-) ) We want to put something up to mark the season, but our contribution might be a little lean this year.

Best,
R.

Good Evening Friends,
During the period of the Craftsman era, there was very Little done in the line of decorating as we know it today. They may have strung some raw cranberries on a string and drapes them over and around the doors but, without documentation it is hard to speculate how the homes were decorated. I tried in B&N books as well as Phaidon publishers and found nothing at all about the subject.

Respectfully,

Ralph Jones

Thank you both ever so much.I haven't really seen much on the subject.
I was just curious.I don't recall my dad who grew up in the 1920s and thirties saying much about the holiday decorations at home.
I recall him talking about serving at Midnight mass as an altar boy,and the family going to church,and then coming home and eating dinner,etc.They observed the old family tradtions brought over from Bavaria,like the Christmas Tree and other things.
I assume they might have some decorations beside the tree,but he I guess thought they weren't worth mentioning.

Rikki,maybe in the future you might run into one of the Dennison Manufacutring Company's Christmas books.I've seen on ebay some of their books on using their crepe paper and other items
for decorating for holidays and other occassions. Since they published their books from the 1900s to i guess the 60s or 70s,those might help.

Merry Christmas, Everyone --

Rikki and I have been collecting a bunch of new materials and have just posted three new articles published in the first decade of the 20th century on different Christmas topics. The content is up and because the original articles were published without pictures, We'll be looking for suitable illustrations and images to go with them in the next couple days.

The topics include:
Christmas Decorations
Christmas Dinner Without a Maid
What to give for Christmas

Rikki & Lauren

Just wanted to mention that the one article about Christmas decorations went into a fair amount of detail, but we noticed there was no tree!

R.