Whenever I am lucky enough to come across one of these, I snap it up faster than you can say "pfeffernüsse". So far, I only have two, both found at the local German Canadian Seniors Home book sale.
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| Children's Lexicon 1970 and 1959 editions |
The books feature busy pictures of everyday life, including traditional European holidays. These are the ones depicting Christmas:
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| Christmas 1959... |
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| ...and in 1970. |
There are several notes to make here. These are historical depictions...I'd be curious to see the picture of the 2011 German Christmas...much different again, I'm sure (I hope!).
But let's take a side-by side look at my favorite idiosyncrasy in these two pictures:
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| In the span of 11 years, fathers have gone from tender and helpful in 1959 (attending to the setup of the nativity) to a removed smoker in 1970! Suit-wearing at home apparently did NOT go out of vogue. |
I think Mr. Hausfrau falls somewhere in between these two guys...not so much smoking and removed...but I DID recently get a string of pearls from him!
Oh my, this is so funny! Thank you for sharing. So entertaining.
ReplyDeleteToo funny! I love old children's picture books. They fascinate me!
ReplyDeleteI am in love with these illustrations, thank you for introducing these books to my life, I had no idea they existed. Germany, you do midcentury so well.
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