Christmas Gifts 2010: 15 Delightful, Amusing & Whimsical Old-Fashioned Holiday Gifts (PHOTOS)

In 2007, I launched on this site a column called Lets' Bring Back -- which has since celebrated hundreds of forgotten-yet-delightful fashions, pastimes, objects, and personalities.

From zeppelins to sealing wax, from turbans to typewriters, from Auntie Mame to the Ziegfeld Follies, Let's Bring Back has covered a lot of ground. Special editions of the column included a wildly popular Mad Men edition and the crowd-pleasing "Culinary Delectables" edition, among many others.

A few weeks ago, Let's Bring Back made its official debut as a book. While this tome has itself been recommended in many gift guides, I've looked inside its pages for further inspiration about what to buy my nearest and dearest this holiday season.

Below are fifteen Let's Bring Back-inspired gift suggestions for your favorite nostalgists. Typewriters and flyswatters for Grandpa or Dad ... Victorian flip rings and tea sets for Granny and Mom ... wax fangs and lips for Junior and Junior Miss -- there is something here to amuse everyone.

The following material is excerpted from Let's Bring Back (Chronicle Books, November 1):

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1. A LOVELY TYPEWRITER.

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The print from a typewriter can be as personal as handwriting, an extension of one's writerly persona; this is certainly not something you can say about a Times New Roman print-out from your computer. Many famous writers had their preferred typewriter models: Faulkner loved his Remington Model 12; Kerouac used a Royal Standard. See a long list of authors' favorites here, and click here to buy typewriters for the literary Luddites in your life.

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The print from a typewriter can be as personal as handwriting, an extension of one's writerly persona; this is certainly not something you can say about a Times New Roman print-out from your computer. Many famous writers had their preferred typewriter models: Faulkner loved his Remington Model 12; Kerouac used a Royal Standard.

See a long list of authors' favorites here, and click here to buy typewriters for the literary Luddites in your life.

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BUY THE BOOK: Click here to purchase Let's Bring Back.

Follow Let's Bring Back on Twitter: @LetsBringBack

For publicity inquiries, please contact April Whitney at Chronicle Books: [e-mail]

 

 

 

Follow Lesley M. M. Blume on Twitter: www.twitter.com/lesleymmblume

Comments

[Marioli]

11:57 AM on 12/08/2010

I discovered a wonderful way to clean and polish silver:
You simply place a sheet of aluminium foil in a basin with about a tablespoon of sodium carbonate. Lay out the cutlery and other silver things you want to clean, making sure evry piece is in contact with the foil. Then cover it all with boiling water. After about 15 minutes even the blackest antique sugar bowl is shining like new! It´s actually quite astonishing.

And if you fins that still too much to do: I read in "In praise of shadows" that in Japanese aesthetics, black silver is regarded as more beautiful than shiny one

[consequenceofsounds]

11:14 PM on 12/07/2010

As an avid music lover, my ultimate gift would be the suitcase turntable. Especially since a lot of music is meant to be listened to on vinyl and not in some MP3 player or on CD.

[Siren Song]

10:41 PM on 12/07/2010

Just looking at these gifts (well, except maybe the fly swatters!) makes me happy, and nostalgic for the days when "Made in China" was not stamped on practically everything.

Several years ago I gave friends polar bear-shaped martini shakers based on a 30s design. This year you've inspired me to scour antiques shops for unique gifts from a gentler era.

[Skiwee]

12:05 AM on 12/07/2010

The typewriter and fountain pen are my favorites. I actually own and use a fountain pen.

[Michael Henry Adams]

11:55 PM on 12/06/2010

However charming an idea this holiday post might be it strikes me as utterly sad that we live in a time when an after dinner coffee service can so easily be mis-identified as a 'tea set' with narry a notice, to say nothing of an editors correction. Alas one has even seen such tings in the Times too...

[afrodesia]

11:15 PM on 12/06/2010

That was fun..

[FPhoebe]

08:22 PM on 12/06/2010

When I was little my go to "imagination" game was to be a writer for a newspaper. I wanted nothing more than to have a type writer to feel like a "real" news reporter (and this wasn't all that long ago, it was probably mid to late 90's). I still want one. Birthday present this year!

[wandering girl]

06:04 PM on 12/06/2010

I still wear Shalimar.

[theredqueen]

05:41 PM on 12/06/2010

Bette Davis style was always great, I would love to own a Klimt anything at all, but I do still own a solid silver Parker fountain pen with an "automatic" matching pencil to match.

[NRdrummer89]

02:31 PM on 12/06/2010

I would LOVE to get the pen, as well as the old-fashion shave kit.

[ella129]

12:32 PM on 12/06/2010

I started wearing a muff about five years ago and other women would stop me in the streets to compliment it and ask where I got it. It did, however, lead to all the guys I knew making really obvious jokes.

[Siren Song]

10:48 PM on 12/07/2010

Aren't they wonderful? I found one in leopard print and love wearing it in the winter.

[naschkatze]

12:17 PM on 12/06/2010

As an older woman, I don't use perfume anymore, but the Vermont Store carried the bath powder of White Shoulders which is just light enough and can't be found in the stores which still carry White Sholders.

I am really tempted to try some of the other perfumes I remember from my youth, especially Jungle Gardenia.

[Siren Song]

10:50 PM on 12/07/2010

Oh, how I loved Jungle Gardenia!

[Dogma]

12:09 PM on 12/06/2010

About four years ago I got this razor and is the most well-used gift I have ever gotten. I'll never go back to plastic!

http://www.amazon.com/Merkur-Futur-Safety-Razor-Finish/dp/B000JPKLUU/ref=sr_1_4?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1291655256&sr=1-4

[PresidentRobertBooth]

11:49 AM on 12/06/2010

"Lets' Bring Back" is my favourite column on HP
 
 
And I must say, Bette Davis had the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen.
 
No wonder that lady wrote a song about it.

[Glencora]

11:43 AM on 12/06/2010

Does the silver plated tea set come with a butler to polish it? Why on earth would give someone something that requires so much upkeep, when there are many beautiful china sets that go in the dishwasher?

And if you watch old movies, you'll see that most of the time, when they're drinking from the old fashioned champagne glasses, they chug the whole glass at one time. That's because the open design of the glasses means that the champagne goes flat very quickly. The flutes are designed to keep the bubbles from disappearing too quickly, which means you don't have to either chug the drink or sip flat champagne.