Dressing up for holidays

[GeorgiaXplant]

I dunno about the rest of you, but holidays were occasions in our family that called for dressing up. My aunts and uncles, cousins, parents, grandparents...we all dressed up if not in something new, then in our very best clothes. My mother, aunts, and grandmothers had dress up aprons, too. They wore festive but practical aprons while the meal was being prepared and changed to festive, "dressy" ones to wear at the table.

I always had a new dress for Christmas, and if I hadn't grown too much, it was the dress I wore the next year at Thanksgiving. Come to think of it, when buying clothes for me, my mother always bought them a size bigger than was needed, so I could grow into them. If I was merely too tall, she'd just sew a ruffle around the bottom. My holiday dresses were usually store-bought, and I felt postively pampered to get something new to wear that wasn't made from a flour or chicken feed sack.

If Easter was early, it would still be cold, so I'd be wearing the Christmas dress; if it fell mid to late April, lucky me...a new dress!

My older brother always had new slacks and shirts...no way would anything have fit him from the year before. My younger brothers and sisters were never sentenced to hand-me-downs because there were way too many years between us.

My mother, aunts, and grandmothers seemed to have new dresses, too, or maybe it was just that I saw them dressed up so rarely that their clothes looked new to me! For everyday, they wore house dresses back then, except one of my grandmothers. She was a nurse, so it seemed to me that unless we were at a picnic in summer, she was either dressed up or in a starched white uniform.

The men in the family? Meh. They just showed up in a suit and tie, shucked the jacket as soon as they got in the door and rolled up their sleeves. The sleeves were unrolled and the jackets put back on to come to the table, but as soon as dessert was done...

We dressed up for Memorial Day to go to the cemetery, then changed clothes for picnic time for the rest of the day. July4 and Labor Day are the only holidays I can think of when we didn't dress up.

Birthdays were the same drill as for holidays but not quite as dressy.

 

[Carla]

Nice trip down memory lane! Yes, people did dress up more often. We wore our best to church always, including hats and gloves. Like you, we got new things for holidays. However, "new" to me often was a hand-me-down from big sister. That was fine, she took very good care of her things.

We always had a dress code for school too. Always a dress or skirt and not above the knees. Jeans were never permissible for either sex. No t-shirts either! Even when I was in my teens and going to dances, we often wore dresses though not everyone did. Now it's like, I don't go to places requiring dresses, last time I wore one was a year ago! Even churches are now casual dress.

Yes, I remember "good" aprons too--all women wore aprons to cook! I think the era when men wore hats too was nice. My grandfather always wore one when he went out!

Gee, last Sunday I ran into the local Giant (grocery store) to pick up a couple things and some of the sights, unbelievable. Especially with the men--old baggy shorts and flip-flops, hair not combed. Now that is too extreme for me. We don't need to dress up but at least wear something half-way presentable and comb your hair. Right?

 

[Aunt Bea]

That was pretty much the same in our family until 1972 when my paternal grandmother died.

My grandmother was the one that set the standards for our entire family.

I remember on holidays the men would go stand in the doorway of the large machinery barn, to sneak a smoke and a beer while the ladies in the crisp holiday aprons did the dishes.

I also remember having to get dressed up when we went "downtown" to shop in the old department stores. The days when a handkerchief or pair of socks was put in a box with tissue paper and then into a paper bag or shopping bag that let the world know where you did your shopping, those bags were a sign of some prestige! My grandmother always made a swing by the perfume counter to get a free squirt of some exotic scent and then if we were lucky we would go and have a dish of ice cream in the tearoom or stop at the candy counter for a 1/4 pound of some treat!

These day I shop on the internet and eat my ice cream in the car, progress!!!

 

[BlunderWoman]

This thread took me back. I used to sew aprons for Christmas presents. I would make very pretty aprons as gifts for relatives. If I did that now they would probably hold it up and say " What's this?"

 

[GeorgiaXplant]

Aunt Bea, if we were lucky enough to be allowed to go downtown shopping with my mother we wore our very best and she certainly did! Hats, gloves and hose were de rigueur for women, and the same held true if we were going visiting. Visiting was done in the afternoon and was an event that was planned at least a week in advance. I liked the tea and cakes or cookies part but not the part where I was expected to be seen and not heard, not the part about sitting up straight with my hands in my lap and both feet on the floor☺and especially not the part when I was asked to play something on the piano��

BW, I used to make blouses for my little sisters, and they were always thrilled to get them. They were new clothes! I made pajamas for my brothers because I didn't want to fool with flat-felled seams☺ For my aunts we used to make tablecloths and matching napkins from flour sacks by fringeing them on all four sides. In those days, homemade gofts were prized.

 

[Ruth n Jersey]

Such memories! We dressed for all holidays also. I remember in high school our junior class was going to a lake just before school let out. This was in 1962. We still were not allowed to wear pants to school. We had to bring our shorts,put them on at the lake and change back into dresses or skirts to go home. The photos are of me in 1955,I was ten years old. The Christmas dress was bright red and my Mom made the Easter dress,it was pink. Today when I see people leave church some look like such slobs. My son in law who is very religious said God doesn't care what you wear as long as you are there. Maybe not,but to me it shows respect.

 

[debbie in seattle]

I think all this has gone to the wayside along with respect. Though I'm not a church goer, since when is it ok to wear jeans to church? Then again, still haven't figured out the shopping in flannel Jammie bottoms and in some cases, house shoes. Yes, growing up was expected to dress nicely, as my daughters were also taught.

 

[Butterfly]

I dunno about the rest of you, but holidays were occasions in our family that called for dressing up. My aunts and uncles, cousins, parents, grandparents...we all dressed up if not in something new, then in our very best clothes. My mother, aunts, and grandmothers had dress up aprons, too. They wore festive but practical aprons while the meal was being prepared and changed to festive, "dressy" ones to wear at the table.

I always had a new dress for Christmas, and if I hadn't grown too much, it was the dress I wore the next year at Thanksgiving. Come to think of it, when buying clothes for me, my mother always bought them a size bigger than was needed, so I could grow into them. If I was merely too tall, she'd just sew a ruffle around the bottom. My holiday dresses were usually store-bought, and I felt postively pampered to get something new to wear that wasn't made from a flour or chicken feed sack.

If Easter was early, it would still be cold, so I'd be wearing the Christmas dress; if it fell mid to late April, lucky me...a new dress!

My older brother always had new slacks and shirts...no way would anything have fit him from the year before. My younger brothers and sisters were never sentenced to hand-me-downs because there were way too many years between us.

My mother, aunts, and grandmothers seemed to have new dresses, too, or maybe it was just that I saw them dressed up so rarely that their clothes looked new to me! For everyday, they wore house dresses back then, except one of my grandmothers. She was a nurse, so it seemed to me that unless we were at a picnic in summer, she was either dressed up or in a starched white uniform.

The men in the family? Meh. They just showed up in a suit and tie, shucked the jacket as soon as they got in the door and rolled up their sleeves. The sleeves were unrolled and the jackets put back on to come to the table, but as soon as dessert was done...

We dressed up for Memorial Day to go to the cemetery, then changed clothes for picnic time for the rest of the day. July4 and Labor Day are the only holidays I can think of when we didn't dress up.

Birthdays were the same drill as for holidays but not quite as dressy.

Boy, does this post take me back. I remember dressing up for holidays, and I remember my mother making me dresses from feed sacks. She would actually choose the sacks of feed for their prints on the sacks. When you talk about dresses out of feed sacks, some younger folks night think you mean burlap bags or such, but back then the feed came in very pretty cotton print sacks. I remember one dress in particular that I LOVED (funny how some odd memories stick with you) and I was upset when I grew out of it and it went to my sister. We always wore dresses at home, too -- nothing fancy, just little at-home dresses. Gosh, hadn't thought of that little pink dress in years. Mom had a treadle machine until she got a fancy electric one. I learned to use the treadle one and actually liked it.

I also remember mom sewing ruffles on the bottom of dresses if they got too short, and always putting big hems in things so they could be let out. Do you remember rick-rack? Mom used to sew rick rack on the worn crease where the old hem used to fold up. Mom used to make almost all our clothes, and then as I got older and learned to sew I made my own for many years.

 

[jujube]

My mother always made us matching dresses for the Christmas pictures and Christmas service. I think I rebelled at 13 or so and refused to dress like my younger sisters.

The last matching dresses we all wore were red long sleeved dresses with big full skirts and wide sashes. The dresses had removable white rabbit fur collars with black velvet ties and fur pompoms and matching fur cuffs, worn with white rabbit fur headbands. We looked like demented elves that had escaped from the North Pole Loony Bin.....at least that was MY opinion. I enjoy looking at the pictures, just to remind myself why I only had one child lest I be tempted to dress the whole family alike.

 

[BlondieBoomer]

We always dressed up for the holidays too. It seems there are hardly any occasions to dress up anymore. Some of the nicest restaurants are filled with casually dresssed people, even jeans. It isn't easy to find dressy clothes in the stores anymore, even stores like Macy's. I'm not a church goer, but I have mixed feelings about the casual dress there. Perhaps people are more likely to go if they don't have to get all dressed up. But jeans somehow seem out of place.