{"id":1125,"date":"2011-12-01T13:37:44","date_gmt":"2011-12-01T18:37:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.123print.com\/?p=1125"},"modified":"2015-07-17T16:16:07","modified_gmt":"2015-07-17T16:16:07","slug":"the-retro-chic-guide-to-holiday-entertaining-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/the-retro-chic-guide-to-holiday-entertaining-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Retro-Chic Guide to Holiday Entertaining \u2013 Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Hello out there in blog land.\u00a0 Your old pals from the 123Print<\/a> Blog are back with the exciting conclusion of The Retro-Chic Guide to Holiday Entertaining where we\u2019ll finish up with our tips for throwing the mid-1960s style Christmas party that will have the whole town talking!\u00a0 Stay tuned and don\u2019t touch that dial!<\/p>\n

In our last episode<\/a> we covered invitations<\/a>, attire and food for your retro-chic celebration.\u00a0 In tonight\u2019s installment we\u2019ll cover the all-important topics of beverages, music and d\u00e9cor \u2013 the crowning touches for your throwback holiday get-together.<\/p>\n

Beverages<\/strong><\/p>\n

People in the mid-\u201860s drank alcohol; sometimes a lot and in situations where we would not do so today.\u00a0 We\u2019re not in any way endorsing drinking alcohol with the gusto and carelessness they did back then; in fact we\u2019re not endorsing drinking alcohol at all.\u00a0 However if you and your guests are of the proper age, you follow modern conventions of responsibility with regard to consumption and the law, and you are going to have alcoholic beverages at your shindig keep the selections appropriate for the period.\u00a0 Drinks of the era were simple and classic.\u00a0 Many of the liquors and mixers of today\u2019s neon-colored fad drinks didn\u2019t exist then so Red Bull and whatever isn\u2019t in keeping with the theme.\u00a0 Neither are craft, micro or most imported beers.\u00a0 Basic Martinis, Manhattans, Old Fashioneds, Screwdrivers, Sours and Gimlets were popular as were whiskeys mixed with club soda, ginger ale or lemon-lime sodas on the rocks.\u00a0 Fancier drinks of the era included Brandy Alexanders, White Russians, and Sloe Gin Fizzes, recipes for any of these can be found online.\u00a0 Beers would likely be standard domestic brands \u2013 either national or local brands that existed then and still survive to this day \u2013 served from bottles along with a glass.\u00a0 A gentleman of the early to mid-1960s didn\u2019t drink from the bottle in mixed company!\u00a0 Soft drinks such as sodas and fruit juices are appropriate for those that don\u2019t wish to have alcohol \u2013 try to get soda in single-serving glass bottles for authenticity.\u00a0 Festive punches and eggnog are also appropriate for the era and the time of year and a pot of coffee would always be at the ready in the kitchen.<\/p>\n

Music<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today music is easy \u2013 you set up a playlist and play it on your iPod or a computer through a stereo system or a speaker dock.\u00a0 The status symbol equivalent of an iPod in the 1960s was a Hi-Fi or High Fidelity system that may or may not have been in stereo.\u00a0 These could take the form of furniture size consoles or more familiar components and generally included provisions for playing the radio and vinyl records.\u00a0 That\u2019s it.\u00a0 That\u2019s what folks had and it was a big deal!\u00a0 While we\u2019re not suggesting that you go out and get vintage audio gear in working order; playing period holiday vinyl even on a modern turntable would get you extra cool points.\u00a0 But even if you have to play digital versions, stick to what people would have listened to back then (and hide the iPod).\u00a0 That would have mostly been numbers by the artists who were made the \u201cpop standards\u201d of the day such as Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Perry Como, Tony Bennett, Guy Lombardo, Gene Autry, Burl Ives and the like.\u00a0 Younger adults of the period might have also included Christmas records from the likes of Elvis Presley, The Beach Boys, Bobby Helms, Peggy Lee and the all-time classic of all rock and roll holiday music LPs \u201cA Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector featuring \u201cChristmas (Baby Please Come Home)\u201d by Darlene Love among other offerings the legendary producer created.\u00a0 All of these are still considered Christmas classics and standards even today and should be readily available.<\/p>\n

D\u00e9cor<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you are actually considering a mid-1960s retro-style holiday shindig chances are you\u2019ve seen TV shows and films that are set in the era.\u00a0 If you have, you may noticed that home d\u00e9cor of the period tended to be rather traditional.\u00a0 Take Mad Men for example \u2013 while the offices of the ad agency were the height of mod style, Don\u2019s home was pretty tame and traditional, especially in the formal living room and dining room where a party would have taken place.\u00a0 So don\u2019t worry if you don\u2019t have all the high-style mod furniture and d\u00e9cor that you think would have been in a home of the era.\u00a0 Chances are it wasn\u2019t.\u00a0 But Christmas decorations were another story.\u00a0 Mid-century Christmas decorations tended to be fairly over the top in their, um, let\u2019s just say gaudiness.\u00a0 Lots of plastic, tinsel, glitter, red velvet, fake snow flocking and shiny glass tree ornaments was the norm.\u00a0 Not that everyone had one; but this was the height of the era of silver aluminum tinsel trees lit by rotating color wheel lights.\u00a0 Even traditional trees were all decked out in the big, colored screw-in light bulbs and infamously intriguing bubble lights.\u00a0 And on top of that people tended to go nuts with decorating for the holidays so you probably can\u2019t overdo it yourself!\u00a0 The good news is that Christmas decorations stayed mostly the same looking between the mid-1950s and the mid-1970s and there was tons of it so finding some real vintage items to deck your halls with shouldn\u2019t be too hard to come by although some of it has become highly collectable and thus pricey.<\/p>\n

If you are enamored with the mid-\u201860s like a lot of America is, there you have it, fool-proof guidelines for throwing your very own authentic vintage-style Christmas<\/a> house party!\u00a0 So when can we expect to get the invitation in the mail?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello out there in blog land. Your old pals from the 123Print Blog are back with the exciting conclusion of The Retro-Chic Guide to Holiday Entertaining where we\u2019ll finish up with our tips for throwing the mid-1960s style Christmas party that will have the whole town talking! Stay tuned and don\u2019t touch that dial!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":1130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,13],"tags":[59,83,258,664,677,804,863,977,1220],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1125"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9079,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125\/revisions\/9079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}