14 Things Every Family Used During Holidays in the 1970s That Disappeared

Here's a nostalgic look at the decorations, gadgets, and rituals that defined 1970s family holidays before everything changed forever.

Sophia Zapanta
May 15, 2026
9 min read

14 Things Every Family Used During Holidays in the 1970s That Disappeared — Amirhosszein on Wikicommons

Holidays in the 1970s had a specific texture, smell, and sound that has almost entirely vanished from modern celebrations. Before LED lights, smart speakers, and digital photos, families gathered around analog traditions involving aluminum trees, bubbling lights, and percolating coffee pots that filled homes with a particular kind of magic. Avocado green appliances ran nonstop, station wagons hauled relatives across state lines, and every house seemed to smell like the same combination of pine, cigarettes, and roasting turkey. Here are 14 quintessential 1970s holiday staples that defined an entire generation of family celebrations and have since quietly disappeared from American homes.

1. Aluminum Christmas Trees With Color Wheels

Silver aluminum Christmas trees stood proudly in countless 1970s living rooms, their metallic branches rotating slowly on motorized stands. A separate color wheel sat on the floor below, projecting red, blue, green, and amber light onto the tree in mesmerizing rotation. The whole setup looked like something from a science fiction movie. Real lights were considered fire hazards on metal trees, so the color wheel was essential. By the late seventies, traditional green artificial trees made a comeback, and aluminum trees got tossed into attics or garage sales. Vintage aluminum trees now sell for hundreds of dollars to collectors, but the everyday family experience of decorating a metallic tree has completely vanished from modern holidays.

2. Bubble Lights on Christmas Tree Branches

Bubble lights were glass tubes filled with colored liquid that began bubbling when the base bulb heated up. Clipped onto tree branches, they took several minutes to warm up before producing their hypnotic vertical bubble streams in red, green, blue, and yellow. Kids would stare at them for hours, mesmerized by the slow rising bubbles. The lights got dangerously hot and occasionally leaked methylene chloride if broken. Safety concerns and changing tastes pushed bubble lights out of mainstream use by the eighties. Modern LED versions exist but lack the slow warming ritual and genuine liquid bubbling. The original bubble light magic has largely disappeared from family Christmas trees nationwide.

3. Tinsel Hung One Strand at a Time

Lead-based tinsel transformed Christmas trees into shimmering silver waterfalls, and applying it correctly was a serious family ritual. Dads insisted on hanging each metallic strand individually for proper draping, while kids preferred grabbing handfuls and throwing them at the branches. Arguments over technique broke out annually. The tinsel weighed the branches down beautifully and caught every light. Lead content concerns ended traditional tinsel production in the seventies, replaced by lighter plastic versions that never draped the same way. By the nineties, tinsel had fallen out of fashion entirely. Modern trees rarely feature tinsel at all, and the patient, meditative process of hanging strands one by one has essentially disappeared from family decorating.

4. Avocado Green Electric Carving Knives

Every 1970s kitchen contained an electric carving knife in avocado green, harvest gold, or burnt orange, pulled out exclusively for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. Dad would plug it in with theatrical importance, the twin serrated blades vibrating noisily as he sawed through turkey or ham at the head of the table. The knife came in a fitted plastic case that lived in a high cabinet the rest of the year. Carving became a performance, complete with admiring family members watching closely. Sharper traditional knives and changing tastes pushed electric carving knives into the back of cabinets by the nineties. The ceremonial holiday unveiling of the electric knife has quietly vanished.

5. Glass Bulb Christmas Lights That Burned Hot

Christmas lights came as giant glass C7 and C9 bulbs that got hot enough to burn fingers and ignite dry needles. A single burned-out bulb in a series circuit would kill the entire string, requiring patient testing of each bulb to find the culprit. Replacement bulbs lived in a battered cardboard box brought down from the attic each December. The lights threw genuine warmth and a soft amber glow that LED lights have never quite matched. Cool-burning LED lights replaced incandescent bulbs almost entirely by the twenty-tens. The fire hazard, the troubleshooting frustration, and the warm pool of light from old-school glass bulbs have all faded into holiday memory.

6. Percolator Coffee Pots Bubbling All Day

Holiday gatherings ran on percolator coffee pots that sat on the counter or stovetop, gurgling and bubbling continuously through the day. The distinctive sound of coffee perking became the soundtrack of family visits, along with the rich aroma filling every room. Adults drank cup after cup while playing cards or watching football, and the pot got refilled constantly. Mr. Coffee drip machines arrived in 1972 and gradually replaced percolators through the late ’70s and ’80s because they were faster and produced milder coffee. Modern Keurig machines and espresso makers have moved coffee even further from the percolator tradition. The bubbling, aromatic constant of perked coffee has largely vanished.

7. Flashcubes on Kodak Instamatic Cameras

Capturing holiday memories required a Kodak Instamatic loaded with film and a flashcube mounted on top, providing four flashes before needing replacement. Each flash produced a blinding pop, a puff of acrid smoke, and a hot plastic cube that had to be carefully removed without burning fingers. Kids posed reluctantly while dads fumbled with film advance levers between shots. Photos came back from the drugstore a week later, often blurry or with everyone blinking. Digital cameras and eventually smartphone cameras completely replaced film photography. The ritual of flashcubes, the patience of waiting for prints, and the small thrill of opening the photo envelope have all disappeared from modern holiday gatherings.

8. Fruitcakes Passed From Family to Family

Dense brick-like fruitcakes were the universal holiday gift exchanged between coworkers, neighbors, and distant relatives throughout the seventies. Soaked in brandy or rum, packed with candied cherries and citron, and capable of lasting indefinitely, fruitcakes became running jokes about being regifted endlessly. Johnny Carson popularized the bit that there was really only one fruitcake in the world, perpetually circulating. Despite the jokes, families actually ate them sliced thin with coffee. Changing tastes, healthier eating trends, and the decline of mail-order food gifts pushed fruitcakes to the margins by the nineties. The ubiquitous holiday fruitcake exchange has nearly disappeared from American homes today.

9. Plastic Nativity Scenes With Built-in Lights

Front yards across America displayed illuminated plastic nativity sets featuring Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, shepherds, and wise men, all lit from within by a single bulb. Manufactured by Empire and Beco, these blow-molded figures stood two to three feet tall and glowed warmly on snowy lawns. Many families also displayed plastic Santas, snowmen, and carolers from the same companies. Inflatable decorations and elaborate LED displays gradually replaced blow-molded plastic in the 2000s. Original Empire and Beco pieces now command serious money among vintage collectors. The simple, glowing plastic nativity scenes that defined suburban Christmas yards through the seventies have largely vanished from neighborhoods.

10. The Sears Wish Book Catalog

The Sears Christmas Wish Book arrived in mailboxes each fall and immediately became the most important document in every kid’s life. Hundreds of pages featuring toys, bikes, games, and gadgets fueled months of dreaming, list-making, and circling. Kids took turns hogging the catalog, folding corners and arguing over who claimed which items. The book defined American childhood gift expectations for generations. Sears stopped publishing the Wish Book in 1993, briefly revived it, then ended it permanently as the company collapsed. Online shopping, Amazon wish lists, and streaming entertainment replaced catalog browsing entirely. The communal ritual of poring over the Wish Book together has completely disappeared from modern American Christmas preparation.

11. Station Wagons Packed With Relatives

Holiday travel meant cramming three generations into a wood-paneled station wagon for hours-long drives to grandma’s house. Kids piled into the way-back rear-facing seat, dogs sat on laps, and luggage bulged from the roof rack under canvas straps. No seatbelts, no DVD players, no smartphones, just license plate games, sing-alongs, and increasingly desperate questions about how much longer. Minivans took over family-hauling duties in the late eighties, and by the 2000s, SUVs replaced wagons entirely. Modern family road trips happen in climate-controlled vehicles with individual entertainment screens. The chaotic, intimate station wagon holiday journey has been completely engineered out of American family travel.

12. Holiday TV Specials You Couldn’t Miss

Charlie Brown, the Grinch, Rudolph, Frosty, and the Heat Miser each aired exactly once per holiday season, requiring families to gather at appointed times or miss them entirely until next year. TV Guide circled in red marker dictated the family schedule. Commercial breaks meant frantic kitchen runs and bathroom trips. The shared cultural experience of millions watching simultaneously made these specials genuine events. Streaming services, DVD box sets, and on-demand viewing eliminated the appointment-television model entirely. Modern kids can watch any special anytime on any device. The collective magic of the whole country gathering around their televisions at exactly eight on Thursday for Rudolph has completely disappeared.

13. Real Trees Bought From Lot Attendants

Buying the family Christmas tree meant a December trip to a tree lot in a grocery store parking lot, where a guy in a flannel shirt and gloves helped you choose from leaning rows of Douglas firs and Scotch pines. Dad inspected trees by shaking them, checking for needle drop, and negotiating prices. The lot attendant tied the tree to the car roof with twine that always seemed to come loose on the highway. Artificial trees, pre-cut tree home delivery, and chain hardware store sales gradually replaced independent tree lots. Many neighborhood lots disappeared entirely. The flannel-shirted negotiation and twine-tied highway adventure of getting the family tree has largely vanished.

14. Long-Distance Phone Calls That Cost a Fortune

Calling relatives in other states on holidays required carefully timed long-distance calls that cost serious money per minute. Families gathered around a single telephone in the kitchen, passing the receiver from person to person while dad anxiously watched the clock. Conversations were rushed, important news was prioritized, and somebody was always shouting to a cousin who hadn’t gotten a turn yet. Calls after eleven at night or on weekends were cheaper, leading to strategically timed phone trees. Cell phones, video calls, and unlimited calling plans eliminated long-distance charges entirely. The compressed, expensive, intensely focused holiday phone call passed around the family has completely disappeared from American Christmas traditions.