1956 United States

About this footage

A grandfather hands out Christmas gifts to the children in Hicksville, New York, and the holiday comes back again and again in these 1956 reels. In Phoenix, Arizona, a boy pushes a new toy truck on Christmas morning while another child plays with a toy excavator. Back in Hicksville, a girl in a red coat learns to ice skate on a frozen pond. The families filmed ordinary days too. Two men carry a purple couch up a flight of stairs in Phoenix, a father watches his son ride a tricycle in Nebraska, and in New York City a dog runs across a snowy yard.

The Florida and Massachusetts reels head for the water. Off Miami, men reel in fishing lines, a water skier cuts a wake and fishermen unhook a large tuna and lay it on the dock. On Cape Cod an elderly man rests in a folding chair on the beach, and a car drives slowly through a quiet town. South Dakota families water ski on a forested lake, and men ride a horse-drawn buggy past the town stores. In Texas, hunters walk a Lubbock field with rifles behind a pointing dog, while in Dallas young performers in formal attire take the stage. The Grand Rapids, Michigan footage shows tornado damage in a residential neighborhood and workers building a mobile home beside a blue truck.

Useful for stories on Christmas at home in the 1950s, sport fishing and boating in Florida, or tornado damage in the Midwest.