#vintage valentne

[jana-hallford]

Valentine Memories: School Valentines, Heart-Shaped Candy Boxes, and a Special Cupcake

Valentine’s Day is by its very nature a sentimental time. I remember Valentines like the ones below, exchanged on Valentine’s Day all through elementary school. Some came in sheets with perforations for separating individual Valentines, while others were fully die-cut, ready to be signed. In both cases, packages of Valentines came in assorted designs.

As I mentioned in my inaugural post, Valentine and Christmas card designs are often reprinted for years, so the ones shown here could easily have been used before and after my era. We’re apparently allowed to get a little old-fashioned for these holidays,

Vintage bunny-theme Valentine.

Vintage telephone-theme Valentine. When I was growing up, images of young girls talking on the phone were very common, on greeting cards and even birthday cake decorations.

Pirate-theme vintage Valentine.

I like this cute kitten vintage Valentine. No play-on words, just a sweet cat with a simple message.

Vintage television-theme Valentine.

Vintage scuba-theme Valentine. The 1958 - 1961 television series “Sea Hunt” popularized scuba diving. 

Vintage Valentine featuring a young witch resembling Elizabeth Montgomery of the "Bewitched" television series, 1964 - 1972.

Vintage Valentine for a teacher.

I enjoyed using printed Valentines, especially selecting pictures or themes that matched the interests of my friends. However, my favorite memories are of Valentines I made myself. I remember in kindergarten, my first chance to exchange Valentines, the set my mother bought me was about eight or ten short for the number of classmates I had. (Baby Boomer classes were large.)  I drew pictures of ballerinas and made Valentines for the girls I knew best, and gave the printed Valentines to everyone else. My hand-drawn Valentines were much admired, and that made me, a five-year-old artist, very happy.

In the 5th grade, I was starting to get a bit self-conscious about giving out mushy Valentines to everyone. Inspired by a story from a “reader” (reading textbook) about an Eastern European immigrant girl who didn’t have the means to buy Valentines or the materials to make paper ones, I baked heart-shaped cookies for my whole class. Those also went over well.

Heart-shaped boxes of chocolate were very popular on Valentine’s Day, and still are, but back in the day many were highly embellished with ribbons and lace.

A collection of vintage heart-shaped candy boxes, including one from See’s Candy,

Vintage red heart-shaped candy box with ruffles and lace, topped with a red bow and an artificial rose.

Vintage heart-shaped candy box. This one stands out for me because it is a beautiful light blue, rather than red or pink.

Lovely pink vintage heart-shaped candy box, with lots of ruffles and lace, topped with delicate pink roses.

Yet more vintage heart-shaped candy boxes. I wonder about the women and girls who originally received these as Valentine’s Day gifts, and what their lives were like.

When I was about five, my parents gave me a Valentine’s Day heart-shaped box of chocolates with a doll on it. Candy box dolls were inexpensive dolls, typically  with “frozen” (non-bendable) legs, but I loved that gift, and remember it fondly. Below are some similar candy box dolls.

Vintage red heart-shaped candy box topped with a doll with a pink dress trimmed in red. She has millinery flowers on her red hat (which appears to be heart-shaped) and for her bouquet.

Vintage heart-shaped candy box topped with a doll in a white dress with blue trim. Her face looks like she’s a little older, from the 1940s or 1950s, but I’m including her because I think she’s pretty.

Vintage pink heart-shaped candy box topped with a doll in a pink hat and a blue and white dress, carrying a little bouquet of millinery flowers.

Vintage Valentine candy box topped with a doll with a red dress and hat. She too has a bouquet of millinery flowers.

One of my all-time favorite Valentine’s Day memories is of my mother taking me, age six, and my brother, age two, to a bakery with a Swiss chalet-inspired façade, and buying us each a fancy cupcake. (My three older siblings were off doing something else.) The cupcakes were decorated with hearts and cute smiling faces made from round, spun balls of paper on toothpicks, and they wore little hats. The next year or so, I was given a small red heart-shaped box of chocolates. I still have the decoration from that, with a plastic head and pipe cleaner limbs. 

Vintage Valentine decoration, from my personal collection. I’ve had this since I was about seven years old. The label on the back says MADE IN JAPAN.

[photography-prints]

Retro Vintage Girl and cat Valentne message card http://ift.tt/2z0vI5y. More Designs http://bit.ly/2g9LYfi