Holiday Flights of Fancy from 1969 - The Neiman-Marcus Christmas Book

Welcome to my new blog! Please have some patience as we get the design worked out. You'll find all my old holiday posts archived below with more to come soon! This is my first new post for the blog and I hope you enjoy it.

Alix, of the blog, ModernKiddo.com posted pages from the Sears Wishbook from 1975 last week. That charming post brought back a lot of memories and reminded me of a find from a few years ago at the paper ephemera convention in Pasadena CA. It's a 1969 Neiman-Marcus Christmas Book. Click on an image to open the slide show.

This catalog from the Texas department store has a long and storied history. It began in 1939 and, thanks to a publicity gimmick in 1952, has featured outrageous and at times ridiculous gifts for equally outrageous sums. The gift that kicked it off was a - and you have to remember that this is Texas - live Black Angus bull and a sterling silver barbecue cart for $1925 - a hefty sum in '52. Since that first whopper they've featured his and hers T-birds, solid gold potty seats, a fully stocked Noah's Ark, tanks, jets and mermaid suits. Along with those flights of fancy are bread and butter items like clothing, jewelry and comestibles. It all started in 1969 with this charming fold out cover by artist Antoni:

Isn't this a lovely spread? This jewelry page has a rustic feel, thanks to the beautiful barn wood used as a background. Some of the items included in the spread are a pebble textured, hidden face wrist watch (21A) and my favorite - an 18ct gold giraffe swizzle stick with a jeweled eye. What a glamorous way to stir a drink! On the men's side are 14ct gold collar stays and an 18ct gold tape measure.

The clothing was equally posh. for the girls we have some Pucci in the form of smart separates, an entire lipstick wardrobe and the most charming nail head trimmed purse. I would gladly carry that purse right now! The gents have it all sewed up too, with Lily Pulitzer Men's Stuff pants printed with patterns representing their Alma Mater - schools include Texas U (shown), Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Cornell. 

If you love your man in Aramis (and let's face it girls, who doesn't?) you might want to get him the giant economy size - 100,000 gallons of it was only $5,000,000 - stock up and save! Smaller options were available if you wanted to be cheap.

Of course we can't leave out the boudoir. NM envisions it either in pretty pastels or in his and her's "Grr." And yes, that's a bejeweled Carol Channing tucked under those pretty sheets.

Let's not leave out the kids. I love those "animal bags," and the kiddie juke box, which can store and play 40 45rpm records.  The under 5 crowd is covered too - under $5 that is. I'm especially fond of the mushroom handkerchief and butterfly pomanders.

Animals were frequently a part of the Niemen Marcus catalog. Why not give a precious live baby pachyderm? It's only $5000. From large to little, NM also had gerbils. If that doesn't appeal to you, why not a fully stocked petting zoo? Complete with a zoo keeper for a year, it's only $13,750.

Among the quirky gifts they had to offer in 1969 were these for him and her. The gumball machine filled with Gelusil stomach aids and complete with coins to work it would be appropriate for today's economic climate, though the $10,600.00 kitchen computer console for organizing your recipes and balancing your checkbook is perhaps a trifle out of date now.

Comestibles are a holiday staple and NM didn't scrimp on them. How about a cotton candy machine? No? Then maybe a fruit cake in the shape of Texas? Hmm...

They also provided photographic services. Just look at that happy family! Eunice and Lloyd have matching outfits made from crazy quilts. NM was, and is well known for their creative gift wrapping services. Just look at that charming elf and the umbrella with birds on it. I think my favorites are the doll gift towers though.

Neiman-Marcus still produces a holiday catalog and the tradition of featuring fabulous gifts such as these still stands. These catalogs were, at one point, the piece of mail most stolen from mailboxes and it's no wonder. The fanciful flights are a delight and set the imagination a light.

Merry Christmas!