There is more to the fall tradition of bobbing for apples than meets the eye! Did you know that it was used by adult party-goers in the Victorian era to flirt and find love? Or that one version of the game was a fire hazard? It didn’t start out as a children’s game, far from [...]
Few movie main characters are as different as The Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch The Wizard of Oz. And few are as beloved, with both of them being entrenched in the American consciousness 85-some odd years since the film was released. The characters would not have become so iconic without [...]
A memorable Halloween starts with a memorable costume. Why not make it one to remember by dressing as a woman from history who deserves to be remembered? Victorian Halloween costumes are always a part favorite because they are striking and great conversation starters. But who to choose? A lot of women from the Victorian era [...]
It has been another great Christmas in July here at Recollections! I loved sharing more tips on creating a great Mrs. Claus costume and loved that I got to share something brand new with you; Frank Baum’s Life and Adventures of Santa Claus. I thought that it might be fun to end the month with [...]
Did you know that Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum wrote an entire novel on the life and times of Santa Claus? I had never heard this before and came across a reference to it while doing some online research on the history of Mother Goose. The novel, The Life and Adventures of Santa [...]
Christmas in July is here! While many of us will be celebrating with warm pool parties or cocktail get-togethers, it is also a great occasion to start putting together a Mrs. Claus costume to use later in the year. I know a lot of our readers enjoy dressing up, and the world can use more [...]
Revolutionary War fashion was a bit of an outlier when it comes to Western fashion trends. We see styles embraced during this time that are really only seen during the years shortly before the war. When the war ended in 1783, there was a rapid move to adopt French fashions and also to invite more [...]
Happy Easter, everyone! All of us at Recollections hope that you have a beautiful weekend and we thank you for being readers and customers! Easter is a pretty holiday, isn’t it? Pastels, baby animals, painted eggs, and chocolate, what’s not to love? While a lot of the mainstays of the holiday have stayed firm through [...]
It has been such a fun year of writing for Recollections! About this time one year ago I did a lovely series on the delightful documentary A Very British Romance featuring one of my favorite historians, the fabulous Lucy Worsley. One of the things that I learned whilst watching the documentary is that at the [...]