Last Updated on April 28, 2025 by Colby Droscher
Drive-in dinners, Christmas mornings under tinsel-drenched trees, and road-trip pit-stops in a fin-tailed Chevy; the small, everyday joys of the 1960s often say more than the headline moments. The 20 family photos below freeze those ordinary scenes in grainy Kodachrome colour and faded Polaroid white.
1. The ’60s weren’t safe from photobombs
His parents are the proud couple on the right.
2. Visiting a drive-in restaurant
Drive-in restaurants were invented in the ’30s but gained popularity in the early ’60s.
3. A family trip to the North Georgia Mountains, 1969
Groovy sunglasses were the norm.
4. President John F. Kennedy and his family
John F. Kennedy’s holiday message still played on living-room televisions as families unwrapped gifts. Watch the original footage preserved by the JFK Presidential Library for a fuller picture of 1962’s Christmas morning.
5. A typical family in the early ’60s
They could afford all of this on a milkman’s salary.
6. A mid-60s family Christmas photo
Those ’60s glasses are rocking.
7. A mother and her daughters, early 1960s
Imagine being the one brother in this house.
8. An early ’60s Easter
Why did we ever stop making plad suit jackets like this?
9. A ’60s family portrait
That young man in the back does not look excited to be taking a family photo.
10. Rural family standing at attention for RFK’s funeral train, 1968
RFK’s funeral train traveled from New York City to Washington, D.C. on June 8, 1968, carrying his body to Arlington National Cemetery.
11. Family camping trip, early ’60s
In the ’60s, tons of families had 7 kids or more.
12. Bruce Lee and his family
Bruce’s daughter, Shannon Lee, is a producer, actress, and the head of the Bruce Lee Foundation.
13. A 1960s family vacation
Safety wasn’t a concern in the 1960s.
14. Family in the Philippines just before coming to America
The Mauricio family must have owned this town in the Philippines.
15. The Bridges family
Beau, Jeff, Dorothy, and Lloyd.
16. Kicking that ’60s look
Those matching suits are absolutely legendary.
17. A ’60s family picnic
That lucky young man get’s a whole side of the table to himself.
18. Those two uncles at the family reunion
All they need is a six pack and a quiet place to sit.
19. Family picnic, early 1960s
No one’s distracted by a cell phone. They’re just sitting together.
20. They all look so happy
Bring back overalls like this.
Hungry for more time-capsule snapshots? Step back another decade with our 100 Photos That Totally Sum Up the 1950s, fast-forward to vivid hues in 70+ Photos That Totally Sum Up The Seventies, or dive into 20 Things You’d Instantly Recognize If You Grew Up in the 60s. Ready to flip through the family album? Let’s cue the slide projector and relive an era of backyard barbecues and boundless optimism.
