nostalgia goggles

I think that goggles are as familiar to us as glasses these days so whereas once we might have reached for glasses as our figurative viewing aid (rose-coloured glasses) now we can go with goggles (nostalgia goggles).   

The nostalgia goggles are worn by that group in society who always imagine that the past was better. The nostalgia goggles obscure your perception of reality.  Others can of course see clearly that what you think was so wonderful was in fact quite unpleasant or quite worthless.  So mostly the phrase turns up in requests that we should take off the nostalgia goggles and see something for what it is.

It is perhaps related to the nostalgia filter used in cinematography, a warm filter that creates a dreamy, nostalgic effect.