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Ad Rates / Articles / Classified Ads / Editorial / Home / Links / Showtime   Inside Antiques, by Robert Reed   Inside Antiques: Christmas collectibles   By Robert Reed There is an old cardboard box sitting in my attic that has been in the family since I was born. In faded blue letters it silently proclaims the wonders of West's Yum Yum Bread. The thing that makes it special is that it houses some of my earliest childhood memories of Christmas.   The box that once held fresh baked bread has held Christmas ornaments and decorations for at least a half century. After all these years the contents of the box has varied from time to time but the purpose endures.   The angels, glass balls, snowmen, Santas, lights and stars have always been family treasures, and they always will be. But these days they are rapidly becoming collectible treasures across North America as well.   One of the quirks of the 1980s was the exploding zest for saving, finding and displaying the collectibles of Christmas past. Christmas ornaments and the related artifacts of the Yuletide season have dramatically emerged in recent years as sought after in antique shops, flea markets and auctions.   The more anxious Americans are to recapture these items of Christmas past, the more valuable they become and the more worthwhile it then becomes to search the attic and scout local garage sales.   One true positive point of Christmas collections is that just about every household in America already has a starting lot packed away somewhere in the house or apartment. Traditionally, people have stored away these delightful items after an annual holiday display of a few weeks. It is unusual, therefore, for the thoughtful homemaker not to find objects that are 50, 75 or even 100 years old among their boxes of Christmas ornaments.   Oddly enough, some of the oldest of the Christmas collectibles are the most durable In the 1870s, Americans began to find their local merchants were offering Christmas ornaments to supplement those that had been up until then homemade.One of the most appealing types were the pewter and lead items in the form of a star or cross that were made in Germany. Many of these flat, dullmetal shapes can still be found.   By the 1880s, Woolworth's and other stores in this country were regularly stocking a wide assortment of German-made ornaments including wax angels, cardboard animals and blown-glass balls for the family tree.   They changed as interest grew. The bright and colourful cardboard ornaments steadily evolved from simple objects to animals, ships, trains and sleds. Blown-glass ornaments, meanwhile, which had been around for centuries became universal tree decorations by the early 1890s and what were once simply balls were now transformed into fruits and vegetables, fish and animals.   Knowledgeable collectors point out that glass balls which included wire tinsel, cotton batting or silk tassels were likely to have been manufactured between 1890 and 1910. By the 1920s the glass varieties had expanded to the public's fascination with automobiles and airplanes.   As North America greeted the turn of the century, another Christmas delight was ushered into the holiday mainstream - the postcard. There were Christmas greeting cards available as early as 1860, but the artful designs actually peaked many years later.   The Christmas postcards that are especially prized today are those sold from 1900 to around 1912. They frequently pictured Santa and through the years a collector can see him evolve from St. Nicholas in a jewelled headdress and satin robes to a chubby fellow in a full beard and red suit.   Today, many collectors restore these printed gems in simple black frames for display during the Yule season. They just replace other framed pictures around the house and put the existing ones back up after the holidays.   Other Christmas treasures include the various light bulbs that adorned the trees of earlier years. Some of the first Japanese bulbs were clear glass painted over in attractive colours. By 1920, General Electric was producing bulbs in North America. Those made in Japan were milk glass, which showed less flaws than the earlier clear glass. Japanese bulb production ended in the 1940s and resumed again briefly in the 1950s. Most of the bulbs of this era are clearly marked, although not generally dated.   At one point, the Japanese used popular cartoon characters like orphan Annie and Andy Gump to fashion their bulbs for an eager American public. Another appealing and collectible area of Christmas light bulbs is the Disney family which was in full-scale production in the 1930s. These bulbs celebrated Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and even Pinocchio.   Of course there are the lovely plates of Christmas. Both Bing and Grondahl and the Royal Copenhagen factories in Denmark were producing plates of Christmas at the turn of the century, most of which are dated.   Over the past 20 years, North American made Christmas plates have also become popular and comprise a collecting field unto themselves. They too are usually dated. Families that traditionally observe the symbolic trimming of the Christmas tree will eventually find they have quite an accumulation of Santas, bells, reindeers, wreaths, tree lights, nativity scenes and a 'museum' of ornaments. A lot of these things would race: second only to the family silverware as far as the serious collector is concerned.   Those celluloid reindeers that were made for only a short period of time in occupied Japan, for example, and Santas and nativity scenes in hand-carved wood and qualifying as genuine European or American folk art, would head anyone's list today.   Especially attractive to many collectors are the clip on metal birds with spun glass tails, carved wooden flowers, pressed paper that extend themselves eight to nine inches. Once these treasures were readily available in stores, now they are holiday works of art that cannot be replaced.   But the marketplace is certainly not the only consideration when it comes to collectibles of Christmas.   In my own family we have seen two children grow to adulthood with each having a lifetime of seasonal collectibles. From birth to graduation, family and friends assembled bells for one child and angels for the other. Each and every Christmas the children displayed the growing collection - some were newly purchased and some were antiques.After all these years, many of the seasonal trinkets are quite valuable, but they are undoubtedly several generations from ever being in the open market.   Illustrations 1 - Nativity set, 1963, with 16 figures, Hummel (Gene Harris Auction Centre photo) 2 - Woolworths Christmas tree ornaments, American made 3 - Strauss toy Santa, tinplate ca 1920s, key wound (Skinner Auction photo)   Robert Reed has written on antiques and collectibles for more than two decades. He has also authored 15 books, including his recently released Antiques and Collectible Dictionary, available from www.collectorbooks.com       Return to top of page   This Is Livin' Publishing © 2009 581 8th Line West, RR1 Hastings, ON, K0L 1Y0 Phone/Fax: 705-696-1833   webmaster