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Beyond Non-Sport…Christmas Questing!

  The blessing/frustration of collecting Christmas treasures is the sheer number of items and quantities produced. Nothing is truly “rare” so long as you know whose attic to scour you should be good. This is particularly true in post-WWII America. In an economy leaping back.

By Nov 24,2014  0

Beyond Non-Sports, art by Jay Lynch

 

The blessing/frustration of collecting Christmas treasures is the sheer number of items and quantities produced. Nothing is truly “rare” so long as you know whose attic to scour you should be good. This is particularly true in post-WWII America. In an economy leaping back after the Great Depression, the growing suburban culture latched on to anything with which they could impress the neighbors. Soldiers returned from Europe with souvenirs. There was every reason in the world to create more and more trinkets that many hoped would become Yuletide heirlooms.

You have to go into it knowing you’ll never “catch ’em all” While collector value is primarily based on what the market will bear, value of these things start at your own personal nostalgia. No amount of price guide information alters that; your own sense of style will tell you if somebody else’s crap is your prize; and neither popularity, availability nor market penetration will inform its worth to others.

Most items were never marketed to collectors per se; but the average family member looks to decorate (eek!—remove it from the box?!…and let kids TOUCH THEM!?!), then store them away, re-use, and eventually pass on over generations. Some handled Mom’s trinkets gingerly. Others who felt them too gaudy to even set out on a shelf come December kept them nice and protected out of respect, until a yard sale years later.

You may find the older the neighborhood, the more interesting the garage sale. You may not be so lucky in Estate Sales though, because the kids would have already chosen the more sentimental items beforehand. Since most items are in such wide circulation, eBay may not be as good a go-to as your Grandma’s own basement.

In addition to the more prevalent tree decorations covered in my “Beyond Non-Sports” column in the current issue of Non-Sport Update, just imagine a marketplace used to selling Popeye and Mickey Mouse knick-knacks, turning instead to a popular holiday figure they didn’t have to license to produce! Imagine postwar Japan struggling to rebuild their manufacturing infrastructure, looking for benign random items to sell to casual-spending America. Swiss, Italian and Spanish artisans found export opportunity nirvana in North America.

“Perfect Storm” caveat: we all know that putting Mickey in a red suit, or Goofy and Donald pulling a sleigh can add value, because then you’re throwing collectors of Disneyana into the mix. Also, when/wherever you find your item, you’ll most likely pay less for it earlier in the year than if you were to shop for it closer to the decorating-for-Christmas season (Duh).

The 1800s equivalent of today’s Department 56-style “Christmas Village” pieces were “putz villages,” originating here with the Moravians: cheaply-crafted houses painted and glittered to evoke snow, designed to be placed beneath the tree. The layouts quickly became more elaborate, eventually incorporating Nativity tableaus (how one gets from snow-covered bungalows to a stable in the desert within the space of a tabletop is beyond me, but hey, it’s a miracle, right?)

Moravian Putz Village

Nativity figurines were a boon to the porcelain figure business, so that grew separately. Of course, once the toy train joined the putz villages under the tree, the Nativity scene would have relocated to another area, like the credenza or mantelpiece. What was left morphed into the model train layout hobby…which is a great, hands-on collectible hobby in itself, of course,…and you know how hardcore those enthusiasts can get! 

Just for a second, though, imagine what bizarre steampunk imagery might have come from the village staying down there on the floor, and the train set joining the Baby Jesus and Friends on the countertop!”Whoo-whoo! Here come the three wise men in their Lionel Central Hudson Steamer—next stop, frankincense and myrrh, aallll aboooaaarrrdd…!”

Say, do you own a Mazda? And, do you park it in a little box on a shelf? You do if it’s Mazda light bulbs (1909-1945) from GE! They made all varieties, but you’re more likely to see their Christmas bulbs, since they would have only been used a few weeks out of the year. But this “brings light” to the subject better than we could ever cover in nostalgic detail!

The Space Age brought us the kitschy aluminum Christmas Tree, most likely first mass-marketed by Wisconsin’s Aluminum Specialty Company in 1959. The company improved on a heavier, non-consumer version from the Chicago Modern Coatings company a few years earlier. That was the best-selling Evergleam brand, always more festive under the ever-changing glow of the color wheel (both easily had today for under $200).

Speaking of ancient tree decor, my mom’s earliest memories of lighting the tree were quite literally so. Her childhood was spent on a dairy farm, before electricity got outside the nearby towns. So, the Tannenbaum would sport real candles, mounted on small tin saucers, clamped to the branches. Before you say, “Um, wouldn’t that…?”, the answer is, “Yes, it sure as hell did…”! So if you were singing Christmas carols in the parlor, you would only keep one eye on the music, and the other looking around for the fireplace utensils! Like that bear with Pharrell’s hat used to say…”Only You…!”

Candles in trees and candle holder

Speaking of music, and being a radio/audio/music guy myself, there aren’t too many best-selling Christmas LP’s that haven’t been resurrected in CD form by now, but Frankie, Bing and Gene Autry didn’t invent the fad. Those old, pre-78 Edison cylinders (shellacked like the records, but about the size of an empty toilet tissue roll) from the dawn of the 20th Century, offered many holiday titles, as well as one of the more famous early children’s recordings: 1922’s] “Santa Claus Hides In Your Phonograph,” from Harry E. Humphrey (listen below).

But for real value in decking the house traditionally, it’s not hard to still run into vintage Christmas cards (and richly-detailed post cards!)—some signed and postmarked, others still awaiting your signature. Below are some my mom kept from HER grandmother’s keepsakes*, from as far back as the turn of the last century, which perched on our shelves and tabletops every year (then, back into the baggies). Undervalued, IMHO, for displaying or even giving you an excuse to ditch the annual Christmas tweet, pull out the quill pen, and go ol’ skool.

Vintage Christmas Cards

*Check out that scary Santa from 1911—maybe that should go with the Halloween cards?

Finally, here’s a collectible that’s truly one of a kind (meaning, you can’t have mine, nyah-nyah-nyah!) Our publisher, the Tosers, have been on a few specially-made collector cards from time to time. A few years back my wife Patsy got a little crafty. NSU Production Manager Harris Toser came to visit this particular Christmas day and this was the surprise she had for him on our tree (the Tosers aren’t very likely to put up one of their own, you know!). So Viola! The world’s only official Toser Family Christmas Ornament, coming say…NEVER, to a Hallmark Store near you! So Happy Holidays, whichever holiday you observe…and, Oy To The World!

Toser Christmas Ornament

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