Max collaborated with the Corning Glass Company to build on Woolworth’s ornament empire. This Christmas craze started in the late 1930s as the brainchild of Max Eckardt. What item drew such an ardent following? The perfect orb known as the Shiny Brite. Stores clamored to have the latest designs and colors, while families saved up to buy them in bulk. Shiny Britesĭuring the 1940s and 1950s one product flew off the shelves in record numbers. In a 1950s stroke of genius, bottle brush makers realized they could re-purpose their equipment to produce the happy tabletop trees we know and love today! While the artificial tree market has continued to blossom (to the credit of our Victorian visionaries), the adorable bottle brush tree remains the iconic vintage holiday symbol. The bottle brush tree is a novel reminder of that post-war skill set. As a result, manufacturers were masters of the multitask. Europe was rebuilding and Americans were eager to buy their way to utopia. Needless to say, supplying the world with consumer and commercials goods was a big task. While these early trailblazers failed to corner the Christmas market, their legacy paved the way for big changes just a few decades later…įollowing WWII, the United States became the globe’s manufacturing headquarters. Female inventors were equally passionate about capturing reality, but also incorporated safety features (i.e. One gentleman saw his design as multipurpose, allowing for the branches to be replaced with pegs, handily converting the family tree into a coat rack during the “off season.” Another inventor, August Wengenroth, incorporated candle holders into his design and was so obsessed with capturing the snapshot of the perfect tree, he even tried a flocking technique to recreate a snowy day. Early faux tree enthusiasts were a plucky group and a 1915 article in Popular Science Monthly outlined their pioneering efforts. Let me know in the comments what gets you into the holiday spirit… Bottle brush treesĪrtificial Christmas trees were first offered to consumers in the late 1800s. Inspired by the engine that is American retail, allow me to present a list of favorite vintage Christmas treasures. Surrounded by all the red and green, I began to daydream about the Christmas splendor of yore. Caught up in the glittery excitement, I found my shopping cart steering itself toward the merry magic. This weekend I visited my local craft shop and noticed something extraordinary – it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! All the Halloween decorations were heavily discounted to make way for aisles overflowing with ornaments and tinsel.
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