After a few years an artificial tree starts to look a little lame, especially if it has seen quite a bit of feline activity. I was forced to get a new one last year and I seriously dislike it. Fortunately I’ve managed to avoid lighting it for two years. Last year I had a broken arm and had to hire one of the kids in my youth group. This year I had an inner ear thing. Wonder what I can come up with next year.
Collectable Christmas Ornaments
What is a collectable?
I hate to tell you this, but my treasure is your trash and vice versa. A collectable is whatever you want it to be and then some. There are no rules. You collect what you like. Deal with it. You can spend a fortune or collect on a budget. Unfortunately I don’t know anyone who collects on a budget.
Did you know F. W. Woolworth popularized Christmas ornaments in the United States when he began selling German-made ornaments in the early 1880s? By the 1890 the items were so popular he was making over $56 million a year in nickel and dime sales. If you extend that amount out and calculate for inflation, today those sales would top $1,240,000,000.00! I think this clears up the myth that our society has not been consumer driven until ‘recently.’
Let’s start with the most popular ornaments, those by Hallmark. Keepsake Ornaments have been around since 1973 when Hallmark introduced their first with six glass balls and twelve different yarn ornaments. Over three thousand different ornaments have been created since the first little glass balls. Series include Disney™, Barbie™, Lionel Trains™, Looney Tunes™, Peanuts™, Star Wars™, and Star Trek (my personal favorite). They have sports including Major League Baseball, Football, and NBA Basketball. I am kicking myself for not starting a set of the MLB ornaments, but somewhere you need to draw the line.
There are two other lines of ornaments I am going to mention. The first is Christopher Radko. In 1984 Radko accidentally destroyed a family collection of hand blown traditional European ornaments. He had a very difficult time finding replacements for the ornaments. Like any good son who is obviously trying to replace his mother’s precious mementos before she attacks with a broom or cattle prod, he was forced to take matters into his own hands. Along the way, Radko met up with a man who wanted to revive the craft practiced by his great-grandfather. The two men began working together and were an immediate success.
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