Your Christmas Antiques could actually be collectibles!

Your Christmas Antiques could actually be collectibles!

xmas tree.pngChristmas trees

Decorating the Christmas tree originated in Germany. Traditionally, nuts, fruits and candles were most common decorations.In the early 1800s, Americans began decorating trees, often covering them with garlands of popcorn or cookies that were in festive shapes. During the late 1800s, Christmas decorations became more elaborate with ornaments, baubles and garlands.

In the space age 1960’s Americans became enamoured by aluminum Christmas trees. Today these aluminum trees are considered highly collectible. Colours such as silver, being the most popular are red, blue, gold and green being rare . However, pink being the most expensive and the most rare are selling on eBay for more than $3600. Such a fun sparkling symbol of Christmas Americana.

Vintage Christmas Postcards

Sending out Christmas cards all started in1843 when Sir Henry Cole first Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London had so many Christmas greetings to send that handwriting them was impossible. Instead, he commissioned 1,000 hand-coloured cards showing a family toasting to the holiday season. Half of these cards he sent out personally and500 were sold for a princely sum of one shilling each. Only about a dozen are believed to have survived today and can sell as much as £8,500 GBP at auction.

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Between the 1870s until World War I, postcards that were produced by publishers focused mainly on nativity scenes and families around a Christmas tree. These cards were lithographed and often decorated with silk, lace and satin. Christmas postcards featuring Santa Claus were the most collectible, especially early German chromolithographed and embossed postcards which feature Santa in colours other than red. The most interesting, however, is St. Nicholas’ puckish devil companion, Krampus, found in German , Austrian and Czech cards. These cards often depicted him playing with the good children and tormenting the bad ones. Krampus has also been shown to use his devilish charms on beautiful women and mocks and tortures the unattractive ones. Today, Krampus cards popular with collectors and ones without a red background command the highest prices.

Between 1898 and 1918 was the golden era of postcards and many top artists such as Ellen Clapsaddle, Samuel Schmucker, Frances Brundage and H.B. Griggs worked for publishers Raphael Tick & Sons, De LaRue and Marcus Ward & Co. who created these, now collectors’ items.

Another popular and valuable Christmas cardmade during the Victorian era was the Hold-to-Light cards. These gimmick postcards typically have an image with a dark outline and would be covered within layers of paper, which would be printed with a different image. If the card was held up to a light, the luminous festive image would suddenly appear.These cards are worth as much as £100 each today. An admired collectors itemthat presents the importance of social history at the time.

Tree Ornaments

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Christmas ornaments have been intrinsicpart of Christmas tree adornments and home decorations for hundreds of years.It all began during the 1880s when German craftsmen began producing images offruits, hearts, stars and angels in glass in Lauscha, Germany. It sparked muchinterest to F.W. Woolworth, an American mass merchandiser, who began importingthese German glass ornaments to his 5 & 10 cent stores all across the country. After World War I, the handmade German ornament trade began todecline, and Max Eckardt, a German immigrant and a representative at the F.W.Woolworth Company saw this as an opportunity. They visited Corning Glass Works, the largest American glass manufacturer and began the producing ornaments thatwere sold under the name, Shiny Brite.

Today, collectors of antique and vintage Christmas tree ornaments tend of focus on themes, period, material and shapes. Shiny Brites that are in their original festively coloured boxes are desirable. Another popular ornament is the Kugel German figural ornament. Figural ornaments which depicts clusters of grapes painted in red or amber are rareand can be worth more than $1000 USD a piece. Animals also bring in highvalues. A rare Puss ‘n Boots glass ornament with chenille limbs in excellent condition could reach a value of $800-1,000 USD. Who knew these whimsical ornaments could be worth so much?!

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The history of Santa Claus dates back to the fourth century Myra (now Turkey), where Bishop Nicholas graciously became apatron for children and the poor. It was not until the Dutch immigrants whobrought the traditions of Saint Nick back to America and through the mispronunciationof ‘Sinterklass’ (St. Nichoas), Santa Claus was born.

Many Christmas antiques and collectibles adorn the face of Santa Claus. In fact, the earliest incarnations of Saint Nick were in Celluloid figurines. In the early 1900’s German craftsman figured out how to manipulate this lightweight, plastic-like material into simple shapes. Unfortunately,the market for these figures faded due to their flammability by the 1930’s.

The most desirable and valuable pieces of Santa memorabilia are small and generally made of paper mache and then painted by hand called Belsnickles (Nicholas dressed in fur). Makers’ names do not generally appear on these figurines but simply were marked as ‘Germany’. If you ever come across a mint condition Belsnickle, it could be priced between £2,000-3,000GBP.

Vintage Christmas Records

elvis.pngOut of all music genres,Christmas albums have to be one of the most diverse. There’s a lot to choose from in this genre, from the Beatles Christmas albums to recordings from Elvis,Frank Sinatra, Gene Autry and even Alvin and the Chipmunks!

One of the most highly collectible records is the Beatles’ 1971 Apple LP (Long Playing) album, “The Beatles Christmas Album” which if you can get your hands on is worth $500 USD (£325 GBP). If you thought that was worth a lot, Elvis Presley’s 1957 RCA LPred vinyl, “Elvis Christmas Album” is valued at $18,000 USD (£11,730 GBP). Those prices have us “all shook up”.

Christmas Crackers

No holiday dinner table is complete without one of the biggest British traditions:Christmas crackers. Whether you

love or despise this tradition, unused Christmas crackers are explosive to collectors market which in fact, would not have existed if confectioner, Tom Smith had not discovered the ‘bon-bon’(sugared almond). While on a trip to Paris in the 1840’s Tom Smith discovered this colourfully-wrapped sweet and realised that it would sell well in London. He proved correct that the sugary sweet was successful but only during the Christmas period. Smith tried to encourages sales outside of the holiday period by adding a small love moto that was inside the wrapper; however, it was still only successful around Christmas. Then one day, while adding a log into a burning fire, a big crackle exploded from the log which made Smith jump. This sound was necessary the spark that had he had been looking for in order to enhance his ‘bon-bon’ and making it more desirable to customers. After two years of trial and error Smith finally discovered that if a strip of saltpetre was pasted in two pieces of thin card and each end was pulled, a friction created as park and then a crack. By 1860, Tom Smith’s crackers were born.

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When collecting Christmas crackers, there are a few key features collectors look for. The design of thebox imagery, the novelties that are found inside, which define much of the rarity andof course ones that haven’t been pulled. During the Victorian period, there were many themes displayed on theboxes of crackers. One of the most popular themes was of Japanese culture. Popular operas such as Madame Butterfly and The Mikado or Japanese Geisha girls contained little surprises of miniature Japanese pottery. Other themes were, wartimecrackers, post war crackers, and even ‘Bank of Love’ crackers in 1884 whichwere a popular choice at parties for young people who used them as an icebreaker. Collecting Christmas crackers is an enjoyable hobby for many collectors as there are so many to choose from, such as the rarity, theme ormaker. Next time you purchase a simple cracker, you might want to buy two boxes– one set to pull at the dinner table and the other to save for the future ascertain modern crackers are sure to explode in price.

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Christmas Pop Memoriabilia

Let’s not forget the memorabilia of the early Hollywood Christmas movies. Poster and other promotional materialsfrom these older movies are highly sought after by many collectors. In 1983 was the release of the classic holiday film A Christmas Story. An original theatrical poster is one of the most collectible items from A Christmas Story. Depending on the condition, original posters can be valued for several hundred dollars.

Although we may only use these antique and vintage Christmas items once a year, hang on to those decorations and hand-me-downs and even ones given as gifts. You never know what might become a valuable antique 30 years from now!

Want to find out how much your Christmas antiques are worth? Visit ValueMyStuff and get your items appraised!

-Happy Holidays from ValueMyStuff