Christmas in July

Over on the Etsy site there is a Christmas in July promotion.  Some may shudder at the idea of Christmas in July but I've found, through the years, that at least by early August I am thinking about the holidays.  As a long time collector of all things Christmas I wanted to share a little knowledge.  This blog is completely self-promoting and about old stuff so we will excuse anyone who isn't interested.

Bottle brush trees came along toward the middle of the last century and were designed to complement Christmas vignettes set up with little houses and animals made in Germany and Japan.  The houses had snow covered mica roofs and sometimes the trees had mica snow.  The houses, trees and animals are very collectible.  I like my trees without snow and learned that it is a fairly simple process to remove it.  The one above just sold in my Etsy shop.  It is on its way to Australia. 

Santa Claus.  Pere Noel.  St. Nick.  Whatever you call him, he is often a focal point of Christmas decorating.  Those made of old cotton batting are fragile and collectible.  The body and limbs are formed from the stuff that was used to stuff quilts.  Usually the face is made from a Victorian scrap since that is when they first appeared but we were surprised to find this one with a more modern Coca Cola Santa face.  He is available in our shop.

These ornamets with the pushed in centers are known in the trade as "indents".   We should point out that there is a hierarchy in the collectability of ornaments based on their country of manufacture.  Some of the most delicately beautiful are made in Poland.  Many of the best vintage and antique pieces came from Germany.  Russian ornaments have only begun to be readily available since eBay came along but, sadly, there is a lot of misrepresentation there.  The Japanese copied everything and they made less expensive copies of most ornament styles.  Both of the ornaments above are German and we have them at Vinieschild on Etsy. 

We have other collectible Christmas items in our shop and we invite you to visit Etsy to do some Christmas in July shopping.  If you enter CIJ or Christmas in July in Search you will find a plethora of goodies.  Etsy recently "improved" their search so if you're confused about how to get more specific in your search - look way over on the left side of the page to the sidebar.  Options for discriminating your search are there.  If you're interested in the older decor, use "vintage" in your search.  Etsy doesn't like "antique".  

As a reward for those who are still reading in spite of the self-promotion nature of this post, here's a little Christmas trivia.

Oklahoma was the last US state to declare Christmas a legal holiday in 1907.

There are 364 gifts in the Twelve Days Of Christmas. One gift for every day of the year. 

My Etsy shop is linked over there ------------------>