Decorating With Antique Ornaments Makes Christmas Special
GAIL STROCK
Mifflin Co. Correspondent
REEDSVILLE (Mifflin Co.)
Dottie and Joe Gearhart’s eight
foot Christmas tree stands in a
place of honor in their home
squarely in the center of their liv
ing room floor, visible from all
sides. That's how important
Christmas and their antique
Christmas ornaments and deco
rations are to the Gearharts.
“We pack 100 ornaments in
each computer paper box, and
we have seven or eight boxes.
There are about 700 ornaments
on this tree,” said Dottie. Few of
the ornaments date later than
1910.
“We started collecting 50
years ago. 1 used to buy “the
pile” at auctions, the items
thrown together that wouldn’t
sell. When 1 started collecting or
naments and decorations, no one
wanted them,” Dottie says.
The Gearhart ornament and
decoration collection encom
passes glass, paper, and wax an
gels, churches and houses, bells,
animals, musical instruments,
pipes, Christmas trees, pine
cones, chalk-faced Santas, color
ful Kugels, feather trees, candy
containers, Dresden ornaments,
German stars, “putz” or the
things under the tree such as ani
mals and the nativity, and much,
much more.
“The flying wax angels are a
whole other story. They’re fragile
and they melt. They’re from the
Joe and Dottie Gearhart decorate their tree with rare
An angel with a spun-glass halo tops this Christmas glass beads and tubes strung onto wires that were made
tree. in Czechoslovakia.
1890 Victorian era and were
made over a period of about 20
years. Collectible to me is before
World War 11. I try to collect or
naments and decorations from
countries in Central Europe such
as Germany, Czechoslovakia,
and Austria. Not Japan. The
quality’s not there,” Dottie ex
plains. “These ornaments are so
hard to buy now because they’re
so expensive.”
Folklore, Legends,
And Facts
Legend claims that a home in
Germany in 1640 housed the first
decorated tree. “The German
and Protestant churches not
the Puritans accepted Christ
mas trees. The trees were decora
ted with fruits, grains, and nuts
to celebrate the harvest, as a
hymn to Jesus. Santa Claus is
pure myth, but not the Christ
mas tree.”
Lights first adorned a tree in
1700. The first cottage industry
of glass ornament making devel
oped in Germany in 1840. The
men would blow the ornaments;
the women would decorate; the
children would sell them in the
villages. Paper, tinsel, and cel
lophane were used before glass.
The large German Kugel balls
became popular from 1840 to
1860. In the late 1800 s, factories
in New Jersey and New York
began producing Kugel balls,
and it became difficult if not im
possible to tell the difference.
Very few were made after 1880.
Dottie Gearhart proudly holds the double-bulbed Kugel ornament her husband, Joe,
gave her. These beautiful bulbs have embossed brass ends and were painted in the in
side.
“About that time, Woolworth
went to Germany and brought
Kugels back in bulk,” Dottie ex
plains. “There are two types
glass ones blown into molds and
figures, such as grapes, pears,
and eggs, and the free-blown
ones. They’re balls or a twisted
shape. Of course, there have been
reproductions made of all of
these. You can tell the difference
by the paint, weight, and brass
ornaments. Also, the spear on
top of an original is very small.”
Dottie’s bowl of colorful Kugel
balls contains a huge cobalt-col
ored one as well as many of other
colors and one shaped like a
bunch of grapes.
Folklore has it that Hessian
soldiers introduced Christmas
trees to America during the Rev
olutionary War. Supposedly,
Washington attacked while the
British and Hessians soldiers
Dottie realizes that some
people might call a “scrap”
tree ugly, but the trim on
these Victorian-era orna
ments is made from pure
silver. Putting flags on a
Christmas tree was com
mon practice in Europe
and in America during the
Revolutionary War.
were celebrating Christmas.
Whether fact, fiction, or folk
lore, the Gearharts thoroughly
enjoy collecting the ornaments
that have adorned so many
homes during Christmas for so
many generations.
Dottie also keeps a booth of
antiques for sale at the Dairyiand
Antique complex. She teaches
how to make German stars,
many of which are seen through
out the Gearhart home and at
the Dairyiand Antique complex.
“To me, decorating for Christ
mas is my Christmas,” Dottie
said.