Christmas Ornaments

Going on 90 years now, Christmas ornaments have become an integral part of our Christmas celebrations. From families rich or poor, almost everyone puts up some kind of Christmas tree, and decorates it with baubles. The quality and price of those ornaments may vary, but the practice and the results are the same throughout the Western world.

I recently researched Woolworth's first introduction of Christmas ornaments around the turn of the century. He made several million US dollars at that time, and unheard of sum for a single product. People went wild for them, and that introduction really marks the beginning of the tradition in the US. A premier seller of Christmas ornaments is Russell Rhodes in the United States. Russell Rhodes has been sold throughout the higher-end department stores, as well as specialty stores that maintain a Christmas section all year. His ornament designs run the gamut from baby to engagement, wedding to family, new home, sports and many other themes. Several years ago, they launched their own website so Russell Rhodes Christmas ornaments are now available to the public at a much better price than when they were sold exclusively in high-end stores.

Theoretically, at least originally, the purpose of buying a Christmas ornament was to decorate the Christmas tree. Sometime in the 70s--when themes really went wild, collars jutted out on men's jackets to the shoulders, and shirts were left unbuttoned--wild and popular designs crept into the Christmas ornament market. The change was extraordinary in that we went from traditional reds, green, and golds, to fuschia and dayglo and psychedelic designs. It was shortly thereafter that Russell Rhodes entered the market with his own unique designs. They were traditional still in terms of color scheme, but he realized people wanted to commemorate moments in their lives. The Christmas ornaments quickly became annual purchases by a majority of American households. (more...)