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Everlastingly
Brite!
It may be the simplicity of the designs or the funky colors, but something about Shiny Brites makes them universally appealing and a shiny symbol of boomer culture. We had them on our tree, and chances are, you had
them at your house, too. They came mostly from Woolworth’s
and were created to fill the impending ornament void brought on
by World War II. Prior to the war, Americans bought intricate
ornaments imported from Germany and Poland.
Boomer culture fans will likely already know that Shiny Brites were reintroduced to the market in 2001. I know I went out and bought two boxes when I heard the replicas were at Garden Ridge in 2002. Designer and collector Christopher Radko remained true to the original styles and even the packaging. Radko owns one of the world’s largest collections of Shiny Brites. Purists can find original shiny brites on Ebay. Very rare are the ones with cardboard caps, manufactured when metal was unavailable. I like the ones with the white glitter or “flocking,” that was applied with stencils. I have a few originals--none in perfect shape--and I also have my copies. Those ornaments, along with some of the original Christmas songs, never fail to evoke “Christmas” for me.
Check out these links for more about shiny
brites and Christopher Radko: Christopher Radko Shiny Brites Collection HGTV: Have a Very Vintage Christmas
—Roxy Boomwinkle
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The
war created an opening for American made and designed ornaments.
And importer Max Eckard seized the opportunity. Eckard, a German
manufacturer of toys and glass ornaments, met with representatives
of Woolworths and Corning Glass in 1939 to work on mass producing
ornaments in the U.S. By the time the war began, Corning was able
to produce more ornaments in a minute than German glassblowers
could make in an entire day, according to Ellen Gardner (in her
article “Finders Keepers,” Mary Englebreit's Home
Companion, December 2004.)
