World War II shortages led to creative Christmas ornaments

One of my favorite holidays has always been Christmas. I have nostalgic memories of ornaments that decorated my childhood tree, but it was after I became an antiques dealer that I developed a passion for collecting antique Christmas ornaments. 

One area that interested me was the special ornaments that were made during the period of World War II. My mother and father met during the war — he a Marine back from Guadalcanal with malaria and she a Navy nurse. Being a baby boomer, I found this period of our history fascinating, especially how the home front adapted to war shortages.

It all started in 1939. England was at war with Nazi-controlled Germany, and the British Navy set up blockades that effectively stopped any exports from war-torn Europe reaching the United States. Many Americans found their first wartime shortage was Christmas decorations. Up to this point, most of the Christmas decorations used by Americans came from Germany, Czechoslovakia or Japan.

To cover this shortage, the Corning Glass Co. started to produce clear glass balls that were blown automatically by machine rather than hand blown by mouth as their European counterparts had been. Corning produced these new American-made ornaments 24 hours a day, and by 1944 they were making 40 million glass ornaments per year.

Corning then sold these glass blanks to other companies such as K&W Glass Works, Marks Brothers and Shiny Brite. They in turn decorated, capped, boxed and resold the finished Christmas ornaments to retail stores nationwide.

During the early years of WWII, the new American-made Christmas ornaments did not look all that different from those still being produced today. From 1936 through 1941, the ornaments were shiny, thanks to being coated on their interior with a silver nitrate solution. These shiny glass balls were often decorated with painted stripes and topped with a metal cap embossed with “Made in the U.S. of A.”

With the United States joining the war in 1941, wartime shortages and restrictions of materials started to plague the new American glass ornament industry. The silver nitrate solution was declared to be “nonessential” by the War Production Board, and the manufacturing of it was stopped. By 1942, American ornaments were being produced without their shiny look.

To compensate, some companies inserted a sprig of shiny colored tinsel inside the ornament to give it the familiar sparkle to which the public had become accustomed. Soon, even the silver tinsel was used up, and the ornaments were left without any inside decoration.

Around 1943, all metal was needed for the war effort, and the ornament industry could no longer produce metal caps for their glass decorations. Again, the companies became creative and started using caps made of either cardboard or paper with a piece of cord in place of a metal hanging hook. Some companies used a type of cardboard hanging hook that fastened inside the ball. Other decorating companies were forced to use a little piece of wood, stuck sideways into the neck of the ball, with a cord tied to it.

Finally, with the end of WWII in 1945, wartime restrictions on materials were relaxed, and the more standard Christmas tree ornaments were again produced in 1946 with the phrase “Made in the USA” embossed on the metal cap.

Collecting paper capped ornaments does have advantages. They are easy to date as to the years of production, still easy to locate and rather affordable. They are also a piece of American history from a time of shortages, hardships and ingenuity.

A collection of Wilson’s WWII ornaments will be on display during the month of December at Apple Hill Antiques in State College.