Shiny Brites Tell a Story

Last Saturday when I went to the neighborhood garage sales I spied these on a table in the back of a dark garage under some Christmas pillows.

I couldn't believe my eyes, one box was a dollar and one was $1.50.

Shiny Brites are an American story.

Shiny Brite was established in 1937 in anticipation of disruption of the importation of popular German-made glass bulbs during the war.

Foresight told the entrepreneur, Max Eckhardt, that he could order clear glass bulbs from Corning and have a factory where they would be hand-painted!

They became popular and they are dated by the type of hanger and hook they have.

As artificial trees became more popular, and plastic ornaments flooded the market, Shiny Brite was in less demand, and went out of business in 1962.

During peak production, there were four factories, on the east coast in New Jersey, and New York with corporate offices and a showroom in New York City.

(Christopher Radko has been reissuing the most popular Shiny Brites since 2001.)

I like to imagine the stories they could tell, if they'd had little bitty cameras inside them.

Newlywed Christmases
Newborn Christmases
Toddlers opening sweet toys
Preschoolers with their first bikes
Etch-a-Sketches
Spirographs
Lots of good food eaten at a loaded table
Stockings full and hanging from the mantle
The quiet, snowy Christmas eves
And the loud and boisterous Christmas mornings
Puppies snuck in under the tree, right before dawn on Christmas
Bee bee guns in their long boxes, slid onto the tree skirt with a smile.

And then Christmases where the kids were all grown up
When Mom might have shed a tear or two
Those in between years that were quiet
With a daughter married and gone
The soldier son gone off to faraway lands, yet
Surprising mom and showing up unannounced at the door
Right on Christmas eve just as they were leaving for church
Surprising her and making daddy get teary-eyed
Mom receiving the biggest hug she'd ever had.

IF ONLY they could tell us what their celebrated Christmases were like!

I just can't resist these...it doesn't matter one bit to me what kind of shape they are in.

These have seen their better days, not as SHINY or BRITE as they once were: but they've survived and earned our respect and we know that they're at least as old as 1962 would make them: 48 years are the youngest they can possibly be!

So they deserve a chance to shine again, and take their place on our tree...
A real one.
One with old-fashioned lights and tinsel...
Sitting in the window of an old farmhouse,
A house that has also seen better days
That once was brighter and more shiny.

A house that has seen the life of more than one family,
Through quiet and boisterous days,
Sad days and full and happy ones, too.

They will be on our tree.
To tell new stories.
To shine again.

After all,

Christmas has a way of making
everything seem bright again:

Shiny Brite.