Scenes Of The Season

Christmas On A Mantel: Pancho Navidad and Père Noël

I hope these scenes of Christmas delights add a lovely touch to your holidays! There are a few Sears houses mixed into the bunch -- enjoy!

A Sears Mitchell in Buffalo, New York (Thanks, Mark V.!).  Here's a blog post about the Mitchell .

A lookalike to the Sears Mitchell : Wardway Homes' Newport model. This one is in Clawson, Michigan.
Daily Bungalow has a catalog image of the Newport, here.

Sears Elmwood in Horicon, Wisconsin. It's for sale!
Learn more about the Sears Elmwood, in this blog post of mine, highlighting one in Normal, Illinois.

Beautiful Santas on display in St. Louis, Missouri.

Wonderful Christmas lights on an authenticated, custom Sears house, in Janesville, Wisconsin. (Thanks, Dan P.!)

More of the Janesville Sears custom design.

The beautiful front door on Dan's custom Sears house in Janesville.

An Authenticated Sears Alhambra In Hampton, Virginia

Thanks so much to Sarah, for allowing me to show her beautiful 1921 Sears kit house, in all its Christmas glory! 

The Berlins were the first owners of Sarah's Alhambra. This was 1918, three years before they ordered their kit from Sears.

You can follow Sarah at #ourSearsKitHouse on Instagram

Meanwhile, in Kirkwood, Missouri

These wonderful vintage homes are not Sears houses, but they sure look nice this season!

The Historic Louis Deffa House

Thanks to a post on the St. Louis History and Architecture FaceBook page, I learned about the Louis Deffa house, in the historic St. Louis City neighborhood of Soulard:

Doesn't this look lovely? This is in Monson, Massachusetts.

Photo courtesy of the Monson, Massachusetts Police Department

Another view of Mark V.'s Sears Mitchell in Buffalo, New York

A beautiful street scene in the old town of Québec City, Québec, Canada

A treasured glass ornament.

St. Louis' beautiful, historic, Powell Hall, in mid-town St. Louis.
We were there for the St. Louis Bach Society's annual Candlelight Christmas Concert. 

Do You Know About Shiny Brite Ornaments?

Sears was one of the sellers of these wonderful glass ornaments, beginning in 1937, I think. These were made in America, and created by American businessman Max Eckardt. I only just learned that these vintage glass ornaments have a name and a history... we've always just called them, "Mom and Dad's old glass ornaments". I have a small collection of them, from my parents' house... they were always on our tree, and my sisters, Lynne and Betsy, and I, loved them... and still do! Our parents married in October of 1953, and they must have bought all of their ornaments that year-- lots of Shiny Brites! I got lots of great information, and these three photos, from James and Jamie's 2012 blog post at The Cavender Diary.

Shiny Brites, for sale in the Sears Catalog

Shiny Brites... Sears, Roebuck and Company sold them

I have a box of these much like this! I also have smaller round ones, and small ones that have a little point at the bottom.

See my possible Shiny Brite? And, the beautiful porcelain snowflake my sister, Betsy, made for us in 2001.

Another of my vintage ornaments that may, or may not, be a Shiny Brite, with a favorite felt, quilted Santa, from the St. Louis Art Museum.

Do you spy the little striped ornament that comes to a point at the bottom? That's not a Shiny Brite, I have learned, but rather an ornament from the Paragon Glass company.

Other American-Made Vintage Glass Ornaments

December 24, 2019: This is an edit to what I wrote above. As it turns out, my ornaments may not be Shiny Brites. This is all new territory for me, and I'm just learning! Thanks to help from Jamie, Richard, and especially Mike, in a FaceBook Group for Vintage American Glass Ornaments, including Shiny Brites, I learned that my red, unsilvered, swirled glass ornament, is WWII era (no one was silvering the interiors during the war), and is from a company called Premier Glass Works.  I've seen one box that says that Premier was out of Irvington, New Jersey. There is a version of this ornament with silvering, too, and I have now seen it offered in a blue-green color, as well.

My own red ornament, from my family's ornaments.

There is my ornament's style, next to a blue-green one, in a box of ornaments for sale on eBay or etsy.

Here are some ornaments in a box from Premier Glass Works, for sale last April on Etsy. Apparently, you also can't trust that ornaments are from the company that the box they are in all these many years later says. Obviously, they may not be the original ornaments from that box. Still, it's cool to see the Premier Glass Works box!

The littlest vintage glass ornaments that I have, that come to a little point at the bottom, are from a company called Paragon Glass Works, out of Elizabeth, New Jersey. Mike pointed out to me that the lip of the post, where the hook goes in, is smoothed and turned in a bit, on Paragon ornaments. They originally were made with their own round hooks going right inside that post, rather than having a metal cap over the post. So, my metal cap is a replacement.

Look closely at the post of the bottom gold ornament, second from the right... you can really see the curved-over, smoothed edge of the glass, and how the hook fits right inside the glass on these ornaments. This whole box is actually only 6 inches wide, so these are really tiny ornaments, but they also have the pointed bottom, like mine. 

Another box of American-made Paragon Glass Works ornaments, probably from eBay. Love the Santa and reindeer!

Paragon's glass ornaments, as well as all of the glass ornaments (except by Premier) of the WWII era through about 1980, were made by the American company, Corning Glass, who sold blank, clear bulbs to these ornament companies, and the companies then added their own designs. I'm learning that many of these designs are very similar. So, my striped balls are from... who knows! They may be Premier, or Shiny Brite, or Corning, in fact, because it looks like Corning also sold their own glass ornaments... or, maybe this box just contained the original, plain Corning ornaments. I found this box from a listing on eBay, I think, and it is stamped with information saying that these were decorated and shipped from a company in Boston, Massachusetts. Well, my parents were living in Massachusetts at the time when they would have bought these ornaments, so it's likely that their ornaments came from the local McCallum's Department Store in town, and might have been shipped from a New England company that offered these glass ornaments. 

The site of the original McCallum's Department Store in Northampton, Massachusetts, is now Thorne's Marketplace, a collection of shops and restaurants. This photo is from a blog post about Thorne's, including great photos of the interior of what used to be McCallum's, on Visiting New England.

Whatever their origin, I love them, and I've now become very interested in all of this vintage glass ornament info :)

Gorgeous! This is not a Sears house... but, it's right behind one! In Wilmington, North Carolina, sits a historic, customized Sears model No. 167 (the early name of the Maytown). It's a real beauty, and I thank Kenyon M. for sharing its story with us. I'm not publishing photos of his house, but... he shared this view from his back window! To learn more about the Sears Maytown model, you can check out this blog post of mine, which showcases a Sears No. 118, and a Sears No. 167.

This is a pretty rare Sears house: a 1939 Sears Newcastle. This one is in West Lafayette, Indiana, and you can follow its story here, on Instagram. Many thanks to the owners, for letting me share their photo!  Lara Solonickne of Sears Homes of Chicagoland featured a Newcastle in this 2012 blog post.

From my house to yours, on this blustery, snowy day here in St. Louis, Missouri, I wish you

a very Merry Christmas,

 and 

all good tidings throughout 2020!

See our little wooden Santa out there?