The Search for Grandmother's Tree
LEAD: 'TINY white lights and red bows may be exquisite decorating,' said Geva Alder of Nashville, 'but they do not fill the soul.' What fills the soul? 'Screaming excess,' she replied. Christmas at the Alders is celebrated with hot-pink 1950's bubble lights with pink cords and sockets. Their tree, a rotating green cellophane beauty, is draped with pink icicles and crowned with a star of pink, aqua and lime green.
'TINY white lights and red bows may be exquisite decorating,' said Geva Alder of Nashville, 'but they do not fill the soul.' What fills the soul? 'Screaming excess,' she replied. Christmas at the Alders is celebrated with hot-pink 1950's bubble lights with pink cords and sockets. Their tree, a rotating green cellophane beauty, is draped with pink icicles and crowned with a star of pink, aqua and lime green. Among the cherished family Christmas ornaments are two whirly-spinners and a hot-pink Sputnik look-alike with projecting antennae.
'It was the fantastic fluorescent plastic period,' Mrs. Alder explained. Added her husband, Bill, with a touch of nostalgia: 'It reminds us of those garish times. There was a lot of relief and abandon, and those feelings extended to the Christmas tree.'
The Alders, whose house contains more than 1,000 Christmas books, hundreds of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer memorabilia, a homemade animated Nutcracker display and some 600 Christmas albums - including unforgettable greats like Jack Benny's Christmas Album and Brenda Lee's 'Rocking Around the Christmas Tree' - are members of the Golden Glow of Christmas Past, a 700-member self-described 'coalition of Christmas collectors and historians.'
'I suppose there are few hobbies that would make a lady happier,' Mr. Alder said, speaking of his wife. 'The reason I enjoy it is watching her light up.'
The Golden Glow newsletter features 'Noel Notes' written by 'our Elf staff.' At annual meetings, held in August, members of 'the Glow' - some of them 5- and 10-tree households at this time of year - drink eggnog and eat fruitcake. Amid displays of blinking lights, they exchange the latest intelligence on carbon filaments and where to find Moon Mullins, Thumbelina or Flapper Girl Christmas-tree ornaments.
Some members, like Gil Kaufman of Columbus, Ohio, have written books on their collections, like his 'History and Catalog of Electric Christmas Light Bulbs' (Christmas Antiques, 1980) now in its fourth printing.
Christmas is the season that turns even the shyest decorator into an artist, as trees become canvases and mantels are transformed into stage sets. For members of the Golden Glow, Christmas provides the excuse to unveil their most prized possessions.
In Arp, Tex., Bob Cook puts his collection of 300 antique Santas on display in his home until the end of January. A decorator and retired clothing designer, Mr. Cook used to fly home to Texas from New York as a young design student to decorate the family Christmas tree. 'Today,' Mr. Cook said, 'I have more Santas than I have space,' including two 30-inch-tall German Santas with nodding heads and a papier-mache Santa showing teeth, 'very unusual for a Santa.'
Jim Meadows of Dallas traces his passion to his childhood, when 'being a little kid during World War II, there were no new Christmas ornaments.' Mr. Meadows grew up with his grandmother's hand-me-down ornaments.
This year, he has decorated his tree thematically with 1930's lights and ornaments.
'Every one of us, especially people my age, is trying to re-create something from their childhood - a look, a feeling,' he said. 'This tree is everybody's fantasy of what their grandmother's tree would look like.'
Golden Glow was founded in 1980 by Jerry Ehernberger, 33 years old, who recently represented the club in Genoa, Italy, at the International Conference of Nativitists, a group devoted to the history of Nativity items.
Mr. Ehernberger's passion for Christmas decorations began as a kindergartner, when he brought a bubble light to class for show and tell. By the fourth grade he had accumulated enough light bulbs for a collection. In 1967 he wrote a story about his collection for The Electric Farmer, a publication for rural users of electric power.
The club began with six friends who shared Mr. Ehernberger's affection for Christmas lighting. Eventually, it expanded to include aficionados of Santas, ornaments, Christmas cards, postcards, beaded garlands, advertisements, light bulbs and bisque figurines of children covered with snow.
In his Chicago apartment, Mr. Ehernberger has devoted an entire room to a year-round Christmas Village display. Like many club members, his collection of 83 houses began innocently enough with the discovery of a village house from the 1920's at a Denver antiques store.
Today, his Yuletide Lilliput, with its quaint cardboard buildings with cellophane windows and mica specks, is Mr. Ehernberger's meditation room. 'I find it very tranquil,' he said. 'Even if it's 98 degrees, it tends to melt everyone back to their childhood when they see it.'
Most Christmas collectors are extremely serious about their collections and tend to be motivated by nostalgia, according to Phillip V. Snyder, a Golden Glow member and author of 'The Christmas Tree Book: The History of the Christmas Tree & Antique Christmas Tree Ornaments' (Penguin Books, 1983).
'Most people get into this crazy hobby either trying to create the tree of their youth or, in my case, their grandfather's tree,' he said.
To Mr. Snyder, Christmas trees with antique ornaments are a 'world in miniature where every object is interesting.' The ritual of unwrapping ornaments tucked away in tissue paper is 'like meeting an old friend you see only once a year,' he said.
According to Jolie Kelter of Kelter-Malce, a Manhattan antique shop that specializes in period Christmas ornaments, prices range from $3 for a simple glass ornament from the 1930's or 40's to $200 and up for Dresden ornaments, delicate embossed cardboard ornaments in fanciful shapes made in Germany between 1880 and 1910.
Period themes seem to be the most popular among club members. Jack and Marilyn Curtis of Minneapolis have decorated their tree and parlor entirely with Victorian ornaments, in keeping with the interior of their Queen Anne revival house.
In a nearby suburb, Dawayne and Marlene Novak, another Golden Glow couple, have transformed their house into a Christmas scene as sentimental as Jimmy Stewart's living room at the conclusion of the film 'It's a Wonderful Life.'
In addition to a 50's tree featuring 300 Paramount bubble lights - 'the Cadillac of bubble lights' Mr. Novak said - the couple have put together a 15-foot tree crowned with American flags. Mr. Novak has also created an exhibit of World War II Christmas paraphernalia, including a vintage store display with saluting Santas and a Santa advertisement for war bonds.
His favorite ornaments are a patriotic airship in blown glass painted red, white and blue, and a large die-cut angel holding an American flag. He gets a golden glow at the very thought of them. 'Wouldn't it be wonderful if ornaments could talk?' he said with a sigh.