It was great growing up in the Jet Age, which melded seamlessly into the Space Age.
We took the Art Deco dream and turned it into real life. The ultra-modern, automated society that was envisioned by the generation that endured the Great Depression was becoming real for us, the Baby Boomers.
What better way to turn the old into new than to remove that messy firetrap known as the Christmas tree and replace it with a beautiful, shimmering aluminum model, complete with bright blue globes and a light wheel that would magically transform it into a rainbow of colors in a darkened room?
Thus did many of us grow up with memories of, not coniferous smells, strings of lights, or mom sweeping up dead needles on a daily basis, but instead, past visions of conical-shaped metallic tannenbaume that lived in boxes in the attics eleven months per year.
The aluminum Christmas tree can trace its "roots" (groan) to 1958. It all began in Chicago, when an anonymous enterprising Ben Franklin store employee created a small Christmas tree out of metal and put in a window display. Tom Gannon, who worked for Manitowoc, Wisconsin's Aluminum Specialty Company as the toy sales manager, was in town for a visit, and he was impressed. So when he went back home, he pitched the idea of an aluminum tree to the company president. You see, Manitowoc was known as the Aluminum Cookware Capital of the World. So why not create a Christmas tree out of the same material, which could be used year after year, and which would leave nary a stray needle on the carpet?
The president was impressed, and designers soon set to work. By late 1959, the aluminum Christmas tree was offered for sale to the public.
The tree was in a kit form that would be assembled by the homeowner. The package included a floodlamp with a rotating four-colored disk in front of it that would change the colors of illumination every fifteen seconds or so.
There was a very practical reason for the lamp's inclusion. The first trees' branches were made of aluminum-covered paper which was even more flammable than spruce needles. Not only that, but a broken bulb could cause a nasty short circuit amongst the metallic foliage. So customers were strongly discouraged from hanging any other types of lights on the tree. However, bright blue ornaments were encouraged (and included in many packages).
The trees sold fairly well the first year, but the 1960 Christmas season saw their numbers skyrocket. Thus did many of us have sweet memories planted in our young minds of glorious scintillating aluminum branches that magically changed colors before our very eyes.
The boom lasted for ten years. During this time, colored trees appeared with shades like blue, pink, and green (imagine that!). Then, closely paralleling the same fate and timeline of plastic pink flamingoes, they fell out of style and began to be considered tacky.
But, like their polycarbonate avian brethren, aluminum trees have once again become fashionable in a retro sense. Thus, at least one brick-and-mortar museum dedicated to aluminum trees, ATOM, exists, and vintage aluminum trees in immaculate shape sell on eBay for prices approaching four figures.
And yes, they are making them again. The ones our parents bought were less than ten clams. At this site, (sale) prices range from 289 to 939 bucks.
So, like many of our memories, you can once again enjoy this blast from the past. Just remember to bring a fat pocketbook with you...
Comments (12)
I love these trees! We never had one growing up, but some friends did. I just loved watching that colored wheel go around and around. My sister bought a blue one last year from an upscale shop.
I live in a log cabin and it will hadly fit my Christmas decor.
Posted by Joyce Welling | October 6, 2008 2:26 PM
Posted on October 6, 2008 14:26
I love these things. The Wisconsin Historical Museum has one of these things in their new "Odd Wisconsin" exhibit. It is nice to know how culturally significant these beauties were...at least in Wisconsin.
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/museum/artifacts/archives/001924.asp
Posted by John | October 6, 2008 7:23 PM
Posted on October 6, 2008 19:23
My grandmother had the EXACT tree you showed! Boy, does that take me back!
Posted by Loribl | October 6, 2008 10:40 PM
Posted on October 6, 2008 22:40
My dad was a mechanic at a Buick dealership and in the early 1960s, a salesman gave an aluminum tree to each mechanic. My mom at first was thrilled with the “silver tree” and quickly rushed out and purchased a color wheel and several boxes of blue ornaments of varying sizes. To my mom, the new style tree represented one less thing to clean up after following Christmas and to my dad it was freedom from the dreaded task of finding a real tree.
Just a couple days before Christmas, my mom moved the “fake tree” to the front porch and dispatched my dad to the snow-covered Christmas tree lot to get a real one. Our “silver tree” never made it through one entire Christmas season!
Posted by Steve Skinner | October 8, 2008 8:59 PM
Posted on October 8, 2008 20:59
Yep. We had real trees with big hot dangerous bulbs until I was in the 6th grade. Then my Mom went for the space age look in 1963. Things were never really the same after that, were they? It's like there was a continuum from the middle ages to 1963, and then the bottom fell out and everything changed. The first mall in my area opened around the same time, and downtown began its slow decline.
Posted by Evelyn | October 14, 2008 9:50 AM
Posted on October 14, 2008 09:50
OMG -- we had one when I was a kid, my mom LOVED that thing and I (as a young child) hated it because it wasn't 'green' and real. Not to mention, you had to put each and every color-coded branch in BY HAND. My mom passed away during my teen years, and I gotta tell you: I miss that freakin' tree! If they were cheaper, I'd get one in a heartbeat. What a terrible thing that these people are preying on our memories!
Posted by Jo | October 16, 2008 10:21 AM
Posted on October 16, 2008 10:21
I just bought an Org. 6 ft. Aluminum Christmas Tree Kit. I am so pleased, but wondering if I should put together. It is in like new condition. It looks like it has never been out of the box. What should I do? Put it together or sell it?
Posted by Debbie | October 23, 2008 8:54 PM
Posted on October 23, 2008 20:54
Debbie: Just go with your gut feeling.
Posted by Ron Enderland | October 26, 2008 8:18 AM
Posted on October 26, 2008 08:18
I wrote a humorous piece about the Alumnium Christmas Tree last December. You may find it of interest.
I like your site and have provided a link on mine.
Thanks.
Posted by Bake My Fish | October 27, 2008 11:44 AM
Posted on October 27, 2008 11:44
I remember these trees so well! We had one growing up, with the light wheel. It brings back some wonderful childhood memories for me. My parents still use the same ornaments from back then, the tree however is long gone. I prefer the real kind these days!
Posted by Trish | November 3, 2008 3:05 PM
Posted on November 3, 2008 15:05
I just inherited an original mint condition aluminum tree and color wheel in there original boxes. My granparents kept everything immaculate. I want to put it up so bad but I am kind of afraid -its in perfect condition (instrutions and all) but I worry about the safety of it with three small kids in our house.
Posted by Laura | November 30, 2008 1:48 PM
Posted on November 30, 2008 13:48
I bought an aluminum Sparler tree from ebay this summer, and inexpensively I felt, about $25.00 and four feet high. I then also bought the color wheel. I don't have room in my Chicago apartment for a tree anymore now that the computer, printer, etc are in there. I thought this tree would be perfect. Everyone in my house complains when I ask them to bring the decorations up, and put them back for me. It just seems to make sense this year. Next year if they want the green tree, I bet I won't hear any complaints when I ask them to bring that stuff up! Ho Ho Ho The tree looks great too.
Posted by Karen | December 7, 2008 1:28 PM
Posted on December 7, 2008 13:28