Christmas Collectibles – Old Fashioned Christmas Candy Containers

Nov 20, 2010
Debra Winstead

Christmas Collectibles - Santa Photo by Debra Winstead

Highly desired antique Christmas collectibles include old fashioned Christmas candy containers. These unique Christmas decorations held confectionery gifts.

Christmas collectibles continue to command high prices among lovers of old-fashioned and antique decor. A growing number of collectors are focusing upon Christmas candy containers because of their beauty, rarity, fragility and rich history.

Collectors are wise to concentrate on a specific area of Christmas collectibles such as glass ornaments of a particular time period, fruit, vegetables, human figurines. Such specialization will help them stay within their budgets while gathering a collection apt to increase in value over time.

Collectible Old-fashioned Christmas Candy Containers

Christmas candy containers are a niche in Christmas collectibles attracting more attention each year. Collectors love them for their overall appearance. Candy containers can perform double duty as unique Christmas decorations and as functional containers that work well in general Christmas decor as well as Christmas tree ornaments.

History of Christmas Candy Containers

Memories associated with Christmas and the occasions upon which they were given resulted in a type of ornament that was saved and used year after year. These gift-wrappings were often used as decorations for the Christmas tree.

The earliest Christmas candy containers were created to hold edible goodies. Their beauty gave them a decorative duty in addition to their practical one as confectionery receptacles and wrappings. Small cornucopias and candy containers were designed to be hung on the tree branches. Candy containers were often used to give edible gifts one year and saved to reuse in subsequent years as Christmas tree ornaments. Some candy containers and cornucopias were handcrafted. Many others were manufactured and sold in stores and through catalogs.

Classroom teachers, Sunday School teachers and favored relatives and friends in the community would often give candy containers as gifts to children. The children, in turn, saved the containers and hung them on their family trees for generations down the road. Beautiful and fragile, most of these items have disintegrated or been damaged and thrown away. Some survive and remain highly sought after Christmas collectibles.

Earliest Appearance of Christmas Candy Containers

The Bernard Mayer Company in New York City manufactured and placed advertisements for candy boxes and containers as early as 1881.

Vintage Christmas tree photographs depict trees bearing Santa candy containers hanging on the branches. Some photographs show the candy containers placed underneath the tree, bearing gifts of candy, confections and nuts.

Catalog Advertisements for Papier-Mache Candy Containers

Butler Brothers Catalog featured advertisements for papier-mache Santa Claus candy containers in 1889. They came in three sizes:

An old "Kris Kringle" wearing snow-covered "garb in which he has always been pictured to Children" sold for a nickel. Kris Kringle carried an evergreen tree decorated with colored ornaments. This container was 5" tall and was decorated with gold tinsel, giving it the effect of sparkling snow.
A 7 1/2" Santa with a red face and white beard sold for a dime. He carried a small evergreen tree decorated with red berries. His heavy coat was covered in gold tinsel. This Santa candy container was hollow and served as a candy box.
The 11" high papier-mache Santa sold for a quarter. It, too, was hollow and had a cavity big enough to hold larger confections. Santa's head was wrapped in chenille to look like fur. His coat bore gold spangles. His evergreen tree was decorated with small berries.

Other Novelty Candy Boxes of the Era

The 1903 Butler Brothers Catalog advertised an assortment of novelty candy boxes for sale. Rabbits, pigs, dogs and cats with glass eyes were hollow and bore heads designed to be removed to provide entrance to cavities for storing candy inside the creatures' bodies.

Other candy containers were fruit designs. Apples, bananas, oranges, watermelons and pears came in various sizes of wax-covered papier-mache designs.

Also featured were oysters, clams and chickens dressed as marines. Imports from Japan included silk finished roosters and ducks with feather wings and tails. Some of these candy containers had springs that allowed the wings to lift up so recipients could reach the goodies inside.

Popularity of Candy Containers as Collectible Christmas Items Continues

Other companies followed suit. Sales of candy containers flourished for Halloween, Thanksgiving and other holidays. However, Christmas candy containers remained the most popular and continue to be highly sought-after Christmas collectibles.

References:

Bremer, Robert. Christmas Past: A Collectors' Guide to its History and Decorations. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 1996.

Holiday Decorations: Toys and Favors. Gas City, Indiana: L-W Books, 1994.