0:27

Hello, Internet! I'm your host and husband, Travis

0:29

McElroy. And I'm your wife host, Teresa McElroy.

0:31

And you're listening to Schmanners. It's extraordinary

0:33

etiquette. For ordinary occasions. Hello, my dove. Hello,

0:36

dear. Or should you say, reindeer,

0:39

it's beginning to look a lot

0:42

like the holidays.

0:43

Jingle, jingle, jingle, jingle,

0:45

jingle, jingle bells. Is

0:48

that where that goes? Is that in that song? No, I was

0:50

just trying to... You were remixing? I'm jazzing it up

0:52

with you. You were jazzing it up? You

0:55

felt that my song wasn't jazzy

0:57

enough? Jazzing it with you. It felt like you were jazzing

0:59

against me. Are you jazzing with me or against

1:02

me?

1:03

Always with me. Jazz is about the jingle bells

1:05

you don't jingle. What? I don't

1:07

know. Listen, last night, Teresa and I went

1:10

on a date. Yeah, that's right. We're still in love.

1:13

And we are also

1:15

parents, so it's every Tuesday. The

1:18

most romantic day of the week. And

1:21

we went to this place in town called Overlook

1:23

Lodge. But they've redecorated, they've

1:25

rethemed it for

1:26

the... It's a pop-up miracle

1:28

event. It's an outside

1:30

company that comes in. And then

1:33

something like 10% of it goes to charity and stuff.

1:35

But it was Christmas themed, right?

1:37

So it's like all these Christmas themed drinks. And they play

1:39

Christmas movies and Christmas music and

1:42

Christmas decorations everywhere. And ding,

1:44

dang, if it didn't put me in the ding, dang

1:46

spirit for the holidays. And

1:49

the weird thing, though,

1:51

is that people listening to this, it

1:53

will be the day after

1:55

Thanksgiving, which is traditionally when I

1:57

allow Christmas into my heart. Indeed.

2:00

like time to take down the fall decorations for

2:02

the Christmas decorations. But we're recording

2:04

it the day before Thanksgiving and

2:06

I'm battling that inner turmoil

2:08

of like, yes, but we haven't finished fall yet.

2:11

Fall's done after Thanksgiving. But I'm

2:13

allowing Christmas into my heart for

2:16

this episode.

2:17

Just sneak it in the back, the

2:19

back door.

2:19

I'm gonna hide Christmas in

2:22

my garage for

2:24

this episode to talk about

2:26

ornaments. Indeed. Christmas

2:30

holiday ornaments. Sure. We don't

2:32

have to limit it. We'll probably say Christmas a lot because

2:35

I'm 40 years old and I've only ever put up Christmas

2:37

ornaments. But if you put

2:39

up ornaments, non-denominational,

2:42

Hanukkah. I

2:44

know people who have all

2:47

holiday tree.

2:49

They put up Halloween

2:51

decorations on the tree. You

2:54

can put up Valentine's Day decorations

2:56

on the tree. You can put

2:57

general spring things

3:00

on the tree. I don't think you're doing it on purpose

3:02

but I think just years of Linda Belcher

3:04

in your hand.

3:05

Oh, look at the tree.

3:06

You're saying it like you have like a

3:09

New Jersey accent. I

3:11

love it very, very much. I don't think

3:13

I could deal

3:15

with that. No, you don't wanna have a holiday

3:17

tree. I love the decoration for Christmas, right? Cause it's

3:19

attached to it. But it isn't in practice.

3:22

It takes up so much space

3:24

in the room. I already,

3:26

there are times where it's like, I wish I could shrink

3:28

this couch down just for a little bit and then throw

3:30

it back when they need it. And so the idea

3:33

of taking up that much space for like, I

3:35

don't know, a spring tree. It's like there are trees outside.

3:38

That's the whole point of spring. They're outside. You

3:40

can go see them now. Anywho, that's not what

3:42

we're talking about. We're talking about holiday

3:45

decorations but specifically ornament.

3:47

Yes,

3:47

specifically ornaments because we've

3:50

covered holiday villages,

3:52

lights, decorations

3:54

in general, I think. Christmas

3:57

trees themselves, I think. But

3:59

ornament. specifically, I don't

4:01

think we've covered until today.

4:03

And the thing about ornaments is

4:06

they're ornamental. They are indeed. Let's

4:08

begin there.

4:09

So the

4:12

practice of bringing evergreen boughs

4:15

or even full trees into the home during

4:17

the winter months is a tradition that

4:19

dates back thousands. Thousands? Of

4:22

years. Thousands.

4:23

It is a prime example

4:24

of one of the recurring themes here on

4:27

Schmanner. The Great Christian Rebrand. That's right.

4:29

The

4:29

Christian Rebrand. So

4:32

almost all the traditions that we associate

4:34

with Christianity were

4:37

actually pagan traditions

4:39

first. Yeah. Because

4:41

it's all related. I think we've talked, if we haven't, we

4:43

definitely talked about it in the Christmas tree

4:45

episode. But we talked about solstice before where

4:48

this was like the, hey, we're

4:51

about to head into winter. So this

4:53

is our chance to like, hey, thanks

4:55

for a great harvest. We'll

4:57

all stay warm and safe together. We're

5:00

all looking out for each other. It was

5:02

very much a, this is our last big

5:04

feast before times get

5:06

tight.

5:06

Yes. In old

5:09

Germanic and North mythology,

5:12

evergreen trees were decorated

5:14

with tiny carvings of gods and food

5:16

offerings to entice tree spirits

5:19

to return and bring spring back with

5:21

them. And so they

5:23

are the ones that we think started

5:27

the ornaments specifically, although

5:29

decorating trees with berries

5:32

and twigs and pine cones and all

5:34

the other

5:34

things. Squirrels were doing that long before us.

5:36

Squirrels are really the first Christmas tree decorators when

5:39

you think about it. You came out chipping Dale

5:41

and Mickey chops down their house

5:43

and brings inside and oh, Pluto's so mad.

5:45

I have seen that. Oh, Pluto's so mad. And

5:47

in the end, Mickey's like, Hey,

5:50

Pluto, it's Christmas. And I'm like,

5:52

Hey, Mickey, there's two chipmunks in

5:54

your house. You should be freaking out. You

5:57

should call animal control. They're cool. saying

6:00

that because you know they're Chippendale. If today

6:02

I said about Christmas tree and this would be wild

6:04

because it's artificial, but if I said about Christmas tree

6:06

and there were two chipmunks living in it you wouldn't look at Buttercup

6:09

and Lily and be like hey guys you're being

6:11

irrational. Well because they're actual

6:13

animals whereas Pluto is

6:15

a cartoon. Listen

6:19

I understand the words that you're saying but

6:21

I choose not to understand the meaning behind them. Let's

6:24

shine a spotlight for our

6:27

purposes on 16th century

6:30

Germany. Of course.

6:32

One legend

6:33

around this time is Martin Luther. Oh

6:35

when he nailed the

6:42

thing

6:44

onto a Christmas tree and that was the first decoration.

6:46

No that's not what happened. No no.

6:49

Specifically this time Martin Luther

6:51

not that time but this time

6:54

Martin Luther was walking home. No

6:56

it's the same one. Okay I see okay. He was

6:58

walking home one winter evening and the

7:01

stars and the sky inspired him to

7:03

put gold and silver ornaments on

7:05

the tree

7:06

that I guess he was already decorating. That

7:08

doesn't sound I don't know a lot about

7:11

Martin Luther but the

7:13

little bit I do know it doesn't seem like

7:15

he was like you know what I like extravagant.

7:17

Mmm another legend is that

7:19

his wife Katie made paper

7:22

roses and placed them in their windows on

7:24

Christmas Eve. Apparently Martin

7:27

saw it and loved it so much that he cut down

7:29

a small fir tree and brought it inside so

7:31

she could decorate

7:32

it with her creations.

7:34

Okay I'll give you that one. Because

7:36

if your if your wife makes something pretty

7:38

you got to put it on a tree that's the law.

7:39

Yeah that's true.

7:42

These were originally known.

7:44

Can you imagine if that's what happened and

7:46

he was like oh those are beautiful flowers hold on.

7:49

They came back and he dragged a tree in the house and

7:51

his wife was like what are you doing?

7:53

And he's like I saw the roses and I thought you

7:56

saw what? Why

7:58

was your hey Martin your launch conclusion

8:01

was, you know what she's gonna want?

8:03

I want for me to drag a tree

8:05

in the house. Well so churches

8:07

at this time were already

8:09

decorating what they called Paradise

8:11

trees for the Christmas place because

8:16

you know these first ornaments would

8:18

have been like apples and

8:20

nuts and berries and candles and stuff because

8:23

the apple in particular

8:26

stands out as it used

8:29

to be in medieval Germany. Adam

8:32

and Eve were also celebrated on

8:34

Christmas Eve. It made a good kind of like pairing.

8:36

Christmas Eve. No.

8:38

The next day is Christmas Adam. No.

8:41

No. No. No. Good try though.

8:43

Okay. I like it but not what happened.

8:46

It's I what? I

8:48

think being raised southern Baptist

8:51

the idea of celebrating Adam and Eve

8:53

is weird. Well so here's the deal right

8:56

it made a good kind of pairing like

8:58

an antithesis of here's Adam

9:01

and Eve original sin

9:02

right and then on Christmas

9:05

the dude who's supposed to take the sin

9:07

away is born right it's like

9:09

a it's like a yin-yang kind

9:11

of I guess thing okay

9:14

a balance no I get it it brings balance

9:16

to the universe to the force yeah so

9:19

then you would have

9:22

your

9:22

your little your

9:25

Christmas play that would be paired

9:27

with so you would do like the Adam and Eve story

9:29

and then you would do the Christmas the Christ birth

9:32

story and this tree could

9:34

be moved and used in both stories

9:36

right you had the apples on it economical

9:39

yeah absolutely

9:41

and so this is why

9:43

quick tidbit

9:44

a lot of ornaments are

9:47

apples right a lot of people have apple

9:49

ornaments on their why that

9:52

is one reason growing up my mom had a

9:54

lot of apples on the tree but I just

9:56

always well because a what I'm

9:58

confident it was I'm was there that

10:00

it was because my mom did like a very

10:03

like country-living southern

10:05

home kind of decoration where

10:07

there was a lot of like little ornament

10:10

sheet pants with little Christmas cookies on them and

10:12

little apples and things

10:14

with apples on them and it was very like you

10:16

know gingham and yeah but

10:19

I mean I don't think my mom was thinking

10:21

like just like those 16th century

10:23

Germans did it well but I mean the apples

10:26

were available in the store to buy true

10:28

probably because

10:30

the

10:31

the German like tradition

10:34

of the apples on the tree well that doesn't make sense too

10:36

because I've never really thought

10:38

about it but it's not like you know Christmas

10:41

tree apples like wait hold on

10:44

right you skip shouldn't it be like pine

10:46

cones and stuff like no you know how apples grow

10:48

on fruit trees they don't know that's not how that

10:50

works at all and it's also like Apple is

10:53

very fall to me it's a very

10:55

fall kind of fruit there's not a

10:57

lot of like Christmas things

10:59

that I associate with apples no

11:02

come here I'm sure apple ciders and all that stuff that's

11:04

fine but even apple cider I would say is a false

11:06

thing yeah I know right I've never thought about it before we

11:08

always had one or two apples on our tree

11:11

and I mean the tradition

11:13

of it was you know not I wasn't

11:16

aware of it but we had them

11:18

so all right came from somewhere and maybe came

11:21

from there not

11:23

everyone

11:24

as always is a fan

11:26

of the Paradise trees and in particular

11:29

the Catholic Church I

11:31

mean Martin Luther wasn't you know

11:33

he he did his own divulging

11:35

yeah they didn't get a

11:38

diverging diverging yeah

11:41

yeah but they weren't fans of each other

11:43

to be good they were frenemies yeah yeah

11:45

yeah

11:45

so in the 15th century they took their official

11:48

stance against the Adam and Eve day

11:51

and they banned mystery plays across

11:53

the board but people

11:56

still love to decorate evergreen

11:58

tree we've talked about this before by the way way,

12:00

but just to remind ourselves, as long as we're talking about the great Christian

12:03

rebrand, also to point out the only

12:05

people who have ever been against Christmas

12:09

are Christians. The only

12:11

time when we talk about the war on Christmas and

12:13

people trying to outlaw Christmas and saying, you can't

12:15

do that thing for Christmas, the only time

12:17

historically that that's ever really happened

12:20

has been some church organization saying,

12:22

you know what, we've decided this isn't

12:24

okay. You can't celebrate Christmas that

12:26

way. It's never the other way around.

12:29

It definitely happened in the United States,

12:31

right? The Puritans. Puritans outlawed

12:33

Christmas in like the 1700s or something. Way before

12:35

that. Yeah. 1600s?

12:38

We have a whole show on it. It's true. We

12:40

go through a Puritan Christmas day. Oh my gosh.

12:42

It's a lot like other days. It's pretty drab.

12:44

Anyway, so

12:47

the evergreen tree being decorated

12:50

still persisted. And

12:53

you know, like a lot of stuff that the Catholic Church

12:55

says is bad,

12:56

spread even faster. Yeah. They

12:59

were the original Streisand effect. As soon as

13:01

they're like, you can't do it. Everybody's like, oh, then

13:03

I'm going to.

13:05

Watch me do it. And

13:07

it really exploded in the US when

13:09

German born settlers immigrated

13:12

during the 17 and 1800s and they

13:14

brought the Christmas tree firmly

13:17

in their grass with them. And

13:19

then this is when it got fancy because

13:23

in

13:23

the 1800s, a

13:26

glass blower is going to blow the

13:28

ornament game out of the water. I can't wait to

13:30

find out more of a first. A thank you

13:32

note for our sponsors. At

13:40

this point, folks, if you've listened to

13:42

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15:19

Oh darling,

15:19

why

15:21

won't you accept my love?

15:24

My dear, even though you are a duke, I could

15:26

never love you. You... you... borrowed

15:28

a book from me and never returned

15:30

it! Save

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15:34

this terrible fate by listening to Reading Glasses. We'll

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15:48

Have fun.

15:59

When we started, it was about

16:02

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16:04

Now it's about us trying to actively get stupid,

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our fandom's working! Hang

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out with us and you'll hear us chat about

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Every other week on Maximum Fun.

16:27

Baby Geniuses, we ain't no editing.

16:30

Baby Geniuses, how's something you're gonna

16:32

blow?

16:36

Okay, I'm not gonna lie, when you were talking about the 1800s

16:39

and things getting fancy, I thought we were

16:41

about to ring out Victoria and Albert. Oh no,

16:43

we still will. Okay. We

16:45

still will. So people were blowing glass. But,

16:48

so,

16:48

in the mid-1800s, a

16:50

German glassblower named Hans

16:52

Greiner found himself in the middle

16:55

of a dilemma.

16:56

Too much glass. He had too much glass. What

16:58

do I do with all his glass? No.

17:01

No, no, no, no. Okay. The

17:03

story is, he was unable

17:04

to afford apples to decorate his Christmas

17:06

tree. I guess they were pretty

17:08

spendy. So, okay.

17:11

I know where this story's going, I can see it be

17:13

the head, and he was like, apples, too expensive.

17:17

I'll make glass apples, that'll be cheaper?

17:18

Maybe he had, you

17:21

know, the leftover materials

17:23

in order to make them. They began

17:25

blowing glass ornaments by hand,

17:28

recreating fruit as delicate baubles.

17:32

And then these could be, like,

17:35

if you look at it today, there's like

17:37

a lot of like, kind of like strings or garlands

17:39

of these little like glass beads,

17:42

or they look almost like marbles. It's

17:44

really cool. And so these

17:46

became

17:48

like the first official Christmas

17:51

ornament,

17:51

because it's not like stuff you

17:53

found outside, and like

17:56

food

17:56

and like candles. And it's

17:58

kind of like something that you're like, I'm going to use. and you use it this

18:00

year and very carefully put it away

18:03

and use it again next year, which to

18:06

me is like pretty pivotal Christmas

18:08

ornament criteria. Yes,

18:10

these are referred to as glass shmuck,

18:13

which is roughly translated

18:15

to glass jewelry. Ooh. So

18:18

he implemented a unique hand-blown process

18:21

combined with special glass molds for

18:23

the shapes and filled the inside with mercury

18:25

or lead to make them kind of shimmery. Oh no. Later,

18:29

he would achieve the same effect using

18:31

a special compound of silver nitrate and sugar

18:33

water. I don't know if that's better. I mean,

18:35

it is.

18:36

If only glitter had existed. It is a

18:38

little better than mercury and lead. Sure.

18:41

Definitely. Just

18:44

to think about though, if you had small children

18:46

in the house and you're like, I'm gonna make something

18:48

look like food and fill it

18:50

with silver nitrate or lead

18:53

or mercury.

18:54

So mercury and lead, I think lead

18:56

especially

18:57

could leach out. I don't know

18:59

what the poorest properties of glass are. But

19:02

mercury tends to

19:04

stay kind of like solidy,

19:08

that's quicksilver-y. Sure. Inside

19:11

of glass. So as long as it didn't break, right?

19:14

But then quicksilver, I don't think

19:16

has any kind of like... No,

19:18

silver nitrate. I was talking about quicksilver. Silver

19:21

nitrate, I don't think has any kind of leaching

19:24

ability. Sure. So as long as it stayed

19:26

together,

19:27

the kids are all right.

19:28

That's a big ask though, you know? Anyways.

19:31

Anyway,

19:32

they are

19:34

gorgeous. And so

19:36

of course, people started placing

19:38

orders and local businesses started stocking

19:40

his ornaments. And not

19:43

long after, they began to be exported.

19:46

Hans's sons and grandsons,

19:49

Ernst, Otto, Willie and Kurt. Okay.

19:52

Very German, I love it. Okay. Carried

19:55

on the Christmas ornament

19:56

tradition. And in fact, Hans's sons

19:59

and grandsons were the...

19:59

first ones to create those glass marbles.

20:04

And so, you know,

20:05

the town where they lived in Germany, still known

20:07

for these delightful Christmas ornaments. And

20:10

if you wanted to take a look, you should Google

20:13

Lauschka. Lauscha?

20:16

Yeah. Probably spell it. L-A-U-S-C-H-A.

20:21

Okay. It's beautiful. They have

20:23

a big Christmas market. I

20:25

love a Christmas town. I sure do too. I

20:28

like to go there and then I run into

20:31

the boy that I used to kind of have a crush

20:34

on in high school. And now he's a weatherman for the local

20:36

town and he's predicting what snow on

20:38

Christmas, but we haven't had snow here in

20:40

over 25 years. And I've hardened my heart because

20:42

I'm an important business lady. And then it turns

20:45

out it does snow on Christmas and we dance together

20:47

on the ice and we fall in love and I move back

20:49

to my Christmas town. Coming this

20:51

winter on the Travis channel.

20:53

Yes. Which is

20:56

directly opposed to the Hallmark channel, right?

20:58

Yes. Yes. Yeah.

21:01

All of them are weather based. Oh, okay.

21:04

All of them are weather based. Got it. So

21:06

then in the 1870s, these

21:09

ornaments found their way to Britain and

21:12

right into the hands of

21:13

our Queen Victoria.

21:15

Oh, yeah. No.

21:20

You really got me. Queen Victoria.

21:22

You really got me. Queen Victoria. And

21:25

so here we have it. I don't know

21:27

if it's a Schmanner's first, but it definitely

21:30

is today. We

21:31

have the Great Christian Re-band and

21:33

we have Queen Victoria in the same episode.

21:35

I think we get a prize. Yeah. Bingo

21:38

cards. Checking off last night. That's right.

21:41

Anyway, Queen Victoria

21:43

was populating the Christmas tree for

21:46

her beloved Albert, right?

21:48

Who is German. And so she was

21:50

like, let's get that German stuff in here. Let's

21:52

do all that fun, cool stuff. It also

21:55

though, it fits in with

21:57

a Victorian pattern of outlets,

21:59

right? of like, we've talked before

22:02

about like people have this image in their

22:04

head of like all the Victorians were really

22:06

uptight and they were really like pious

22:09

and all this stuff and like while

22:11

a lot of the aesthetic was

22:14

in you know Darker colors and

22:16

maybe more conservative dress. They loved

22:19

a party, right? They loved an

22:21

excuse Christmas was definitely the

22:23

big excuse to party loved an excuse

22:26

To behave badly and act

22:28

out and everything and say like well, I wasn't mean And

22:32

so the opportunity to be like let's decorate

22:34

things brightly Let's put decorations

22:37

everywhere and we're especially at a time

22:39

where like as we talk about maximalism Becoming

22:42

a thing the idea of like not

22:44

an inch, you know is undecorate

22:46

it It makes complete sense why not

22:48

only is Victoria like I'm doing this

22:50

for Albert But why it would catch on

22:52

so quickly is an excuse to decorate

22:55

and an excuse to like fill your house with more stuff

22:57

Absolutely. It was so

23:00

popular. You've probably seen it.

23:02

We've all seen it that Picture

23:05

in the newspaper of her and

23:07

Albert around the Christmas tree and all

23:09

the big children's is beautiful

23:12

it was so popular that it even made

23:14

made its way back to the US and

23:17

Christmas is back on

23:19

in a big way. Yeah

23:20

Have you ever seen the decorations?

23:23

I've only ever seen them in Christmas

23:26

Carol adaptations, but where

23:28

it's like live candles in

23:31

a tree But it's like live candles in a bowl

23:33

with like some kind of liquid around it. Remember

23:35

we've talked about this Have we yeah

23:37

you and me or you and me in the audience

23:39

you and me in the audience. Okay, we've also

23:41

talked about this Yeah, okay. We've talked about it together.

23:44

Okay handles on the tree. Why would somebody

23:46

do that? I understand

23:48

that they didn't fully understand how germs work. They

23:51

didn't understand how death work But they knew how

23:53

fire works, right?

23:54

Yeah, but they didn't do it for all the times It

23:56

was lit very specifically and

23:58

then put out very quickly

23:59

Anyway, and

24:02

when it got to America, they went, how

24:05

can we make money on this?

24:06

Sure. Hey, listen, I've

24:08

held my tongue, but back when you were talking about Hans

24:11

and him being like, I can't afford apples, so

24:13

I'll make more. He was thinking, I sell the

24:15

crap out of it. Like, there's no way

24:18

Hans wasn't also in it for money. When

24:20

you make things, when you make goods and services,

24:23

you want to sell those if you want. So

24:25

check out Podia to sell your... Okay,

24:27

all right. What I'm saying is, like, we might

24:29

be more cutthroat about it here in America. I think we're just more blatant about

24:31

it.

24:34

Maybe that's it. Yeah. In the 1890s,

24:37

Woolworth's department store was a retail

24:39

giant looking to capitalize

24:42

on the Christmas season. One

24:44

executive probably said something like,

24:46

hmm, people like shiny stuff, right? And

24:49

he probably said exactly that. Probably. Yeah. And

24:52

so... People are like Ravens and Magpies and

24:54

stuff. Ho, ho, ho.

24:57

And so they started

24:59

importing these beautiful German

25:01

glass ornaments, which paid off,

25:04

like, to the tune of $25

25:06

million. And

25:08

that was like in early 1900s money. That's 1890s

25:10

money. 1890s money? That's

25:13

probably like $500 million. $845 million today.

25:15

Wow.

25:19

To give our audience some perspective,

25:22

do you remember when Sony launched

25:24

the PS2 in 2000? I do. It's

25:27

hailed as one of the best-selling game consoles

25:29

of all time, and they made $155 million.

25:31

Yeah.

25:35

Wow. So a lot.

25:39

Okay. Are you wrapping your head around that right now?

25:41

No. I'm mostly

25:43

just thinking like, I thought they sold more PS2. Okay.

25:47

Okay. And

25:50

of course, everyone else wanted in on the

25:52

action. So, you know, we had a lot of other countries, Japan,

25:54

Poland, Eastern Europe, all

25:57

these other countries started making and exporting decorations

25:59

as well.

26:01

And here comes

26:03

another little Christmas giant.

26:06

Macy's. Hallmark. Oh. In 1973 Hallmark

26:08

cards began manufacturing

26:13

their iconic Christmas

26:15

ornaments. The first

26:17

set is 18 ornaments, including

26:20

six of the traditional glass

26:21

balls. It's sold okay. It's

26:23

important I looked it up. Oh okay. The

26:26

PlayStation 2 sold 155 million units worldwide.

26:28

Oh. Not at 155 million dollars. I was

26:30

like there's no way that's true.

26:37

But it's still. It's a lot for ornaments. It's

26:39

a lot. Maybe it's a lot for ornaments. I agree.

26:41

Sorry. It's okay. That's why I was

26:43

like I can't believe

26:45

that that's true. Okay.

26:49

The most units still.

26:51

Still. Hey I love you. Okay.

26:55

So anywho.

26:56

Anyway Hallmark. Uh-huh.

26:59

The idea that the Hallmark keepsake

27:01

ornament collection would be dated and available

27:04

for just one year. Right. So you could sell more

27:06

every year.

27:09

Yes. By 1998 11 million

27:12

American households had collected Hallmark

27:14

ornaments and 250,000 people

27:17

were members of the keepsake ornament collector's

27:19

club. What year was this? 1998. Okay.

27:23

So my mom was definitely in there. Okay.

27:25

Correct. Okay. Cool.

27:26

And the Hallmark website.

27:29

I mean they run

27:31

this club like a kind of like chintzy

27:34

mafia. Okay. Oh.

27:37

So. Okay. Another Travis

27:40

Network movie coming out. The Christmas Mafia.

27:42

Right. I would watch the crap

27:44

out of it. Two rival Christmas

27:46

Mafia. Like two. Their

27:49

offspring fall in love. It's

27:51

a Christmas Romeo and Juliet fight mafia.

27:54

Oh. We're looking for backers. Kickstarting

27:57

it. Next Christmas. So

28:01

here is an example of

28:03

for 2024, spring 2024 for keeps arrives

28:04

with coupon, April 2024 dream

28:10

book and dream box begin shipping summer 2024

28:15

for keeps arrives with coupon, July

28:18

early access to shop ornament event.

28:21

Later in July members only ornament

28:23

release more coupons

28:26

October early access and

28:28

then another members only and then winter

28:33

more coupons

28:34

and then a last early access

28:37

to shop ornament event for 2025

28:40

in December.

28:40

I guess I just kind of thought you

28:43

would drive to the store and buy them. I didn't

28:46

realize it was so exclusive. It is

28:48

very exclusive. Okay, at one

28:51

point, there were as many as 400 local

28:53

keepsake ornament collectors club chapters

28:55

in the United States. And

28:58

you know,

28:59

we got a lot of this information from Clara

29:02

Johnson's kroggens, who

29:04

has written a lot about this topic and maybe we'll cover

29:06

her as a

29:08

biography. It's very

29:10

cool. Anyway, in 1996,

29:13

the ornament industry had generated 2.4

29:16

billion in total annual

29:18

sales. And industry

29:21

experts estimated more than 22 million US households

29:24

collected Christmas ornaments. Okay,

29:27

so when did we stop using ornaments? Why

29:29

don't we still use them today? Oh, no, but but

29:31

we do. Why? There

29:33

is still enthusiasm for

29:36

the Christmas ornament.

29:38

And there's more variety than ever before. You

29:41

can get green ones, you can get

29:43

red ones.

29:44

They could be woven blown

29:46

from glass or plastic molded from porcelain

29:49

or metal carved from wood expanded polystyrene,

29:52

no matter what, right? People keep buying

29:55

them. They keep selling them,

29:56

keep putting them on trees. Sure.

29:58

Most

29:59

people

30:01

have collections that are a mix,

30:03

right? You get some of the shiny

30:05

balls, you get some of the matte balls,

30:07

you get some of the keepsakes, you get some handmade

30:10

stuff, right? And

30:12

you know, part of this is

30:14

the annual unboxing of the Christmas

30:17

ornaments. You look through it and say,

30:19

oh, I remember when my aunt got me that

30:22

or I made that in third grade or like whatever,

30:24

right? It's

30:28

very family-oriented,

30:30

like nostalgia trip every time you

30:33

open it up.

30:33

We have ornaments where

30:36

I have some that were on my mom's tree

30:39

and that were divided between me and my brothers and my

30:41

dad. And then you have some that were like

30:43

on a grandmother's tree, on your mom's mom's

30:45

tree, that have been divided between you and your

30:47

sisters. And then there are ones

30:49

that the girls have made. We have ones that

30:52

have like, you know, baby's first Christmas and those things.

30:54

We have things of like, these are the ornaments we

30:56

first bought when we got

30:59

our first tree, when we started decorating together. We

31:01

also have a couple like little trees that are like

31:03

two feet tall or smaller, where we've

31:05

picked out like some aluminum

31:08

ornaments of it's like this is things that

31:10

the girls like, right? We decorate those trees

31:12

in their room and stuff like that. It

31:14

is a most wonderful

31:17

time of the year.

31:17

It is indeed. If you are looking for

31:20

advice on how to decorate your own tree,

31:22

first of all, there is no wrong way to decorate

31:24

your tree. However, here

31:27

are a few tips. You should put the lights

31:29

and tinsel on first. If you are a tinsel

31:31

family,

31:31

we're

31:33

not. I have always had animals

31:36

in the house and tinsel is very bad.

31:38

That's

31:38

the mean thing you say about our children. I gave

31:43

him a stank face after that. Yeah.

31:45

But then I got a real laugh too. Tinsel,

31:48

I mean,

31:48

it's that kind of like stringy stuff, right?

31:50

That our cat likes to eat. That animals

31:54

and children like to eat. So

31:56

we don't do that, but some people do also.

31:59

You might need specific hangers

32:02

for specific ornaments. Some ornaments

32:04

are very heavy. Might require

32:07

a little more than just a ribbon, right? Here's

32:10

a pros tip for me. Oh yeah? Don't just

32:12

hang them on like the end of the branches. Get some

32:14

back in there. That's right. Provide depth,

32:17

especially if it's a heavier one. Get that

32:19

heavier one back in there. And

32:22

then kind of like alternate and don't

32:24

make them like in a row, right? You want different

32:26

heights and depths and stuff and give it some

32:28

depth. Absolutely. And

32:32

then if you have children or pets, you

32:34

might want to hang your most valuable,

32:37

breakable, sentimental ornaments

32:39

out of their reach.

32:40

Along that same line, if you're able to, like

32:42

we have this little eyebolt that's

32:45

like attached into like a stud

32:47

wall, right? Where we

32:49

put the Christmas tree every year and then we

32:51

run a wire from that to the

32:53

top of the tree. So like even

32:56

if an animal or a child tried to pull it down,

32:58

it's anchored up there for

33:01

safety so we don't lose a

33:03

bunch of ornaments from it getting pulled down. Highly

33:06

recommend.

33:06

And when we put it up, we don't just loop

33:08

it around one time. I always

33:11

kind of wrap

33:13

the tree in it a few times up

33:15

the center pole so that if

33:18

the bottom gets kicked out,

33:20

it doesn't fall. Yeah.

33:22

So if you

33:24

have need for that, here's

33:27

some ideas that other than,

33:29

you know, wiring into the wall, you

33:32

can

33:33

suggest that if children

33:35

are helping, right? Maybe give them a

33:37

specific job. Maybe

33:40

they can figure out how the hooks work or

33:42

hook the ornaments and hand them to you, you

33:45

know, or they can make their own

33:47

ornaments while we're decorating the tree.

33:50

We can glue some popsicle sticks together

33:52

or, you know, there's some great ideas for

33:55

like edibles ornaments or you could

33:57

like use marshmallows and candy canes and

33:59

things like that. You could also put together the

34:01

countdown rings, right? Where it's like you make

34:03

little like paper

34:05

circles and you tear the rings as

34:07

you get closer to Christmas. That's the thing that kids can

34:09

make. Also, when Bebe was about like four

34:12

or five and she was still too young to

34:14

like do some of the, I would

34:16

have her pick an ornament, tell me where to put

34:18

it and I would hang it up. Oh yeah, that's

34:20

a good idea. So she was like the foreman. Worked out. Another

34:23

thing that we used to do that I think our kids are big

34:25

enough now that we don't have to, is take like

34:27

cardboard boxes, wrap them in

34:30

wrapping paper and then

34:32

we kind of ran a rope through them, right?

34:34

And that made like a little barrier around the

34:36

bottom of the tree. So that they couldn't get to the tree. They couldn't

34:39

get to the tree, but it made it look like it was just

34:41

presents around it instead of like a gate around

34:43

it. It was like a gate of fake boxes

34:46

to keep them from getting to the bottom of the tree. Highly

34:49

recommend.

34:50

Sometimes what

34:53

you just need to do is you need to have

34:55

just multiple trees. I'm a big fan

34:58

of this. We already

34:58

talked about the tiny trees.

35:01

Maybe if it is very important to you

35:04

to have your tree decorated a specific

35:06

way, you get your tree and

35:08

then everybody else gets a different tree or

35:11

gets their own trees. Because

35:13

we all have, maybe there's a questionable

35:16

ornament.

35:18

There's always the back of the tree. That's my thought. But

35:21

if there's questionable ornament

35:23

style, if there's questionable decorating

35:26

style and why

35:29

not let everybody get their kicks and

35:32

have their own tree? Yeah,

35:34

I agree.

35:34

So that's gonna do it for us. First, I

35:37

wanna say thank you to our editor, Rachel,

35:39

without whom we would not be able to make this show. Thank you

35:41

to our researcher, Alex, without whom we could not

35:43

make this show. Thank you to you for listening. We

35:45

could do the show without you, but we'd be so lonely.

35:48

I also wanna say, speaking of the holidays, Candle

35:50

Night tickets are on sale now. They're only $5. It's

35:54

a virtual show this year. We're doing it to raise

35:56

money for Harmony House in Huntington, West

35:58

Virginia. You can go to bit.ly. L

36:00

y slash candle nights 2023 that's

36:02

candle nights 2 0 2 3 to get your tickets

36:05

now Also as this is

36:07

coming out Friday yesterday, we put out till

36:09

death do us blurt this year It's where

36:11

Justin and Griffin and I and our friends Tim

36:13

and guy watch and discuss Paul

36:15

Blart mall cop 2 every year

36:18

and Put it out on Thanksgiving and

36:20

we will do that until the day that we die And

36:22

then more people have to take over and the podcast

36:25

will continue forever This was year 9

36:27

and it was a good one Good

36:30

laughs this year. It was fun. You can check

36:32

that out till death do us blurt wherever

36:34

podcasts are found Yeah, what else Teresa?

36:37

We always think Brent Brent of last black

36:39

for writing our theme music word and

36:41

wherever Wait, there's a ringtone

36:43

if you want to buy it. I lost

36:45

my train. Yeah. Oh, man. Yeah

36:49

Polar Express got derailed The

36:53

tragedy today

36:54

Thank you to brew how Betty pinup photography

36:57

for the cover picture of our fan run Facebook

36:59

group Schmaner's fanners if

37:01

you love to give and get excellent advice from

37:04

other fans, go ahead and join in that group today

37:07

Also, we are always taking topic

37:09

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37:12

idioms Hey send it all to

37:15

Schmaner's cast at gmail.com

37:18

and say hi to Alex because she reads every

37:20

single one

37:20

and that's going to do it for us So try this again next week.

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