If you are over 50, you may remember the silver aluminum Christmas trees of the 1950s and 60s And if you've looked for them on Ebay or Etsy lately, you may be shocked.
The current asking price for the full-size, six-foot to eight-foot aluminum trees range from $300 to $800. Ah supply and demand. Those of us who look back fondly on these trees want to have them again, and you can include me in that group. I've been stalking these trees online for years, and the price has only gone up. The trees are known as the Sparkler brand Pom Pom made by the Star brand company in Portsmouth, Virginia. They became very popular in the 1960s, and other companies made them as well, such as the Aluminum Specialty Company in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.
The popularity of these trees was such that many other companies began making them and offering them in different colors such as green, gold, blue, and red, but the silver remains the most beautiful.
Of course if you are going to have the tree, you must have the accompanying color wheel. The wheel rotates four colors: gold, blue, red, and green, which shine up and onto the silver tree for a beautiful effect that makes the whole room feel special. Today's fiber optic trees just don't compare.
Here's a You Tube of the color wheel:
And a You Tube of a silver tree with the color wheel:
You tube of a small sparkler pom-pom tree with the color wheel
The idea behind the color wheel was actually safety, as it was not a good idea to hang strings of lights on the aluminum trees. Later on, the whole tree rotated, as rotating tree stands were sold. You then could have a rotating tree together with the rotating color wheel.
Here's a You Tube of a rotating tree with the color wheel:
The trees sold well through the beginning part of the 1970s, but by 1975, green artificial trees were becoming popular and by 1976 or so, the aluminum trees were no longer sold.
Those people who kept theirs still enjoy them today, and some retailers such as Wayfair are offering silver artificial trees, but they aren't quite the same. In 2021 I might just take the plunge and get one of the Sparkler Pom Poms.
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