Christmas Ornaments a Nearly Lost German Folk Art : Business Built on Spirit, Glass Pickle

Tim Merck has built a million-dollar business on American Christmas spirit and a glass pickle.

Nestled in the pines west of Spokane, Merck’s firm, Old World Christmas, is the leading importer of handblown Christmas tree ornaments produced by a nearly lost German folk art.

Strictly a wholesale operation, the firm supplies the collectible hand-painted bulbs to the White House, New York’s Museum of Modern Art, Macy’s and Neiman-Marcus.

Although its catalogue includes items from half a dozen European countries, the company is best known for the delicate glass ornaments that are carefully hand-blown into turn-of-the-century ceramic molds.

The collection of fewer than 2,000 molds is what remains of a Bavarian industry virtually wiped out by World War II and the division of Germany into East and West.

The hand-painted ornaments, which American demand has again made the basis of a cottage industry, come in the shapes of angels, Santa Claus figures, fruits and even the best seller for three years running--a pickle.

“It’s just crazy,” Merck said. “When I told the German I wanted the pickle done, he thought I was crazy. But it really sells.”

German Tradition

Germans by tradition hung the pickle on the tree on Christmas Eve and the child who first found it got a special treat.

Now, Merck says, most of the pickles are destined to be gag gifts for pregnant women.

Merck has built a solid business on the stuff of fairies and angels. In the 11 years he has been in business, he has learned that not even that great Scrooge, recession, can put Americans out of the Christmas buying spirit.

“Americans are not going to be deprived of that holiday no matter what the economy is doing,” he said. “They’re going to spend, spend, spend. That sentimentality is something to build a business on.”

Old World Christmas has 6,000 accounts to which they offer more than 1,500 different ornaments. But Merck is as secretive as Santa when you ask about production. “Millions,” he says.

The highly collectible bulbs retail for between $2.50 and $5 and the wooden nutcrackers from both East and West Germany can bring upward of $50.

Regional Tastes

Christmas sales vary with regional taste in the nation, Merck said. The northern states tend to be more sentimental about Christmas. The South leans toward “decorator colors,” he said.

“Where it snows, the business is better and more traditional. The South less so. Dallas is much more glitzy.”

But the complicated emotions that surround the holidays makes predicting a best-selling ornament tricky at best. The pickle bulb swept the country; other Christmas ideas turned out to be turkeys.

The worst disaster was a black stocking bulb complete with a lacy garter.

“I thought, ‘This is going to be hot,’ ” Merck said of the mildly daring ornament. “Boy, it bombed. I still have all but about 12 of them.”

Nevertheless, Merck predicts that next year’s winners will include “Father Christmas” figurines reminiscent of the Victorian era, when Santa wore an ankle-length coat and looked more a monk than an elf.

Also top sellers are bouquets of tiny colored spheres, he said.

“They’re BMW light bulbs,” Merck said. “They knock ‘em out by the thousands and we color them.”

But this merchant of Christmas hesitates to market one group of Bavarian molds produced in the 1930s.

“They’ve got swastikas and U-boats,” he said. “They’ve got everything like that. It’s amazing.”