Production during WWII necessitated the replacement of the metal cap with a cardboard tab.

These cardboard hangers firmly place the date of manufacture of the ornament to the early 1940s.

Those ornaments were so pretty and magical to my little bitty self and I can remember sitting under the tree, with the lights all lit up, looking at the ornaments and dreaming of Christmas. That was the finishing touch on those trees of childhood.

These fragile things are paper thin blown glass and about 50 years old, so what do you expect? This silver with teal and hot pink is one that I really remember, along with the frosted snow on top.

But as the war drew closer, Eckardt realized his ability to import ornaments from Germany would end. If you don’t know what you’re looking for in the vintage aspect, just be aware that today many of these designs are in reproduction by Christopher Radko.

The first Shiny Brite ornaments had the traditional metal cap and loop.I find myself saying this a lot lately, but I’ll say it again… ’ I grew up with an Angel for a tree topper, and Shiny Brite glass ornaments on the tree. Shiny Brite was actually the trade name of the ornaments, but the name has been confused over the years as the style name of the ornaments. Ornaments like these were all the rage in the 1950’s and 60’s, and remained popular into the 70’s and 80’s.But Shiny Brites have been around since before World War II.They adapted their process for making light bulbs to mass producing clear glass ornaments, which were then shipped to Eckardt’s factories to be decorated by hand.Prior to this time most Christmas ornaments were indeed imported from Germany.