Detective Carrot and the district council with sweets: the most expensive Christmas decorations in the history of Russia. Christmas toys from the USSR: back to the Soviet past They were insured

Many of us somewhere on the mezzanine or in the closet have a box with old Christmas tree decorations, which were used by our grandparents. It is so? Usually we do not even think about the fact that such toys can be truly valuable, not only because of the memories, but because they have now become collectible.

Many of us have old Christmas decorations at home. The very ones with which our grandparents decorated the Christmas tree for the New Year. Usually we take them out of the box and don't even think about their value. This happened to 56-year-old Vladimir Schneider from Yekaterinburg.

The very ones that our grandparents used to decorate the Christmas tree for the New Year
BIG KUSH IN A SMALL STORAGE ROOM
Vladimir is a retired Airborne Colonel. All my life I wandered around the garrisons. And recently I decided to settle in my native Yekaterinburg. Here is his parent's apartment. The property has been vacant for four years...
- When he moved, he started a global renovation. He began to dismantle the deposits of old things. My mother was very thrifty - she did not allow anyone to throw anything away, - says Vladimir. - And my mother's pantry was generally a place "behind seven locks." She did not let anyone in there, even just to see what was there.
Vladimir found several cardboard boxes on the dusty mezzanines. They contained golden glass cones, carefully wrapped in paper, Christmas balls with a lace pattern, figurines of snowmen, fairy-tale heroes ... More than a hundred toys.

The same toys that our grandparents used to decorate the Christmas tree for the New Year
- At first I grabbed my head: “Where are there so many of them?” Not a single tree will survive, - Vladimir laughs. - Decided to quit. Yes, it was a pity - after all, my mother collected them for so many years. Give, I think, I will sell. A penny, no matter what, I'll help out. Got on the Internet to see how much this good can be sold. And gasped! Toys of the 50s, some sold for 50,000, and others for 100,000! It turns out that I found a whole "treasure"!
LOOK FOR BUNNS ON CLOTCHES
It turned out that at auctions, collectors are ready to pay several thousand for rare Christmas decorations. For example, a hut on a clothespin is bought for 5,000 rubles apiece, but for the Stargazer of the 50s, you can get up to 50,000 rubles ...

Toys of the 50s, some sold for 50,000, and others for 100,000!
- The first Christmas tree was decorated in 1937. Then they made more often wadded toys, for example, “Girl on a swing”. Her outfit is made of fabric, her face is made of papier-mâché and painted. This is a real "retro", - explains the antiques expert Vyacheslav Srebny. - Specialists in antiques estimate it at about 5,000 rubles. But on the Internet, collectors are ready to pay all 150,000 rubles for such a little thing!
According to Vyacheslav, glass toys, which began to be made in the 50s, are especially popular. Moreover, products on clothespins are estimated twice as high as on a suspension.

Then they made more often cotton toys, for example, “Girl on a swing”
- These toys were painted by hand, you will definitely not find two identical ones. For each of them you can get 1500 rubles. For handmade toys, the price is 10 times higher than the factory price, Vyacheslav continues. – Collections of toys are especially appreciated. For example, the collection "Tales of the Fisherman and the Fish", which was released in the year of the 150th anniversary of Pushkin's birth. Putting them together is very difficult, they are hunted by collectors. I saw one toy on the Internet was sold for 22,000 rubles.
For clarity, Vyacheslav takes out a big Santa Claus from the box. It was made in the 50s. Srebny was lucky - he bought it from ignorant people for only 1,500 rubles. Now you can sell it for 8000.

It turned out that at auctions, collectors are ready to pay several thousand for rare Christmas decorations.
According to the expert, the cost of a toy is affected by its condition: chips can reduce its price even by 90 percent. A crack on a toy, even if it is thoroughly glued, reduces the price by 70 percent. If the paint is worn off - then up to minus 30, if it completely flies around, then it will be minus 50.
Determining the year of manufacture of a toy is not easy if it is not indicated on the product. But there are catalogs with the history of releases of manufacturing factories. For example, the guide-catalogue "Christmas Tree Decorations 1936-1970" with pictures, descriptions and the exact release date.
The rarest today are toys made from cotton wool. Behind them - go glass, then paper and cardboard, and finally, foam.

The kids loved the old Christmas toys.
And already in the 80s, the production of New Year's decorations was put on stream, millions of glass balls "scattered around the country", and now they are in almost every home. Glass colorful balls now cost 100-200 rubles.
Meanwhile, Vladimir Schneider, having learned about the high cost of his collection, is in no hurry to say goodbye to it. Who knows, maybe in ten years they will rise in price even more?
- I am not dependent on money, - the pensioner says firmly. - Therefore, I will leave these beautiful Christmas tree decorations to my grandchildren! And they, if they want, let them sell ...

These toys were painted by hand, you will definitely not find two identical ones. For each of them you will be paid 5000 rubles.

Collector Sergei Romanov: "There are very rare positions - the dog Hold and Grab and Leek"

New Year is a holiday outside of time and politics. It would seem that. But everything that has happened in our country over the past hundred years has been reflected in a Christmas tree toy. Sergey Romanov, one of the most famous collectors of Christmas decorations in Russia, told us about the most unique specimens.

Photo from personal archive

From golden angels, homemade nuts and candy beads to multi-colored balloons "Glory to the USSR", glass cosmonauts and workers with collective farmers ...

“During the Civil War, at the end of the 30s, even a ball appeared, which depicted the battle of our plane with the Nazi one, and ours, of course, knocked out the enemy,” says Sergey Romanov, a toy historian, art restorer. There are more than 3000 copies in his collection.

And if you add here other Soviet toys that are not related to the New Year holidays, you will get over 12 thousand. “But Christmas trees are a special topic!” - emphasizes the collector.

Photo from personal archive

Everyone remembers the joke about fake Christmas toys. Beautiful, shiny. But they are not happy - that's all! In fact, before we were happy not with toys, but with our childhood. What do you think, Sergei Gennadievich, is this so?

Love for Christmas decorations is special. In any house, they still remain from grandparents, but they are taken out only once a year, it turns out that this is also a kind of continuous connection between generations.

I was born in the 70th year, I remember from childhood that there was Santa Claus, reindeer. Unforgettable miracle! When I became a little older, busy parents often sent me to sit with a neighbor, the boy had to be occupied with something, and the neighbor Aunt Olya pulled out a large suitcase with old Christmas tree decorations from under the sofa. Summer, heat - and these magical toys from Aunt Olya's suitcase.

At home, I shared my impressions with my parents, and suddenly they tell me that we also have such beauty, grandmother's toys. “Why don’t we hang them on the Christmas tree?” - “But they are already old ...” Dad climbed onto the mezzanine - and for the first time I saw things that were completely different in their aesthetics ...

Photo from personal archive

- That is, the neighbor is “to blame” for the fact that you have become a toy collector?

If not for Aunt Olya, there would probably be something else. From childhood I was amazed by the world of old things and photographs from an old album covered with calico.

In the life of any little person, a wonderful discovery comes one day - when he suddenly finds out that both mom and dad, and even grandparents were also small ... “Here is your grandmother in the photo, she is 5 years old. And on the other she is already 25. How can this be? This is an amazing revelation! What was the time of other children and other toys ...

Thus began my acquaintance with the history of the family. I tirelessly asked to see things from that distant era, to find them, and indeed my grandmother had not only Christmas decorations, but also antique dolls, perfect beauties with papier-mâché bodies and fragile porcelain heads, and much more.

Photo from personal archive

How did your collection start?

Rather, it was the first push. I was fourteen years old when the kitten, who lived then in our apartment, overturned the New Year tree ... Many things were broken. And then friends and relatives simply brought us their toys so that the holiday would still take place.

People close to me then and now were not indifferent to my interest. But in high school, many did not understand my passion, I had to resist ridicule. The first copies of the collection were selected according to the principle "like - dislike". Of course, over time it grew into an amateur. I actually form a museum fund.

My collection is now of museum value. And at any moment it can become such a museum. Exhibitions are also held regularly. Right now, for example, in Kolomenskoye there is an exhibition “Another Childhood” - toys of the 20-50s of the last century are shown there.

Photo from personal archive

They are antiques. Anything older than half a century is antiques. That is, all toys made before the year 65 are of interest to collectors. For some reason, cotton wool jewelry is considered especially expensive and rare, and even made in Leningrad, they were not delivered to Moscow during the Soviet era, they went only to the regions, Ukrainian toys of the Klavdiev factory are also valued. The cost of especially rare specimens reaches 25-30 thousand rubles, sometimes higher.

It happens that several dozen collectors fight for a rare toy at once. Of course, there are serious people, but there are those who collect according to the principle of "sandbox syndrome" - since the neighbor has a car, then I want the same one. Actually, nothing has changed - even though the children have grown.

Photo from personal archive

- I want - and that's it ?!

Of course, the market dictates its own laws. There are some truly unique items. In general, prices for toys rose sharply because of the American Kim Balashak, she specially came to the city in the mid-90s and simply bought up everything she saw at the Izmailovo opening day. Traders figured it out right away.

In those years, there was also a famous flea market in the Tishinsky market. New Year's toys were a seasonal item on it, and their prices were quite affordable, then the first online auctions appeared - and the value of some lots skyrocketed.

Kim Balashak was really very interested in collecting our New Year's toys, but sometimes she simply did not know their history, our national mentality, balls with portraits of Lenin and Stalin could still be somehow identified, but the way she described some toys looks like an anecdote.

Photo from personal archive

So, Kim bought a series consisting of several characters: a soccer fox, a soccer hare, a soccer wolf, a soccer bear ... And I look and understand: this is a fairy tale about a kolobok!

Or Nekrasov's "peasant with a fingernail" was once called a mule driver. So it is not always possible for foreigners to understand our Russian toys and their meaning. This is part of our culture.

- They say that the first fakes of Soviet Christmas tree decorations appeared around the same time.

Yes, these were toys primarily made of cotton wool. There manufacturing technology is quite simple. It is almost impossible to fake glass! If only to repaint the existing balls under the old samples.

Kim Balasak paid well for anything, so this type of scam flourished. After Kim left, it became unprofitable to fake such things - it is much more profitable to make your own author's remakes of old, sometimes even pre-revolutionary copies.

So the toys of tsarist times have been preserved? Probably, we are the only country in the world where the “Christmas tree” connection of generations was interrupted by wars and revolutions. There was no time for toys ...

Few of the glass survived. But there were things that were different in terms of technology. Firstly, from embossed cardboard, this is thick-walled cardboard, which was made in a special way, there were surprise toys - you could hide something of your own there, like in a pencil case. Were wadded, from papier-mâché. There were also dolls with porcelain heads... The tradition of glass Christmas decorations arose not so long ago - approximately in the 60s of the 19th century.

Photo from personal archive

- And the Germans were the first to make them?

There is such a legend: in the city of Lausche, where the glass production was located, one poor glassblower had no money at all to buy gifts for his children. And, in order not to return home empty-handed, he blew figured toys, balls, pendants, they could be hung on a Christmas tree. Neighbors came to him for the holiday and were completely delighted with such beauty, they began to make orders.

The poor glassblower got rich, and glass New Year's toys appeared in the world. The factory in Lausche is still in operation today. The Germans captured in the First World War taught Russian craftsmen how to make similar decorations.

Usually in rich houses toys were ordered from catalogs. And those who could not afford it hung goodies on the Christmas tree - cookies, sweets, nuts in gold foil. But "delicious" toys lost the fact that they were immediately eaten. Remember Hoffmann's "The Nutcracker": the children burst into the room with a Christmas tree with laughter, instantly cut off all the branches, and the bare trunk is thrown out at the same time. But I wanted a longer holiday, contemplation of the Christmas tree, admiring it.

So advice appeared in ladies' magazines on how to make long-lasting jewelry: cook a paste, take a wire, wrap it with cotton wool, sprinkle crushed mica on top - such "recipes" were printed by all self-respecting women's publications in those days. Although the tradition of edible toys persisted for a long time. Remember the story by Mikhail Zoshchenko, written in the 20s, about Lelya and Mitya, who ate the Christmas tree?

- But after the revolution, the Christmas tree somehow suddenly found itself outside the law. As a bourgeois relic and a class enemy.

Not right away. As we know, Lenin arranged a Christmas tree for children in Sokolniki. But from about the year 27, the tree really fell out of favor, thematic products were not produced, the celebration was not welcomed. The younger generation had to be brought up on completely different examples and ideals.

- How did the “repressed” toys survive?

They were hiding. After all, I wanted a holiday anyway. Few toys from that era have survived. My grandmother has preserved - she was born in 1910. Grandmother got married in 1931, from the 36th Christmas tree was allowed again, Christmas was replaced by New Year, and since then grandmother has been buying new toys every year, putting them in one box with the pre-revolutionary decoration of her childhood: heavy German balls that were hung close to the trunk, where the branches were thicker; very thin Laush stars, rustling like foil.

Many of my grandmother's decorations are still alive today. A few pieces, however, crashed, they are not just lying there, but in constant operation.

I remember we had a completely unique Santa Claus in a hat, very carefully painted. And a bunch of grapes with a dragonfly on its side! Many people find something similar at home, and also give it to me, replenish the collection.

Photo from personal archive

In total, I now have more than three thousand toys, I have already lost count of them. From exhibition to exhibition, and there were dozens of them, the assortment is updated. But you can't follow everything.

Many years ago, when I was just starting to exhibit, in one of the museums, I won’t say which one, there was an accident. Part of the collection is broken. The show had already ended, the exposition was dismantled, everything was packed, the acceptance certificates were signed, and suddenly they offered me help - to bring the boxes to the car. I did not agree to any, but the lady employee insisted ...

The road was slippery, the woman slipped, fell and broke two boxes. It was very disappointing, because among the "dead" toys there were many rare Leningrad ones, which you can hardly find in Moscow.

- Were they insured?

At that moment, no. This is the 90s. When you are young, you don't think about possible risks. Many broken toys I then restored for decades.

And there are some sets that cannot be bought for any money. Simply because there are so few of them. For example, they went on sale for a specific event in a certain year or were sold in certain cities.

Many collectors are chasing the series "The Adventures of Cipollino" by Gianni Rodari. There are very rare positions there - the detective Carrot or the dog Hold it, Grab it, Leek. These heroes were sold by the piece in the 50s, when Gianni Rodari was only translated into Russian, a cartoon appeared - and a real boom began for the heroes of the book.

The set came out several times, its most extended version is two-tiered boxes, in which there were about 20 fairy-tale characters. They were produced according to GOST.

- Wow!!!

You do not think that the production of Christmas tree decorations was taken very seriously in those days. They were part of the ideology of the country. Stalin returned the Christmas tree to the children. But at the same time, the concept of their manufacture and holiday has generally changed, politics intervened, and even the toys themselves became political. Soldiers, cosmonauts, balloons with the inscription "Glory to the Soviet people."

After 1936, factories began to mass-produce Chelyuskins, Red Army soldiers, balloons with the image of Lenin, Stalin, Marx and Engels, and even small bonbonniere boxes in the form of district councils, in which, like in the good old days, you could put candy and hang it on a Christmas tree.

Heroes of fairy tales continued to be made even then, but at the same time figurines of children of all nationalities, representatives of working professions, appeared. When they became friends with in the 50s, they began to produce small Chinese. I already told you about toys about the war in Spain, and I also have a glass ball with a “happy” inscription “Since 1941!” ...

- And who decided what toys to be? Who chose their theme?

In the Soviet Union there was an Institute of Toys, where a specially created expert commission worked. All toy projects had to go through her. The idea could be rejected for aesthetic or ideological reasons.

Sometimes the experts were late in making a decision, the toy was put into circulation, and later it turned out that it did not meet the party line, it happened that it did not pass according to sanitary standards - and then the whole series could be discontinued, and the author who took liberties punished. So there are some toys that have survived in extremely limited quantities.

Today, the VNII of toys does not exist, it was destroyed in the 90s. Therefore, the scientific approach to the production of toys is no more. But all the same, even in the "party" times, there were no completely identical toys and could not be. That is, some basic background and the idea was common for everyone, and then everything depended on the hand of the master. The toys were painted by hand. But it all depended on who made them, on what was in his soul. Even the region of manufacture often mattered. Everywhere there were traditions.

In Leningrad, for example, they approached the process more carefully, their toys came out in strict, deep shades, very restrained in color, concise, correct and clear lines, which I personally really like, but they did everything a little more crookedly, clumsily, but fun and warm. So I can easily distinguish toys from each other and find out the era in which they were made.

You know, my exhibition was once held on Poklonnaya Gora as part of the festival of New Year's toys. There, each Christmas tree represented a certain historical period in the USSR: 30s, early 40s, wartime, 60s ... And each era has its own soul. You can't confuse toys from one era with another.

- But for some reason you stopped at the "Brezhnev" era. There are almost no "Gorbachev" copies.

Something changed already in the 80s. That care, tenderness that the previous jewelry had was gone. Perhaps due to the fact that production has become cheaper.

The masters did not particularly bother: they would make a gold coating on a glass ball, draw some kind of curl - and you're done. It is possible that the changes taking place then in our country left their mark. No, the toys of those years are peculiar, but for their time, and among the current 25-year-olds, they will undoubtedly cause nostalgia someday. But I limited myself to the Soviet period. He is closer to me, more understandable, dearer.

Then I'm even afraid to ask how you feel about the numerous Chinese fakes that flooded all the Christmas tree markets today. It seems to be exact copies of even the rarities of the 19th century, beautiful, shiny, but - as in a joke - they are not encouraging. By what criteria do you decorate your New Year tree - after all, you can’t hang all 3000 toys on it with all your desire?

And when how. But I always try to maintain a single style: either it's German Christmas, or Sotsart, sometimes I only hang toys from my childhood, the 70s of the twentieth century. Neighbors think every time: what could it be? They come and are usually surprised that they didn’t guess again ...

With age, sometimes there is an irresistible desire to remember your childhood, to feel some nostalgia for the times of the USSR. For some reason, the New Year in the Soviet style most reminds those over thirty of the times that, despite the scarcity, you remember with rapture of the heart, considering them the best.

Now the tendency to celebrate the New Year in the style of the USSR has increased. The Christmas tree, dressed up according to the American model in three colors, is no longer surprising. More and more I want to decorate the Christmas tree with old Soviet toys. And be sure to put cotton under it, imitating snow, and tangerines.

Variety of Christmas decorations

Often, the Christmas tree in Soviet families was dressed up with an abundance of toys and decorations. Clothespin toys deserve special attention, which are very convenient to attach to the middle of the Christmas tree branch. In the form of which only they were not presented: Santa Claus, Snowman, Snow Maiden, candle, nesting doll.

The balls, as now, were of different sizes, but the unique highlight was in the balls with round hollows, into which the light of the garlands fell, creating a fabulous illumination throughout the Christmas tree. There were also phosphor-patterned balls that glowed in the dark.

Since the New Year comes at midnight, clock-shaped toys were produced. They were given a central place on the tree. Often such Soviet Christmas decorations were hung at the very top, just below the top of the head, which, of course, was decorated with a red star - the main Soviet symbol.

Even Christmas decorations of those times were represented by decorations made of large glass beads and beads. Usually they were hung on the lower or middle branches. Old Soviet toys, especially pre-war ones, are carefully stored and passed from grandmothers to grandchildren.

From icicles, houses, clocks, animals, balls, stars, a unique one was obtained.

Was it raining?

There was no such fluffy and voluminous rain as now in the days of Soviet socialism. The Christmas tree was decorated with vertical rain and beads. A little later, a horizontal rain appeared, but it was not thick and voluminous. Some voids on the Christmas tree were filled with garlands and sweets.

For a few days, you can feel the atmosphere of the Soviet Union with the help of a Christmas tree decorated in retro style. Unique Soviet-era Christmas decorations, decorations and tinsel should be looked for in the bins of our grandmothers or purchased at city flea markets. By the way, auctions and online stores for the sale and exchange of Christmas tree decorations of the USSR era are being created on the network. Some even collect such toys, many of which are already considered antiques.

It remains only to decorate the Christmas tree with old Soviet toys, turn on the Irony of Fate and remember your childhood for a second.

To this day, our happy childhood is reminiscent of Christmas decorations, which many still decorate Christmas trees. But not everyone knows that these toys are mostly considered antiques and can cost decent money.

Of course, the price includes the rarest and most complete toys of the 40-70s. And here we will show for which toys real connoisseurs of beauty and collectors are ready, without hesitation, to give a tidy sum.

1. New Year's abstraction.

Such abstract icicles, airplanes and pendulums have recently begun to attract collectors, so they have almost doubled in price.

2. Christmas jewelry.

Christmas tree beads are a rarity today. On modern holidays they have been replaced by tinsel and rain. But real connoisseurs of the warmth of the holiday of bygone childhood will buy such jewelry with great pleasure and offer an amount several times higher than their real value.

3. Antique lighting.

Today we are used to seeing the same type of diode lanterns on Christmas trees, flashing in different colors and speeds, but in the days of the USSR, there was a completely different approach to Christmas tree lanterns. Therefore, such a beautiful garland looks just like a work of art, which is worth paying a lot of money for.

4. Symbols of the USSR in price.

Collectors are diligently looking for airships with Soviet symbols and balloons with a communist red star. Such toys are not uncommon, but true connoisseurs will pay double the amount for their good condition.

5. Nice house.

Huts with a snow-covered roof - this is exactly what you can get a tidy sum for.

7. Clothespins with decor.

Clothespin toys in the form of various figures were produced in small batches for a certain period of time, so today they are considered relatively rare. If their condition is satisfactory, then you can easily earn extra money. See if something like that is lying around in your grandmother's chest. For example, for such a Little Red Riding Hood, the seller can ask for at least 1.5 thousand rubles.

8. Christmas tree clock.

No matter how strange it may sound, but today Soviet Christmas decorations in the form of clocks are in price. Despite the fact that there are quite a lot of them, collectors are willing to pay for them, as they vary in design and color scheme.

8. The most expensive of the cheapest materials.

You will be surprised, but such handmade dolls made of corrugated paper and cotton wool are considered the most expensive Christmas decorations. These dolls were among the first to appear on Christmas trees in the USSR. Today they are very rare, as they are made of materials that do not last long, unlike glass or plastic. Their price starts on average from 4-5 thousand rubles.

9. Valuable locomotive.

Not far in price are such steam locomotives of the 40s made of cardboard with a silver coating, a communist star and the inscription "Steam engine I. Stalin." These toys were released in a limited edition, and very few of them have survived to this day.

For several years now, he has been collecting a collection of special Christmas decorations: old ones, brought from travels, or just those that you want to keep for many years. In this article, she will talk about the history of the appearance of toys in Russia, how she herself selects jewelry, where to buy them, how much they cost and how to create your own unique collection.

In the world of things that surround us every day, Christmas decorations occupy a special place. The New Year holidays are coming to an end, the Christmas tree is being taken apart, the toys are packed in boxes and sent for storage until next December. From a practical point of view, a Christmas toy is a completely useless thing, it is designed to serve a different purpose: to evoke nostalgia, revive memories and the most vivid images from childhood.

The hero of Stephen King's novel "The Dead Zone" (1979) John Smith very rightly said: "That's how funny it is with these Christmas tree decorations. When a person grows up, little remains of the things that surrounded him in childhood. Everything in the world is transient. Few can serve both children and adults. You will exchange your red stroller and bicycle for adult toys - a car, a tennis racket, a fashionable hockey console on TV. Little remains of childhood. Only toys for the Christmas tree in the parents' house. The Lord God is just a joker. Big joker, he created not the world, but some kind of comic opera in which the glass ball lives longer than you.

Each historical era created its own Christmas decorations. Pre-revolutionary Christmas decorations, for example, were fundamentally different from Soviet ones. The Russian Christmas tree was a product of German culture, because Germany is considered the first European country where they began to decorate a Christmas tree - this was in the 16th century. In the second half of the 19th century, spruce became an all-German tradition. A description of a decorated classic German Christmas tree of the 19th century can be found in Hoffmann's fairy tale The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (1816): sweets and all sorts of sweets. In Russia, the Christmas tree appeared after the decree of Peter I of December 20, 1699, but the tradition spread everywhere only at the beginning of the 19th century. In tsarist Russia, the Christmas tree was an attribute of privileged noble culture and adorned the homes of merchants, doctors, lawyers, professors and civil servants. The presence of a Christmas tree in the house testified to the involvement in European culture, which greatly raised the social status. From the second half of the 19th century, the Christmas tree appeared in the provinces, especially in those county towns where the German diaspora was strong.

The Christmas decorations that went on sale were only imported and were very expensive. Therefore, it was not easy for an ordinary city dweller, even an intellectual, to decorate a Christmas tree. Due to the lack and high cost of Christmas tree decorations, and then due to tradition, even in aristocratic families, toys were made at home. True, there were public charity Christmas trees that allowed children from low-income families to attend the holiday.

Christmas decorations in Tsarist Russia contained religious symbols: the star of Bethlehem crowned the top of the tree, angels and birds soared here and there, apples and grapes hung - symbols of "paradise" food, garlands, beads and wreaths - symbols of the suffering and holiness of Christ. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Christmas tree was decorated with papier-mâché, cotton wool, wax, cardboard, paper, foil and metal toys. Glass decorations were still imported, so the main place on the Christmas tree was occupied by "homemade" toys and edible decorations. It was they who endowed the Christmas tree with that festive smell that remains in memory for a lifetime.

The absence in Tsarist Russia of its own toy production made the Russian Christmas tree absolutely apolitical and devoid of any national flavor. Russian toys from the time of the reign of Nicholas II were hand-carved from wood, blown from glass and painted at a handful of handicraft industries. Now these toys are kept in museums and private collections of successful collectors. After the October Revolution, after 20 years of oblivion and prohibitions, the Christmas tree will be revived as a symbol of the new Soviet era and will become one of the main instruments of the new ideology and education of patriotism.

My collection of Christmas decorations is not an object of worship for a fragile material thing. Each of them personifies memories, emotions, unfulfilled hopes and dreams that still have a chance to come true someday. As an adult, I enthusiastically looked at the ballet dancers, admired their grace and grace. In my collection lives a weightless crystal dancer from Vienna and an old glass ballerina with scorched velvet legs, which I found on Christmas Eve at Le Puc in Paris. Over the past few years, I have assembled a Russian cotton ballet company - all of these ballerinas come from pre-revolutionary and Soviet Russia. “Wadded” toys in our country appeared much earlier than glass ones, because the production of Christmas tree decorations made of glass was incomparably more expensive than making them from papier-mâché, cotton wool and shreds. Now the situation has changed dramatically: a glass ball of the late 30s can be bought for 300-500 rubles, but the price of cotton figurines of this period starts from 3,000 rubles.

In my collection there is a clown from the "Circus" series (colored batting, painting, mica; 1936) and a reindeer breeder (stearin, colored batting, painting, mica; 1930). By the way, circus artists appeared on the Soviet Christmas tree thanks to Stalin, who liked the film "Circus" with Lyubov Orlova in the title role. After the film was released in 1936, acrobats and circus performers quickly decorated the Christmas tree. The development of the North Pole also did not pass without a trace for the Christmas tree: deer, polar bears, Eskimos and skiers - all this was embodied in cotton wool, glass and cardboard. Soviet Christmas tree decorations reflected the events that took place in the country: red stars burned on the Christmas tree, cosmonauts and rockets took off into the sky in the wake of Gagarin, agricultural products grew, and especially the queen of the fields - Khrushchev's corn. The heroes of fairy tales celebrated in 1937 the centennial anniversary of the death of A. S. Pushkin - now the Old Man with a net, Tsar Dadon, the Shakhamanskaya Queen, Alyonushka, Chernomor with heroes and other fairy tale heroes are the coveted trophies of collectors around the world. In 1948, Christmas decorations on clothespins appeared, and in 1957, sets of mini-toys were released in the USSR, which made it possible to decorate a Christmas tree even in a small space of a Khrushchev apartment with low ceilings. From the second half of the 60s, the production of Christmas tree decorations in the USSR was put on stream: with the development of factory production, Christmas tree decorations became standardized to the maximum and practically lost their artistic and stylistic originality. By the decision of the International Organization of Collectors of Christmas Tree Decorations Golden Glow, toys produced before 1966 are recognized as vintage.

I advise you to look for the most interesting toys of the Soviet period from papier-mâché at flea markets (for example, on Tishinka in December) and from sellers on the Molotok.ru and Avito.ru websites. The price of toys varies from 2,000 to 15,000 rubles, depending on the rarity and state of preservation.

However, I do not pursue the goal of making my Christmas tree vintage, I want it to be unique and reflect the history of my family. And this story is happening right now! Now we can safely talk about a genuine revival of the production of Christmas toys in our country: there has been a return from the use of glass-blowing machines to a unique manual method of blowing toys, filling them with special content and meaning, using the best traditions of domestic folk craft. And I am very glad that today fewer and fewer people decorate the Christmas tree with plain faceless balls. The trend to replace a colorful and colorful Christmas tree with a pretentious designer Christmas tree "for adults" seems blasphemous to me! A laconic and discreet Christmas tree that creates a feeling of stylish luxury can hardly impress anyone, leaving memories for many years to come. In my opinion, the bright diversity of Christmas tree decorations has never seemed to people either intrusive or vulgar: it is at the sight of a multi-colored and shining Christmas tree that I feel that special Christmas smell that consists of the smells of a pine forest, wax candles, pastries and painted toys.

I spent my childhood with my grandmother in the village, so I have a special weakness for Christmas decorations with rustic motifs. A wonderful, but still rare exception among the Chinese abundance are handmade Christmas decorations made by Russian glassblowers and artists: unique figurines from the majolica workshop of Pavlova and Shepelev, hand-painted balls and figurines from Ariel. Unique balloons from the Russian Traditions series by SoiTa are painted using the technique of miniature painting by artists from Palekh, Fedoskino, Mstera and Kholuy. Each of these balls is unique, made by hand (it takes from two to four weeks to make a craftsman) and can rightly be called a work of art! In my collection there is a ball "At the command of the pike", which can be viewed endlessly! The majolica workshop of Pavlova and Shepelev is located in the city of Yaroslavl, you can order Christmas decorations on the website mastermajolica.ru (prices from 1,000 to 6,000 rubles); the plant for the production of Christmas decorations "Ariel" is located in Nizhny Novgorod, in Moscow their toys are widely represented in the book house "Moscow" (prices from 500 to 2,500 rubles); New Year's toys from SoiTa can be purchased at soita.ru (prices from 6,000 to 40,000 rubles).

In recent years, I have traveled a lot and always bring back old and unusual Christmas decorations from my trips. On my last trip to New York, I ended up in an absolutely incredible store owned by an old woman in love with Christmas. From under the counter of More & More antiques, she pulled out treasures, the value of which for me is beyond doubt: clay figurines of animals and mermaids from Chile, Noah's Ark from Mexico, a glass skunk with a silvery tail from Italy - I paid $148 for a large box of treasures! If you are in New York, look there after visiting the Museum of National History: the store is a five-minute walk from the museum.

Now the Christmas tree is neither an exquisite luxury for the rich, nor a joy for the elite, nor a fad for the spoiled, and on Christmas and New Year's Eve everyone can hang sparkling glass squirrels on spruce paws.

1. Katya, was your collection born spontaneously?

On the one hand, the decision and desire to collect Christmas decorations can be called spontaneous. But if you think about it, everything falls into place! When I moved to Moscow five years ago, all my time was devoted to study and work. I lived in a rented apartment, which had nothing to do with the word "home". So, at the beginning of my first December in Moscow, I went to the Scarlet Sails store and was stunned: it was all sparkling and shimmering with the light of New Year's lights and bulbs. There, for the first time, I saw the incredible beauty of Christmas tree decorations, they appeared as if from my childhood memories, as a picture appears on a Polaroid picture. And the most interesting thing is that they were exactly what I could have dreamed of - bright, sparkling nutcrackers, crocodiles, squirrels and clocks with neat painting. I could see these toys before only in movies or in pictures, there were no such toys in Soviet and post-Soviet times. I will always remember that evening, because it confirmed me in the thought: “If today I don’t have a house, and I can’t buy sofas and curtains, then let there be Christmas decorations. They symbolize the warmth of family traditions, and it is not so difficult to transport a small box to a new place.” That's where it started!

2. How many years have you been collecting Christmas toys?

About 7 years old.

3. How many items are in your collection?

I did not count, but I believe that at least 600 pieces.

4. On what basis do you select new toys for your collection?

Today I am very selective - not like the first time! Now I only buy very special toys. I always bring a few pieces from each trip, so I definitely check where antique shops and markets are in the new city. Often toys can be bought in shops at museums: in Vienna, I found the heroes of the triptych by Hieronymus Bosch "The Temptation of St. Anthony" - that was a joy! As for the purchase in Moscow, I really love the Ariel toy factory - the highest quality hand-painted and very close to everyone stories. In my opinion, this is incomparably better than the Chinese assembly line!

5. What is the oldest exhibit?

The oldest toys are Russian pre-revolutionary figurines made of cotton wool, in my case, ballerinas. There are toys from the late 19th century from Barcelona, ​​but it should be noted that they are still heroes of the puppet theater, ideally sized to hang on a Christmas tree.

6. Do you have favorites?

Of course, everyone has favorites! And as it happens in life, pets do not always occupy a justified place in our hearts. The most favorite toys are gifts of my closest people. I value my husband's gifts most of all, such as a cotton acrobat bought on the first Christmas together at the Flea Market. Of course, I love the gifts of our parents, grandmothers, sisters, friends! Everyone knows about my collection, so by the new year it is always replenished.

I have already told you that when I travel, I buy toys at flea markets and museum stores. Well, if you are going in the "season", then you can find something interesting in the Christmas markets. Although I found my most interesting specimens in the off-season, when there is less Chinese rubbish in the eye. In Moscow, there is a great opportunity to buy antique jewelry at the traditional Flea Market in December, but the prices there are very high, and if you look, you can find more interesting and much cheaper items on the Avito or Ebay websites. If you are looking for a toy as a gift, you can look at the Polish factory M. A. Mostowski - Christmas decorations are quite expensive, but exceptionally beautiful and of high quality, grouped in series and packed in holiday boxes.

8. How do you store your collection?

To date, 4 large boxes have been allocated for my collection, which neatly stand in the closet and occupy half of it! I pack each toy in kraft paper. I almost never keep original boxes because they take up so much space.

9. Does your collection have a practical use? Are there toys that you buy out of a passion for collecting, knowing that you won't be using them in Christmas tree decorations?

No, when buying a toy, I always “see” it on the Christmas tree. For me, the meaning of the collection is to bring joy, not to satisfy the passion of the collector. In a good way, I am a collector in the second place, in the first place - a happy adult child. After all, children do not collect, they are happy with what they hold in their hands.

10. How early do you decorate your house for the new year? How do you choose toys?

As a rule, we put up a Christmas tree a week before the New Year, that is, right on Christmas Eve (December 24). Sometimes a little early if we're away for the holidays. We always buy a living tree, so we never have a Christmas tree for a month - I don’t want the magic to become boring. As for toys, I just dress up until the place runs out on the tree!

11. Can you give some advice to beginning collectors?

It seems to me that the most important thing is not to invest in the collection of material value, but to collect "family history". Buy not the toys themselves, but remember the days and moments in which these cats and nutcrackers appeared. There are no fashion and trends here, there is only your heart and your soul, your thoughts and feelings that will pop up in your memory when you open another box with your Christmas tree decorations. Only our memory gives value to things .