Christmas tree toy in Russia.

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries (until the revolution), there were few factory-made Christmas decorations - they were imported mainly from Germany. The production of Christmas tree decorations in Russia was very small - in St. Petersburg and Klin. The most popular toys at that time were those made using chromolithographic images glued to foil, paper, wire, and cotton wool. This technology began to develop in Germany in the mid-19th century. Cardboard toys, flat and three-dimensional, also appeared at the turn of the century and are also of German origin - they are called “Dresden”.

Very beautiful decorations were made from two pieces of cardboard glued together with a mirror-like pattern on them, slightly convex. Thus, the toy turned out to be double-sided. It was usually covered with silver or colored foil, its luminous surface reflecting the magical light of Christmas tree candles. Three-dimensional toys were also made from cardboard with deep embossing. They were used as gift boxes. The Christmas tree was necessarily decorated with a variety of wax angels, homemade gingerbread cookies, candlesticks, pine cones, and papier-mâché products.

After the revolution, the import of toys from Germany stopped, and the Christmas tree was banned. The highest order to return New Year's traditions led to the flourishing of the production of Christmas tree decorations in the Soviet Union from the mid-30s to the mid-60s. Toys were made from cotton wool, papier-mâché, cardboard (using the old “Dresden technology”), wire, tin, wood, porcelain, and glass.

Cotton toys were made from pressed cotton, which was given the desired shape. There were special frames for people and animals. The painted figurine was covered with starch paste with mica, which gave them rigidity. The faces of dolls and the muzzles of animals were sculpted from clay, papier-mâché, sewn from fabric, and chromolithographic images were also used. These toys - fruits and vegetables, fairy-tale characters and animals - were usually placed on the lower branches of the Christmas tree - children could touch them and even play with them.

Glass toys were new to everyone. Glassblowers blew balls through a glass tube heated red-hot on a gas burner. When the ball reached the desired size, one end was sealed, the ball was cooled, immersed in colored varnish or silver nitrite, painted and a “cap” with a loop was attached. They also made Red Riding Hoods, stargazers, bunnies, foxes, buglers, stratospheric balloons, and rockets. Decorations were also made from glass beads connected with copper or steel wire. This is how toys of geometric shapes were mounted - abstract structures.

In the late 30s and 40s, the Moskabel plant spun wire flowers, stars, baskets, and houses from production waste. During the war, in conditions of total shortage, tin figurines of animals were stamped and then painted. This is the type of toy most valued by collectors - they are valuable due to their rarity.

Electric garlands, the production of which also began in the forties, took root, although not immediately. Before this, it was customary to light candles on Christmas trees.

Since the early 50s, they began to produce gift sets of “baby” toys. You can still decorate a toy Christmas tree with these miniature toys, creating a cozy atmosphere on your coffee table or work table. The set included toys made of glass, plastic, paper, their subjects corresponded to “real” decorations - these were cucumbers with lemons, and snowmen with bears, and even glass beads matched the size of a tiny Christmas tree.

From the second half of the 60s, the production of Christmas tree decorations began to flow. We continue to buy bright toys, with them the feeling of a holiday comes to our house. On New Year's Eve, we take out boxes of decorations stored on mezzanines and storage rooms. Among them are those that we bought last year, five to ten years ago, there are certainly toys that we remember from our early childhood, as well as toys that made our fathers and mothers happy, which they certainly tell us and our children about. The tree is decorated, the combination of toys on it is unique, and the feelings that the magic of the New Year tree gives us are also unique.

The certificate was prepared using materials from the catalog of the exhibition “Russian Christmas tree decoration from the collection of Kim Balashak”, held in December 2002 at the All-Russian Museum of Decorative, Applied and Folk Arts