A display of Christmas decorations in the Liverpool Woolworths in 1928. (Image: Paul Seaton)
   
The first Woolworth store in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, pictured in about 1890.

One day in the Autumn of 1880 a travelling salesman called at Frank Woolworth's store in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA.  The great Woolworth 5 cent store had been in business for just over a year, and at 28 years old Frank was getting quite a reputation as a merchant - a canny buyer who could spot a good seller.

The salesman wanted to sell Frank glass ornaments, made in Germany, for people to display at Christmas.  Woolworth tried to turn him away - Americans would never waste money on something decorative, why not find something practical to sell, he asked.  The salesman persisted and in the end Frank agreed to take one case of 144 decorations - strictly on sale or return terms!

Much to Frank's surprise, the decorations sold out the same day he put them on sale - 144 units bought for two cents and sold for five, turning a profit of $4.32, a lot of money back in 1880.  He was the first to admit that he had missed a trick, especially when it became clear that further supplies wouldn't be available until the following year.

 Among the first Christmas decorations ever sold in America - a blown glass Santa Claus from the late 19th century. It was made in Germany and imported by F. W. Woolworth. (Image: Paul Seaton)
One of the most famous early decorations, a blown glass, hand painted owl from late 19th century Germany. These sold for five cents each. (Image: Paul Seaton) The next year Frank had learnt his lesson, buying substantial quantities for both the Lancaster store and his new stores in Harrisburg and Scranton.  This time there was an assortment of designs, all in blown glass and hand painted in Germany.  Customers loved the ornaments and bought them as fast as Frank could put them on sale.  By 1890 Woolworth was selling huge volumes, with very little competition.
It looks a little like a purple hand grenade, but it was intended to be a huge acorn - pictured about life size - blown glass, spray painted in Germany at the end of the 19th century (Image: Paul Seaton) By 1890 Frank Woolworth had committed to take all the decorations that his main importer in New York City, called Mr. Wilmsen, could get hold of. Snow House blown glass. hand-painted Christmas decoration from late 19th century Germany (today part of the Russian federation) (Image: Paul Seaton)
 
In 1939, at the age of 81, Wilmsen remembered "Mr. Woolworth had at that time only a few stores.  But I grew with Woolworth.  I have sold them at least $25,000,000 worth of Christmas tree ornaments, in one year $800,000 worth.  At first we imported tinsel from Germany.  Since the war I make it myself.  To-day, at the corner of Haegert and Jasper Streets I have a big factory.  I have 255 people working to fill Woolworth orders.  We sell to all, but Woolworth was the first.  I am the oldest Woolworth supplier." 
 
When Frank opened his first British store on 5th November 1909, decorations featured on the opening advertisement. 

Although fancy decorations for the Christmas tree became fashionable in Victorian high society, they were out of the price bracket of most Edwardian customers.  Woolworths changed that overnight bringing the price down from several shillings (10-25p) to just one penny each (½p).  The ornaments sold in huge quantities !

Opening advertisement for the first British Woolworth store, in Church Street Liverpol, which opened on 5th November 1909. (Image courtesy of the Liverpool Echo)
   
Individual blown glass Christmas decorations were sold for 1d (approx ½p) each or for 10d (Approx 4p) per dozen in Woolworths in the 1910 and 20s

The ornaments were manufactured in Germany (many of them in small family-run businesses at home), consolidated at the Woolworth warehouse in Sonneberg, shipped through the wholly owned Woolworth import/export business in Calais, France and brought into the UK through the docks at Liverpool (West Coast) or Hull (East Coast).

Displayed in boxes, originally nested in tissue paper, the most popular designs for adults were bells, bulbs (quite like modern light bulb but much smaller and painted a bright colour) and acorns, but the best sellers were miniature glass trumpets and guitars which really appealed to children.

Each glass decoration was one penny (½p) in the 1910s, rising to 2D (1p) in the mid 1920s.  Before the Great War of 1914-18 customers could pick up a full box of twelve ornaments for the bargain price of 10D (4p) - in a special 12 for the price of 10 promotion.
   

Today we call it a "Picturegram" for Christmas decorations, but in Woolworths in 1928 it was called a "Layout" - a top secret instruction from Northern District Office
   
Top secret display instructions for Christmas Decorations from the 1930s

By the 1920s the Christmas range included lametta, tinsel, snow and glitter under the Jack Frost brand, lanterns, candles and candle holders (for the tree), along with Christmas stockings (otherwise known as red socks), pine cones and miniature Christmas trees.   

Everything was less than sixpence (2½p), and Woolworths made a point of including a penny line decoration (still just ½p) in this layout from 1928.
         

A popular addition to the range in the 1930s was Nativity Sets, made of plaster of Paris.  Some of these came factory painted (like the illustration) with each piece sixpence (2½p); others were left plain for people to paint at home.

Most customers took the company up on the offer of all seven pieces (the Crib and Baby Jesus counting as one) for the price of 6 at 3/- (Three shillings or 15p).

Woolies sold millions of these in Britain, America and Germany and many have survived in near perfect condition in people's collections to this day.

 Nativity set made of Plaster of Paris a popular Woolies collectable from the 1930s
         
Another first in America in the 1930s was electronic tree lights - originally seven bakelite lampholders and lamps on a 10 foot (3 metre) electric flex.  In America these originally sold for 85 cents (about 22½p at the time)

These weren't stocked in the UK because they far exceeded the sixpenny price limit and because fewer customers had electric sockets in home in the UK in the early 30s.

 7 bakelite Christmas tree lights for 85 cents from Woolworths in America in the late 1930s
         

In 1939 as Britain braced for attack, sentiment in the US was strongly anti-war.  In both 1939 and 1940 the American stores offered an extensive range of decorations, and were able to maintain a credible offer throughout the war.

By contrast, in Britain stocks were limited in 1939 and non existent by 1940.

 Part of the range available in Woolworths stores in America at Christmas 1939. Britain was at war and in the UK everything was much more austere.
         

Shortly after the start of World War II, faced with rapid price inflation, the British Woolworths abandoned their sixpenny price limit.

In the late 1940s and 50s both the US and UK companies sourced decorations in occupied Germany and Japan.  It was the only time that both companies used the same packaging.

Prices were from 1/3 (6.25p) to 2/9 (13.75p).

 Glass ornaments in an assortment of sizes - sold in Woolies stores in the UK and US in the late 1940s and early 1950s
                                                                                                               

Christmas Decorations on sale in the Woolies store in Commercial Road, Portsmouth (No. 35) in 1953
 
By the early 1950s a full range of Decorations were on sale, with the company starting to withdraw some of the lighting department at Christmas to make way for extended displays.  Before long they also started to dress the lighting canopy with hanging foil decorations - and sales rocketed.
A simple foil, cellulose and plastic decorated Christmas Tree - 5 shillings (25p) in 1957. New materials, including plastic and man-made fibres started to be used to manufacture the decorations, as more items started to be "Empire-made" - in other words made in  Hong Kong.

The company also developed a strong line in artificial brush Christmas trees, in sizes from 2 feet (0.6m) to 6'6" (2m), which remain popular to this day.

 A 16" rubber santa claus figure which featured in the range throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. They were "Empire Made" in Hong Kong
Santa's Candy Flyer, one of many plastic novelty items from the early 1960s (Image: Paul Seaton) Other popular lines were plastic sledges and sleighs - many designed to contain (or including) a selection of sweets.  Again these lines were sourced in Hong Kong.
By the late 1970s Woolies had assembled a spectacular range of Christmas decorations, including glass as well as plastic shatterproof ornaments, corsages, foil decorations, paper chains, crackers, lights and garlands.  Supported by strong television advertising sales of decorations were very strong and continued to grow at a time when other ranges were under pressure from increasing competition.

It wasn't until Paternoster (Kingfisher) bought the business in the 1980s and used learning from Woolworths to develop a range of Christmas decorations at B&Q that Woolies faced any strong competition at the budget end of the market.  During the 1980s, following B&Q's example most DIY stores and Garden Centres launched more substantial Christmas ranges.

 The Winfield range of Christmas decorations from Woolworths in 1973
   

The Magical Christmas Decorations Shop - part of the Woolworth offer in 1983 (Image: with thanks to Mr. Andy Hayzelden)
 
One of Kingfisher's first actions to sharpen up the Woolworth business in early 1983 was to overhaul the range and display for Decorations for the following Christmas.  The new displays were attractive and appealing.
But seven years later very little had changed, with the same display techniques still in evidence. The Decorations Shop in Woolworths at Kingston-upon-Thames in 1990. (Image: with thanks to Mr. Andy Hayzelden)
Behind the Santa Claus disguise, Woolworths Christmas Manager (and former buyer of Cards and Christmas Decorations) Roger Stafford, in a picture that featured in the Kingfisher Annual Report in 1996

One of Kingfisher's declared aims was to "de-seasonalise" the business, which was supposed to mean developing additional lines of business while maintaining existing ones, but actually meant that during the 1980s and 90s the range development of Christmas Decorations got rather less focus than other ranges. 

The Buyer for Cards and Christmas Decorations, Roger Stafford (a third generation Woolworth man, whose father was a leading light in the 1940s and 1950s) was moved to manage the implementation of product bar coding as part of a strategic move to EPOS (electronic point of sale).  

When sales started to tail off, Roger was appointed "Christmas Manager" (though universally "St. Nick named" Father Christmas) to coordinate the business plan in 1995.  It was one of the strongest profit years ever, and Roger featured in Kingfisher's Annual Report in Spring 1996.
         

Part of the range of Christmas decorations on sale in Woolworths and Woolworths Big W stores in the UK in 2003
         
Since demerger from Kingfisher the team at Woolworths have set to work developing a new, modern co-ordinated range of trees and decorations as part of the revitalisation of the business.  The range in 2003 was a huge leap forward and there's much more to come as the Buying team work on innovative product development with suppliers across the world to deliver our 125th Christmas later this year.  Little did Mr. Woolworth know when he tried to send the salesman away in 1880 how well the decorations would sell and how influential his company would be in making decorations available to everyone, rich and poor - offering good quality at great prices.
         

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