The aluminum Christmas tree is a type of artificial Christmas tree that was popular in the United States from the 1950s to the mid-1960s.  The tree is made of aluminum, featuring foil needles and illumination from below via a rotating color wheel. The museum has a couple of aluminum Christmas trees in its collection along with a color wheel. The color wheels and one of the aluminum trees, in its original box, are on display in one of the windows of the retail exhibit right now. They, along with other vintage holiday items and toys, will be on display at the museum through the month of December.

Aluminum Christmas trees were first commercially manufactured sometime around 1955. The largest manufacturer of aluminum Christmas trees were produced in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, by the Aluminum Specialty Company. In that decade the company produced more than one million aluminum trees. The trees, including the company’s flagship product the “Evergleam,” retailed for $25 and wholesaled for $11.25. The trees were either left undecorated or decorated with sets of brightly colored glass ornaments made by manufacturers such as Shiny Brite.

The first aluminum trees could not be illuminated like real Christmas trees or other artificial trees. Fire safety concerns prevented lights from being strung through the tree’s branches.  The common method of illumination was a floor-based “color wheel,” which was placed under the tree. The color wheel featured various colored segments on a clear plastic wheel; when the wheel rotated a light shone through the clear plastic casting an array of colors throughout the tree’s metallic branches.

The annual Holiday Home Tour is Sunday. The tour is 1-4 p.m. The Lyon County Museum opens at noon the day of the tour. Refreshments and holiday cookies and other goodies will be at the museum for home tour participants.  Homeowners for the 2016 Holiday Home Tour include: Mark Goodenow, Kathy and Jerry Lozinski, Pamela Russell, and Carol and Steve Kruger. Tickets are $20 each and are available at the Lyon County Museum, Hy-Vee, and Coco Avenue.

The Lyon County Historical Society is a nonprofit, member-supported organization. For more information on membership, research, volunteering, or the museum’s collection, please contact us at 537-6580 or director@lyoncomuseum.org. Like our page and follow us on Facebook!