13 Valuable Christmas Collectibles to Look for in Thrift Stores

Decorating for the winter holidays often comes with a built-in sense of nostalgia, as many people work to recreate the feeling of their childhood's most magical moments. However, sourcing decorations from your local big box store often leaves you with a collection of nearly disposable pieces—many of which won't last more than one season—that look just like everyone else's.

"Everyone thinks today's technology is so good, and everything is better now than it was back then," says holiday collector John Hanssen, a member of The Golden Glow of Christmas Past. "But you cannot compare the Christmas lighting, ornaments, or decorations of the early 20th century to what is made today. What they made back then, the labor involved, the quality, the innovation—there is nothing today that compares to what was made at that time."

Instead of buying low-quality, inexpensive, or mass-produced ornaments and holiday décor in bulk, look for intricate, handmade pieces with unique histories and personalities—some of which can be worth quite a lot, whether in monetary, sentimental, or aesthetic value. Ahead, see what our experts advise being on the lookout for.

German Figural Blown-Glass Ornaments

These are especially famous for their quality and variety. "That was a cottage industry," says Hanssen. "You had individual glass blowers that simply made any type of ornament that came to mind; they would make the mold for it, blow the glass into that mold, and paint it. There's an unlimited variety of glass ornaments, because it was all up to the person's imagination."

Paper Scrap Ornaments

Careful scouting can also lead you to paper "scrap" ornaments—some dating as far back as the 1800s (although pieces that old are especially rare, says Hanssen). To make these, amateur crafters (and their children) would cut their favorite pictures out of magazines, attach them to cardboard, and decorate them with ribbon, tinsel, and other festive adornments.

Victorian Kugel Ornaments

Victorian glass kugels come in a rainbow of colors, the result of adding trace amounts of metals to molten glass. Silver kugels are clear glass; their metallic appearance comes from mirrored interiors. The most common form is spheres of 2 to 4 inches, but they come in all kinds of shapes, including grapes and eggs. Forms such as the gold mushroom and silver artichoke (shown above) are very rare.

"Kugels have a weight and beautifully aged patina that other decorations can't rival," says Craig McManus, a collector in Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey, who owns more than 400 kugels.

Collectible kugels fetch from $40 to more than $1,000, depending on the size, shape, and, perhaps most importantly, color. Pink, purple, and orange pieces are the rarest. The most common colors are silver, gold, green, and cobalt. (Pale blue and turquoise tones are less available.) After balls, grapes are pretty common. Eggs, teardrops, and ribbed forms are highly collectible. Other shapes, such as berries or artichokes, are amongst the rarest

Beaded Balls

Raia likes looking for hand-beaded ornaments made from cloth-covered balls studded with rhinestones and pins; she has a collection passed down from a great-aunt. "I love buying things that have a story," she says. "When I'm looking at these handcrafted ornaments, I'm thinking about this woman who sat and stuck all these pins and tiny beads into this ball, and her patience, and how she must have loved doing it."

20th-Century Tree Lights

Though Hanssen collects "every aspect of antique Christmas," his favorite find is antique tree lights, which date back as far as the early 1900s. "If you look at lighting today, it's pretty generic," says Hanssen. "There's not a lot of innovation. Back then, the sky was the limit."

Turn-of-the-century string lights—called festoons—included eight colored bulbs, and were rented each year (by homeowners who had electricity) and returned to the company after the holiday. (Battery-operated lights became available during the 1920s.) The size C6 bulbs, which are slightly smaller than the larger C9 and C7 outdoor lights used today, worked in a series, so if one bulb went out, none of them lit up (much like the 1980s lights Clark Griswold relied on).

These bulbs are no longer produced, except occasionally for custom runs ordered by collectors who need replacement bulbs—but are still available in antique and thrift stores. "It depends on the type of light. Some are very common, because thousands of them were made, and there are some lights out there that a collector might have that's the only one known to exist," says Hanssen. "Once the bulbs burned out, they got thrown away, since people didn't save them." The ones that show up on the market today are likely strings "tucked away in Grandma's attic for many years," he says.

If you find any string of vintage lights—whether the original festoons of the early 1900s or the tinier bulbs of the 1960s—check the wiring for any frays as a safety precaution; Hanssen also recommends plugging the lights into an extension cord running from a tabletop dimmer, which will allow you to turn the lights on more slowly and prevent burst bulbs.

Feather Trees

You have plenty of options when it comes to contemporary artificial Christmas trees, but vintage and antique iterations incorporated a variety of materials to create striking—and purposely unrealistic—aesthetics. Look for full, fluffy feather trees in unexpected mid-century shades like olive and orange or twiggy, pine-inspired goose feather trees (these are just the right size for a tabletop display of your growing vintage ornament collection).

Vintage Stands

Add a vintage tree stand for the full effect: Look for intricate metalwork and a rotating stand—but the best are fully illustrated. Also look for ones that illuminate the tree from below, eliminating the need for string lights.

Aluminum Trees

Aluminum trees are a slightly controversial decorating choice (as the kids of A Charlie Brown Christmas can confirm), but they—along with many other pieces from the 1950s and 1960s—are increasingly sought-out antique options as the Baby Boomer generation leans into nostalgia for their childhood holidays. "When people think of aluminum trees, they just think of silver, but they made aluminum trees in all different types of colors and designs, in heights from 2 or 3 feet up to 7 feet tall," says Hanssen. "You either hated them or you loved them, but aluminum trees are very popular right now."

Stockings and Toys

Handmade quilted stockings add a cozy element to a stairwell or fireplace, and wooden trucks, dollhouses, and other old-fashioned toys can serve as tablescape add-ons or festive window scenes.

Antique Santa and Elves

Raia also watches for Belsnickel Santas, a German version of Saint Nicholas who wears an ankle-length, hooded coat and sports a generous white beard. Vintage Christmas pixie figurines are another popular find, she says. Their cheerful faces, felt legs drawn up to the knees, and impish smiles are mid-century icons that will look perfectly at home next to your kids' Elf on the Shelf.

Putz Houses

"The age group that was young in the 1950s and 1960s are getting nostalgic for the type of decorations they had growing up," says Hanssen. He recommends watching for Putz houses—small cardboard buildings designed to be lit from within by bulbs on a strand of Christmas lights, which diffuse a gentle glow out through plastic or cellophane-lined windows.

Books and Photographs

Consider holiday-themed books—like an old version of The Night Before Christmas or a first printing of How the Grinch Stole Christmas—or antique Christmas photos, which Hanssen collects. "In the beginning of photography, it was a lot of portraits—you really don't see a lot of interior photos of someone's house or a store," he says. "That's what I look for—a family around the Christmas tree from the early 1900s." (Another benefit: If you're just starting an ornament collection, you can use dated photos to identify ornaments from different eras.)

Holiday China

Hanssen also looks for holiday china, including full sets, children's toy versions, and one-off branded plates that early stores gave out as part of their holiday advertising campaigns. "There were other giveaways from stores, too," he says, citing ink blotters, special edition Christmas toys, and glassware. "The old stuff is harder to find."

He organizes an open house each year to share his "stupidly large" collection—which he's been adding to since the 1980s—with friends, neighbors, and other collectors. "I love hearing the stories like, 'My parents had this on the tree,' or, 'My grandparents had that on the tree,'" Hanssen says. "It brings back memories for people and, you know, Christmas when you're a child—there's nothing that can compare to that."