News flash: vintage Christmas tree toppers do not in fact have to be placed on top of trees. Crazy I know! They look great displayed in vintage glass genie bottles, atop mini bottle brush trees or stuffed into seasonal mugs. Don’t be afraid to mix old and new, plastic and glass and ALL the colors.
Vintage Glass Finial Christmas Tree Toppers
One of my 798 different Kitschmas collections include glass finial tree toppers. Ya know the shiny pointy kind. I must admit this is a relatively new collection to me. I first inherited several newer more classic styles, think Christopher Radko, from my mother. Eventually I started adding to the collection with more mid-century style toppers. The tacky and more colorful the better. The awesome thing is when displayed as one collection they all play together beautifully.
Where to Find Glass Christmas Tree Toppers
The number one thing (besides where do you put it all) I get asked is where do I find all these collectibles. Well let me first say that I have been going to antique malls, flea markets and junk sales since I was a wee child. I grew up in a 130 year old pink Victorian home that my parents were constantly antique hunting for. My weekends were spent on the backroads of Texas looking for treasures. That being said, it takes some looking and getting dirt under your fingernails at a few flea markets. Or if you like shooting fish in a barrel there are plenty on eBay and Etsy. It’s not an obscure collection and better yet most were mass produced, even the very old blown glass finials to an extent. You should have no trouble locating toppers to call your own, plus they are still being made by companies like reproduction Shiny Brite styles.
How to Display A Collection of Tree Toppers
As with any collectible there is no right or wrong way to display them. This is all really just a matter of preference. Just remember many of these glass tree toppers are fragile. I try to keep mine up high and away from curious cats, running kids and overzealous wagging dog tails all of which could end in disaster for a Christmas tree topper collection.
Here are a few of my favorite tried and true methods…
Christina Approved Genie in a Bottle Display Method
This may be my favorite method for two reasons. One, I collect vintage glass bottles. Two, said bottles do not always come with the fun pointy bottle tops. What’s a girl to do but improvise with glass finial Christmas tree toppers? For my glass bottles that did come with lids I just carefully wrap the lids up and stick away until after the holidays. You may have to do some mixing and matching to find the right bottle for the right topper size wise.
P.S. Don’t have a collection of colorful glass bottles? Don’t worry I’ve got a blog post about How to Make DIY Colorful Glass Bottles with food coloring and glue!
Create a Mini Forest to Display Your Vintage Glass Christmas Finial Collection
Sure you can put your glass finial tree toppers on your Christmas tree. I just happen to prefer a mini rainbow Christmas tree forest as one of my favorite methods of display. This is a fun method but be careful because it makes your small trees top heavy and more prone for tippage. Just make sure everything is stable.
Vintage Desk Receipt Spikes to Display Tree Toppers
My mom was a decorating genius and one of her many pearls of wisdom was to display these hollow tree toppers on receipt spikes. These long spikes with a tabletop base are perfect for displaying your glass tree toppers. She would also add a bit of florist putty to the base of the toppers to make sure they did not wobble on the spikes.
You’ll Poke Your Eye Out – Taking Care of Vintage Glass Tree Toppers
If you are the kind of collector who likes to throw everything in a closet after the holidays and call it a day glass finials are not for you. You have to baby this collection a little bit and bust out the bubble wrap and hard sided containers for storage. Though I have several that are plastic others are very old and blown glass. Once you start pricing out the glass toppers you will take great care with storage too.
P.S. Want to see more pictures of this green and yellow Mod Christmas?
I’m always adding to my tree topper collection my only qualification is that they fit my Kitschmas vibe and they almost always do! Do you have any glass Christmas finials in your collection? How do you display yours?
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