Christmas 1960 to Present: Under the Tree Decorations

In the 1960's Nativity Scenes or Creches were imported from Germany in
small quantities and from Italy. The Italien versions captured
the market toward the end of the 1950s because of their nice detail and
lower price than the German version. Some of the department
stores would sell the individual peices at very affordable
prices The Italien figures ranged in size from 3 in to 16 in and
the detailing was of high quality. During the 1960's the Santon
Figures from France started to begee of interest to collectors.
In 1960, an unbreakable acetate plastic set of 17 pieces was produced
by Hartland Plastics Inc. In the early part of the decade painted
village sets were imported from Japan. These village houses
included scalloped roof edges, balconies, sponge trees placed in front
of the houses and cellophane windows. During the middles of the
1960's a less expensive version was imported from Japan and by the end
of the decade the houses were made of cardboard and just painted.
Small sponge trees were placed off to the side and roofs were painted
white.

In the 1970's , Italy became the main importer of Creches. The
detail of the Italien imports out did those of German and
Japanese. Village Houses being placed under the tree declined,
but American and Japan continued to manufacture affordable sets.
Over 90 percent of the Houses purchased were manufactured in Japan.

In the 1980's Snow Baby figures became popular. Dept 56 began the
ever popular village collections with the Original Snow Village which
was fashion after the age old tradition of Putz scenes.

In the 1990s Germany began producing the elegant papier mache creche
figures. France's tradition of manufacturing dressed nativity
figures continued and became more popular each year. In 1994
Italy introduced the Fortanini Golden Edition Nativity the 14
peice set was limited to an edition of 2.500. In 1990 Dept 56
introduced The North Pole Series.