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Craft program ignites memories, more

Library users make holiday ornaments, learn their connection to history

Library users discover the history behind putz house ornaments and made her own reproductions on Dec. 8 at Main Street Library’s Creating Putz House Ornaments program.

Dorothy Daniels displays her completed putz house ornament on Dec. 8 at Main Street Library.

Photos and article by Karen L. Gill

Even though Dorothy Daniels had never heard them called “putz houses,” she was very familiar with the miniature Christmas decorations that were on display in the lobby at Main Street Library.

“It reminded me of things when I was a child,” said the lifelong Newport News resident of seeing the display. “My dad always had a whole scene under the tree in the 1930s and ’40s. He called it a garden. He had built a platform with a white picket fence around it and a barn and animals. We used it every year,” she said.

Daniels, along with 15 others, discovered the history behind her dad’s display and made her own reproduction on Dec. 8 at Main Street Library’s Creating Putz House Ornaments program.

Crafting instructor Ruthann Grabowski told the attendees that the name comes from the German word putzen, which means clean or put in place, and that the 1920s-1940s-era miniature houses also may be called dimestore cardboard houses or “little glitter houses.”

She explained to the Library audience how World War I and II caused the original wooden heirloom versions from Germany to evolve into the Japanese-produced cardboard versions that were not meant to last.

Because many stores dumped their Christmas products from Japan after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Grabowski explained, even fewer of the originals remain today.
“Those that existed after World War II are little houses of survival in our history,” she said.

To give the Library attendees a better feel for their history, Grabowski provided supplies similar to those used in the putz houses from the 1920s to 1950s.To replicate snow, she provided a substance called “coconut” made on demand from wheat hulls, she said. The red cellophane for the windows and doors came from pre-WWII collections, the glitter was specially made from crushed glass ornaments, and the mica chips came from rock, she explained.

Newport News resident Robin Ball brought her two homeschooled daughters and their friend to the program. The history lesson was an added bonuses to making their own putz house ornaments. “It tied in perfectly, because the girls are studying World War II,” she said.

Esther Fronkier also was glad to learn some background. She had bought a 12-piece putz house collection at an estate sale in Newport News two years ago. Hoping to learn more, she brought the collection with her to the program.

As Grabowski looked it over, a friend was reminded of a popular PBS television show. “It’s like Antiques Roadshow,” she joked.

Grabowoski said the American-made World War II-era putz collection was in great condition, and that it could be worth $100 or more. She asked Fronkier how much she paid for it at the estate sale. “I think about three,” she replied. “Three hundred?” Grabowski asked. “No, three or four dollars!” Fronkier replied.

Both women said they were glad that she had brought the collection, while the other program attendees admired the little pieces of history.

But for Daniels, the value of the putz house program remained in the reigniting of her childhood memories.

“I expected it to be wonderful, but it was beyond my expectations,” she said.

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