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But ornaments would fit in well with the rodeo version too. Zed!  I still have an original box for Christmas ornaments that says Shiny Brite, from my childhood. Not all of the ornaments have survived, though. Oh--they weren't referred to by the name.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Max Eckardt, a German immigrant to the United States, founded a company in New York City in the early 1930's to produce Christmas ornaments. He sold his glass balls under two different trade names: Shiny Brite and Max Eckardt & Sons. F.W. Woolworth was among his largest customers and accounted for the great popularity of Shiny brite ornaments. World War II ended the imporation of German glass ornaments to the United States. Exkardt, Woolworth and Corning Glass filled the void and dominated the post-war market. Shiny Brite became the largest Christmas ornament manufacturer in the world.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Quote:
I still have an original box for Christmas ornaments that says Shiny Brite, from my childhood. Not all of the ornaments have survived, though. Oh--they weren't referred to by the name.
ok, so it looks as if this was a trademark (Shiny Brite) that possibly got passed into more general (if not very widespread)use as Shiny Bright then transferred as a description of another kind of ornament...?
edit: and I meant to say thanks FS for that excellent hard data on the company name.
Last edited by maverick; 03/07/06 12:15 PM.
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Carpal Tunnel
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>>> ...Shiny Bright then transferred as a description of another kind of ornament
This is sort of like here, people usually refer to all glass Christmas ornaments as "des boules de Noël," - Christmas balls - no matter what the shape or type.
Even odder, if a person buys ornaments in the shape of something, birds for example, and they want to refer to them specifically, (instead of a general, I just bought Christmas balls) they'll usually say, "I bought these nice Christmas balls in the shape of birds."
You'd think that they'd take this specific occasion to drop the generic "balls". [shrugging shoulder-e]
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Carpal Tunnel
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> drop the generic "balls".
The effect on language would be shattering.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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>>another kind of ornament
I agree, but I also hear a note of 'endearment' in the term. Sexist, but endearment nonetheless.
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
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Yes, even though we always had a myriad of decorations in our box we'd always say "the box of Christmas Tree balls" or "get the Christmas tree balls out", etc. Never occurred to me that we did that until this thread, though. Another AWAD revelation! 
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we called them all, decorations. unless they were lights, then we called them the "Christmas tree lights."
formerly known as etaoin...
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Quote:
we called them all, decorations. unless they were lights, then we called them the "Christmas tree lights."
what he said.
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addict
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addict
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Us, too, eta. Can't remember anyone in my family calling them Christmas tree balls - always decorations.
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