Christmas Worth Keeping: The Appeal of Collectible Christmas Decorations
A Christmas decoration spends most of its life out of sight. Yet the moment it comes out of the box, it can change the feeling of a room.
Perhaps it is a porcelain ornament bought to mark a baby’s first Christmas. Perhaps it is a festive dish that always holds the chocolates, or a beautifully modelled Santa that has become part of the family’s December furniture.
These are small objects with an unusually large role. We bring them out, arrange them, remember where they came from and put them away again. Over time, the ritual becomes part of their value.
That is what interests me about collectible Christmas pieces from makers such as Wedgwood, Villeroy & Boch, Royal Albert and Royal Doulton. Some are vintage. Others are contemporary. They do not need to be old to be worth keeping.
When I think of these pieces as an investment, I am thinking about lasting quality and years of enjoyment. Not something to trade, but something to welcome back.
Royal Doulton "Santa's Restful Moment' figurine, 2021
A dated plate and the beginning of a tradition
One important chapter in the history of annual Christmas collectibles begins in Denmark.
In 1895, Bing & Grøndahl issued its first Christmas plate. The Museum of Danish America credits artist Frans Hallin with developing a production technique in which the design was carved into the mould, allowing consistent reproduction. Its success established an annual tradition. Royal Copenhagen followed with its first Christmas plate in 1908.
The appeal was not simply another attractive plate. A new design each year gave a decorative object a date, and a date gave it a place in someone’s life.
The museum describes families choosing plates for years associated with weddings, births, baptisms and graduations. A collection could become a visible family history, assembled one occasion at a time.
This is not proof that every later Christmas ornament range descended directly from Danish plates. But it offers a compelling early example of the collecting idea we still recognise: a seasonal object that marks something worth remembering.
Bing & Grondahl 1972 Christmas Plate 'Christmas in Greenland' - made in Denmark.
From the dresser to the Christmas tree
Christmas ceramics need not stay on a display shelf. Their appeal reaches from hanging ornaments to figurines, candle holders and tableware.
For someone who already loves a maker’s designs, a festive piece offers another way to enjoy that connection.
Royal Albert’s Old Country Roses, for example, can move beyond the tea table. The boxed 2010 porcelain heart ornament in this year’s Christmas Shop carries the familiar roses onto the tree. It is porcelain rather than a miniature bone-china place setting, but the pattern creates the link.
Villeroy & Boch’s Toy’s Fantasy dishes bring collecting into everyday Christmas hospitality. A teddy bear, reindeer or gingerbread motif becomes part of passing around nuts and chocolates, not simply something to admire behind glass.
A sculptural ornament, a floral heart and a storybook serving dish can all belong to a thoughtful Christmas collection. They do different jobs, and that is part of the pleasure.
Made to return, year after year
The pleasure of a well-made Christmas piece is that it can remain part of your life for a very long time. With appropriate care, a porcelain ornament or festive dish can be enjoyed across decades, carefully packed away and welcomed back each December.
Look closely at what makes an individual piece appealing: the modelling of a figure, the finish of the glaze, the clarity of the decoration, the relief detail or the way its colours work together. These are qualities you can continue to appreciate long after the excitement of buying it has passed.
Ceramics are breakable, of course, and gilding and decoration deserve thoughtful care. Quality is not a promise of indestructibility. But these are not objects that need replacing simply because another Christmas has arrived.
Their appeal is in keeping them: enjoying the workmanship, building familiar rituals around them and perhaps, eventually, passing them on.
A dish becomes the one that always holds the Christmas chocolates. An ornament becomes the first one hung on the tree. A figure claims the same corner of the sideboard each December.
The investment is in something you want to keep, rather than something you expect to sell.
Why contemporary pieces belong in a collection
Vintage collecting can make us forget something obvious: every old favourite was new once.
A contemporary Christmas ornament may appeal because of its modelling, colour, finish or connection to a pattern you already collect. It may mark a first Christmas in a new home. It may simply be the piece you would be disappointed not to see again next December.
There is no need to wait twenty years before enjoying that attachment.
Equally, a respected brand name should be the beginning of your assessment, not the end. Read the material description, look closely at the decoration and check the stated country of manufacture. Do not assume every piece from a historic British or European maker was produced in its country of origin.
A maker’s history and an individual object’s manufacturing history are related, but they are not the same thing.
Annual, limited edition or simply seasonal?
These descriptions are often treated as interchangeable. They are not.
An annual edition belongs to a particular year or annual series. A limited edition has a stated production restriction, which should be supported by the maker’s documentation. A seasonal range may return across several Christmases.
For collectors, the useful questions are specific. Which range does this belong to? Is the year part of the design or recorded in accompanying documentation? Was an edition size stated? Is it a retired design, or one that appeared over several seasons?
Those details make collecting more interesting. But a piece does not have to be rare to become a favourite. Sometimes the design you love is more important than the edition you could complete.
Building a collection without buying everything
You do not need a complete annual series to have a meaningful collection.
Choose a thread that interests you. It might be one maker, a favourite pattern, a particular colour or ornaments connected with significant years. Alternatively, collect across brands and let your own eye create the relationship.
One carefully chosen addition can be enough. A collection built slowly leaves room for your tastes and traditions to develop, rather than requiring you to buy a whole new Christmas in one afternoon.
Keep original boxes and paperwork when you have them. They can help with identification, storage and presentation. A lovely piece without its box can still be worth keeping; it simply needs another suitable way to be stored safely.
Check condition carefully, especially hanging points, projecting details, rims and gilding. Porcelain and bone china deserve careful handling; a premium label does not make them unbreakable.
Store pieces separately and follow the care instructions for the particular object. The ribbon, metallic decoration and ceramic body may not all tolerate the same treatment.
An Australian Christmas, collected your way
We do not need a snowy setting or a grand formal dining room to enjoy festive ceramics.
A small Christmas dish can sit beside an afternoon cup of tea. A few ornaments can hang from a modest tree. One figure on a sideboard can be enough to announce that the season has arrived.
The point is not to reproduce a department-store display. It is to choose objects that earn their place in your home.
Some may eventually be passed on. Others will simply give you pleasure for many years. Both are good reasons to keep them.
In this year’s Christmas Shop, I have brought together festive pieces to enjoy now and bring out again. Contemporary and older, decorative and useful, they offer different ways to begin a Christmas tradition of your own.
References and further reading
Museum of Danish America: The Story of Danish Christmas Plates