Abstract

"Jingle Bell Stock: Technology and Labor in the Postwar Artificial Christmas Tree Industry"

Aaron Thomas, Mississippi State University (tat233@msstate.edu)

Although inventors long labored to design a substitute tree American customers found appealing, they found little commercial success. In 1955, however, William A. Warren introduced his new tree design, a product in which he had invested years of research and over eighteen thousand dollars. It was a giant technological leap for the industry. Warren’s invention had over thirty-two thousand plastic needles that made a simulated conifer that looked, and felt, realer than ever before. A year later Warren’s company had sold 179,000 public stock shares and employed three hundred people. One journalist remarked that the plastic synthetic “enjoyed nationwide acceptance.”
This paper examines some of the dramatic technological changes that took place in America’s artificial Christmas tree industry, and links those to evolving business strategies. Although most tree factories first started churning out trees in the northeast, by the mid 1950s they were increasingly moving to the U.S. South. A few were already setting up shop in Mexico. Mechanization, as in other industries, led to a drastic reduction in payroll expense, and more unemployed American workers.
This paper further investigates what life was like in the nation’s tree factories. The industry’s seasonality demand meant that employees were often let go after the holiday. In 1955 one worker in a Chicago factory likened their employment to slavery, and another pointed out that the employer only hired African Americans because they could be “kept in their place.” Decades later a plant in Virginia relied on women workers because of their “finger dexterity.” Most of them were minorities. This perspective shifts the focus away from national portrayals of the white, middle class Christmas, and instead reveals the stories, and the struggles, of the people who make its traditions possible.