Wellsboro: The Town That Saved Christmas
- by Ed Byers
- November 28, 2018
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(Editor’s Note: This article was published in 2018. In 2019, the 36th annual Dickens of a Christmas festival will be held December 7 – December 9 and Christmas on Main Street will take place December 13 – December 15.)
In the pre-dawn hours of Friday, September 1, 1939, Adolph Hitler’s forces invaded Poland and suddenly the ominous war rumblings from Germany became real as World War Two was underway in Europe. A half a world away, the United States had yet to engage in the battle, but major retailers gearing up for Christmas were soon to begin fighting a battle of their own.
Here begins the story of how a World War, creative engineering and fast-thinking by business leaders helped Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, become known as “The Town That Saved Christmas” and Corning Glass to become America’s leading glass Christmas ornament supplier.
The war-time British blockade of imported goods from Europe included German manufactured glass Christmas ornaments popular in the United States. German immigrant and ornament factory owner Max Eckardt, from his offices in New York City, was directing U.S. sales and distribution of his German-made ornaments, supplying all F.W. Woolworth stores and others.
With Christmas coming and the British blockade firmly in place, Eckardt was concerned as to how he could ever meet the expected U.S. demand for more than 250 million ornaments.
Max Eckardt had to think fast – and work faster! His mission was to find a producer on American soil to meet the demand. Huddling with F.W. Woolworth Company executives, they decided to call on Corning Glass’s world headquarters. Eckardt and Woolworth’s walked out of the meeting with a deal for Corning to begin full-scale production of ornaments called “Shiny Brites.”
Wellsboro’s Corning glass plant, located in the Pine Creek Valley & PA Grand Canyon Landscape of the PA Wilds and fewer than 50 miles from Corning’s headquarters, was assigned the job of retrofitting its glass bulb operations to manufacture Eckardt’s Shiny Brites. This was a perfect fit because the Wellsboro plant had high-speed-ribbon machine technology that could be converted to mass-produce ornament bulbs.
It was also a war-time coup for Eckardt in several ways. Not only did he have a United States manufacturing base for his ornaments, but during war-time, he could boast that they were “Made in America.” He took it a step further by designing Shiny Brite ornament boxes with a likeness of Santa Claus shaking hands with Uncle Sam.
In 1940 alone, Wellsboro’s Corning employees turned out more than 40 million Shiny Brite ornaments, supplying them to stores all over the United States. The Shiny Brite manufacturing tradition continued in Wellsboro for several decades and Wellsboro took great pride in its notoriety as “The Town That Saved Christmas.”
In Wellsboro’s Penn Wells Hotel and Lodge lobby there is an American flag created from the Shiny Brite Christmas bulbs that was gifted to the Penn Wells by the Corning Corporation.
“Featuring the Shiny Brite ornaments grew out of the planning for our second Christmas on Main Street weekend,” said Shawn Bryant of the Penn Wells Hotel and Lodge.
“Bringing out those ornaments and our pride in the local craftsmanship seemed a natural way to preserve and display a piece of this community’s heritage. Last year we collected and displayed a number of the ornaments and provided the story behind them and we are in the process now of preserving the stories of the actual craftspeople who made that history,” said Shawn.
This rich history is celebrated fittingly in Wellsboro in December with two major events on back-to-back weekends: Dickens of a Christmas and Christmas on Main Street.
The first full weekend of December kicks off the annual Dickens of a Christmas festival, sponsored by the Wellsboro Area Chamber of Commerce, which brings more than 20,000 people to Wellsboro for a weekend to rekindle the old-fashioned Christmas spirit. Wellsboro’s Main Street becomes an early Victorian marketplace featuring all types of food and drink, as well as great gift items.
“Wellsboro certainly has a special glow during the holiday season,” said Julie VanNess, Executive Director of the Wellsboro Area Chamber of Commerce. “I love to see the Christmas Trees on the boulevards with the gaslights and a dusting of snow.”
Julie said the Chamber does everything from street closures to locating vendors. “But what makes the Dickens event spectacular is what we don’t do, such as the entertainment, street performances, quartets, choirs, characters, and so much more, which are the result of community members coming together in the spirit of the event, doing what they love, and they truly are the ones who make Dickens of a Christmas special,” explained Julie.
She adds that holiday events are a huge plus for the merchants and local economy, “The Wellsboro area sees a significant economic impact from Dickens of a Christmas. The surrounding area’s lodging and restaurants are impacted as well,” said Julie. “The event comes together amazingly quickly due to the community coming together and everyone doing their part.”
The Holiday happenings continue the following weekend as “The Town that Saved Christmas” celebrates “Christmas on Main Street,” where those famous Shiny Brite displays are featured in businesses all around town. There are 24 displays of the historic Wellsboro-made ornaments from the early 1940s, as well as holiday shopping, live music, demonstrations and other events throughout the weekend.
Billed as “a weekend of activities to warm your heart and fill you with Christmas spirit,” you can stroll along Wellsboro’s gas lit Main Street, ride the Trolley and enjoy the picturesque town.
“We have been so happy with how Christmas on Main Street has grown in just two short years and are looking forward to year three in December,” said Penn Wells’ Shawn Bryant. “How we grow in years to come will depend on the response we get to the many new events and activities we have added for year three,” he explained. “With a vibrant downtown, beautiful gas lights, decorations and historic district, Wellsboro is a perfect setting for a Christmas time village, and this event highlights it all.”
(Photos for this article were provided by the Penn Wells Hotel & Lodge and the Wellsboro Area Chamber of Commerce.)
I lived in Middlebury and Wellsboro for 15 years. Thanks for reminding me about Corning being in Wellsboro. Still love it there.
Glad you liked the story, Cathy!
Thanks for recognizing the value of our past and how that contributes to ensuring our future is “bright”! 😀
Roy, thanks!
Nice story. And of course we still have a few “shiny brights” among our ornaments from decades ago – my childhood.
Thanks, Sue! My grandmother had several boxes of Shiny Brites.
I have a picture that looks JUST like the one in the Facebook post that I took in January 2011 when my husband and I were there.
It really is a great photo! Special thanks goes to the Wellsboro Area Chamber of Commerce for providing the featured image for this article.
I’ve never been to your town during the holidays but would love to visit. Is lodging available?
Yes! There are various types of lodging available in the Wellsboro area — as well as in nearby communities — including an historic hotel, cabins, bed and breakfasts, and more!
Read about La Belle Auberge Bed & Breakfast and several other unique options at https://pawilds.com/find-your-overnight-home-in-the-pa-wilds/.
Or, connect with Visit Potter-Tioga for more information on planning your trip! https://visitpottertioga.com/
Just needed to point out that this year (2019) Dickens is on Dec. 7 and Christmas on Main Street is the following weekend.
Otherwise, great story!
A special story for me as I remember shopping for those ornaments in Corning at their store that use to be on the Eastern end of Market St. when I was a young girl. My mom retired from Corning glass as their 1st woman purchasing agent in the early 1980s. Corning was into developing fiber optics then. I went to college in both Corning and Mansfield And always love visiting Wellsboro. I never made this connection of the ornaments with Corning Glass & Wellesboro before though. Thank you for sharing!
You’re welcome, Yvonne!
Great story to share and remember the past so we can plan for a better future! History is a great teacher so we don’t make the same mistake twice.
My Mother and Family grew up there and worked for Corning. I loved visiting my grandparents in Caitlyn Hollow. Still have 2 uncles that live there. It is an amazing little town with the lanes lit with the lamp post and trees. Great day trip during the Christmas season. Also summer adventure to the grand canyon of Pennsylvania.
The town is a great one. I was born and raised in Wellsboro. Still beautiful and timeless 🙂
I urge anyone to visit when and if they get a chance. Dickens of a Christmas is every year. On the 1st full weekend of Dec.
Enjoy! Make sure you visit Red Skillet, The Roost, Native Bagel, and the Gaslight for good eats! Merry Christmas!
Lived in the area twice and had hoped to stay much longer. Lovely town to raise a family! Miss you all 🙂
I lived in Kane 2000-08. That little “Star in the Forest” has become a destination of PA Wilds tourists.
How might I find out if an old ornament I have (from my family of origin tree) might be a shiny brite? My grandmother grew up in Eldred…
I was born in Wellsboro and lived there as a child. We had those ornaments hanging on our trees also. My daddy worked at the railroad station that shipped out those balls in the early years.
Thank you for this article, Mr. Byers. I grew up on a mountain top about 35 miles from Wellsboro where I was born in 1938 in a farm house where the local doctor came to “deliver me” under the seasoned eye of my maternal grandmother and my paternal grandfather. Wellsboro was the nearest hospital and where we went to shop at the Sears and Roebuck store after dreaming our way thru the huge catalog that eventually was used to cut out paper dolls and clothes to fit them and cutting lengths of paper dolls holding hands and other magical items. Eventually the catalog was left in the outhouse for a less than “magical” usage.
My grandfather Kale Hurd and his brother Wilbur ran the coal mine in Gurnee down Route 6 and a right turn on Shin Hollow Road. There at the top of the “hill” was the mine and I still own the miner coal lamp that lighted the cap my father wore as he worked for his father-in-law. I also have a copy of the picture of my grandfather and his mule that is dragging a “load” of coal out of the mine.
My great uncle was a glass blower in Corning Glass Works in Corning. But with all this local background it took your article to learn of the role of Wellsboro in all of this. Sometimes we can’t “see the trees for the forest”. I truly lived in the PA Wilds, some beautiful forests. Glad to stop a moment and see one of the trees. I still have siblings in the area. Thank you again, Mr. Byers.
Thanks so much for the kind words, Barbara! – and we’re happy we could fill in a few “blanks” for you with this history of “The Town That Saved Christmas”.