How much meaning do you ascribe to a piece of plastic? To the collectors of blow molds, the answer is: a lot.
A glowing and painted piece of Christmas plastic, these unsung heroes of holiday decor have garnered a cult-like following over the years, with homeowners carefully arranging “blow mold” Santas, nativity scenes, gingerbreads, nutcrackers and more across their yards for neighbors and passers-by to marvel at.
Collections run from a modest 30 to more than 2,000. Collectors span from Arkansas to Upstate New York. There are old collections and young collectors. While some collectors happen upon blow molds serendipitously at church sales or local antique stores, others spend days scouting for new finds on Craigslist and Facebook, where groups like Blow Mold Nation (10,000+ members), Blow Mold World selling and trading (7,000+ members) and Blow Mold Maniacs (515 members) exist.
In these groups, hobbyists buy and sell, share their blow mold horror stories and show off their expansive or budding collections. One collector even climbed on their roof to share this year’s setup with fellow Blow Mold Maniacs. The comment section filled with oohs and aahs, along with a few “be carefuls.” When disaster strikes (strong winds trample a display), collectors rush to provide advice on keeping the decorations in place. When a collector finds a one-of-a-kind piece, folks rejoice in the comments.
No blow mold left behind
Debbie Ehret Mckenzie is an active member of blow mold Facebook groups and a self-described collector of everything. Her blow mold collection began within the past year. After a puppy visited her home in Arkansas, she was hesitant to put up the inflatables in fear of them getting ripped apart. She dug out a snowman mold from storage, and suddenly felt the urge to look into buying more molds.
“From there, I found the Blow Mold Nation page, and kapooey. There we go. ‘I need this. I would like to have that one. I’d like to have this.’ I collected all year, and I probably have over 200 molds,” she said.
To Ehret Mckenzie, it’s the chase of finding a unique item, desperately hoping it can become a part of your collection, placing a bid and “jumping up and down” once you acquire it. “And I’ll maybe pass it on down to my children. You know, the reality is they may hate the collection,” she said.
According to “Practical Extrusion Blow Molding” by Samuel Belcher, the production of plastic blow molds in the United States began in the early 1900s, after the first blow molding machine for commercial use was invented in 1937. The creation sparked the mass production of plastic and glass products in the 20th century — and the holiday blow mold decoration obsession. Many of the companies that specialized in blow mold decorations went out of business in the late 1900s, Ehret Mckenzie explained.
“If someone takes care of them, they’re gonna last. People that don’t collect are throwing them away in the trash, and then the collectors are finding them in the trash and repainting them and saving them,” Ehret Mckenzie said. “It’s like no blow mold left behind.”
The ‘Stranger Things’ effect
While blow mold production is a thing of the past, the trading and selling is still alive and well, if not busier than ever. “Within the past two years, the market has gotten drier and drier,” David Wenzel, co-owner of Wild Things Antiques in Minneapolis, said. Wenzel and his husband are collectors of blow molds themselves. Other collectors have noticed rising prices and popularity in blow mold collecting in recent years, and Wenzel has his theory about it.
“I call it the ‘Stranger Things’ effect. Season 2 of the show came out and went bonkers, and that’s when you saw younger folks getting into them. In the show a bunch of blow molds from the ’70s and ’80s were shown. We’re seeing major retailers are now carrying molds,” Wenzel explained. “So they went out of fashion and the companies that were making them, most of them went under. And I think last year and this year, most of the major retailers caught on to the trend where blow molds are surging in popularity, so Target did a couple Halloween ones and a couple of Christmas ones. Lowe’s, Menards, Home Depot, they’re all carrying them.”
Even though they’re made of plastic, blow molds don’t last forever. They become brittle through the years of standing in the cold. The paint fades. They get lost among the hundreds of other holiday decorations. “People remember them from their childhood,” Wenzel said. “Now they’re trying to find things that remind them of a warm home, childhood nostalgia and inviting home vibes.”
Christmas for the community
“I’m not obsessed with them,” said Steve Weber, the owner of a 300+ blow mold collection in Cottage Grove. “You’d think I was. We’ve just accumulated them over the years.” Weber’s collection began in 1987 at the Knox Lumber Company in Newport. While shopping with her parents, Weber’s daughter found a blow mold Santa among the merchandise. “She stepped on a little stepladder and gave him a hug, and that was our first one. We continued to add to the collection after that,” he recalls.
What followed the blow mold Santa, in no particular order, is a 30-something set of chorus girls and boys lined up carefully with rosy cheeks and mouths agape, as though they were performing a rendition of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” a handful of blow mold candle lights, nutcrackers, Disney characters and a nativity scene.
The Christmas display is so popular among its neighbors and Cottage Grove community members that each year the Webers make an event out of decoration setup, welcoming church friends, relatives, neighbors and friends to help create their own personal blow mold extravaganza on Hidden Valley Trail. “It’s a fun collection and it’s rewarding that we have people stop by and thank us for putting the lights out, that they really enjoy it, that their kids come by every day to see the decorations for Christmas,” Weber said.
Quality over quantity
In 2014, John McGarthwaite landed the blow mold jackpot at a citywide garage sale in Falcon Heights. There, someone was selling Santa’s sleigh and his nine reindeer, the reindeer give the impression they’re taking flight by way of white PVC pipes.
When McGarthwaite’s son was a toddler, they’d visit that Santa’s sleigh on the corner of Larpenteur and Pascal. “We’d always go by and look at it. I thought it was the coolest thing,” he said.
At the garage sale, Santa’s sleigh and his PVC-rigged reindeers went for $25. “I could not let this thing leave my community so cheaply. So I bought it and I thought, well, maybe I’ll just hold on to it and find somebody who lives on a more traveled road than me who wants to display it,” McGarthwaite said. “But no, now I’ve got it. I put it up. I’ve taken care of it. It’s mine.”
McGarthwaite’s collection in Falcon Heights is fairly small compared to the 200-piece collections on the Facebook groups. “If somebody has a half a dozen and they’ve got sentimental value,” he said, “that’s every bit as good as these really over the top displays that you might see on a TV lights competition show.”
A good friend of McGarthwaite’s died suddenly a few years ago. He had a nativity set with Mary, Joseph, the baby, the three wise men, a cow and a donkey. Though the friend had grandchildren, the nativity set didn’t find any takers until it was offered to McGarthwaite. Now he has Santa and his reindeers in liftoff, a few toy soldiers and his friend’s nativity set to share with his neighbors each Christmas. “I really do feel a certain sense of stewardship or responsibility to do right by this guy’s memory when I put it out,” he said.
To the collectors and owners of blow molds old and new, these vintage decorations aren’t just sets of plastic that have withstood the winter. They’re historical stories, they’re holiday hubs for the neighborhood, they’re memories of an old friend.