Vintage holiday display lights up Ligonier Valley Library

During a tour of the Ligonier Valley Library’s Pennsylvania Room, where he has set up a large selection of his vintage holiday decorations, Don Lachie is a fount of Christmas light history.

Lachie, 60, who has residences in Youngwood and Ligonier, has displayed his collection at the library several times in recent years.

“It’s nice to get it out and see it. I (last) did it four or five years ago,” he said.

At 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 3, he will give a free discussion, “Vintage Christmas in Ligonier,” on the history of holiday lighting, both pre-electric and electric.

“A lot of collectors come to the talks. A lot of people ask about the history of bubble lights,” he said.

“We’ve had a lot of people coming in. A lot of people bring their children to see the lights,” said Sarah Peterson, library clerk.

Lachie also collects early electricity and pre-electricity items, from the 1800s into mid-20th century, including hand-cranked telephones, old radios, a child’s cooking stove with a heating element and old light bulbs.

“I got into it 30 or so years ago, and started collecting. My aunt had some bubble lights,” he said.

To walk through his displays at the library is to take a walk back in time. Christmas decorations, though lovely, were much simpler 100 or more years ago.

Along with those bubble lights, which still enchant all ages, Lachie’s collection includes electric candles, which many celebrants still place in their windows each year.

Also featured are “fairy lights,” small glass ornaments from the early 1800s to the 1900s, Lachie said, filled with water and topped with a layer of cooking oil, with tiny, colorful floating wicks.

Always looking

Lachie has found a lot of his collection in antique stores and by visiting an annual vintage holiday sale in Columbus, Ohio.

“It’s hit or miss, a matter of luck,” he said.

“I try to do a lot of research, touch base with other collectors and we compare notes,” Lachie said.

Lachie has a collection of tiny candles and clips and pins used to keep the candles — the original lights for trees — in place.

“The (freshly cut) tree was brought in on Christmas Eve, and they would light candles on the tree, sing carols for 10 minutes, then do the same thing on Christmas Day,” he said.

Celebrations and decorations were of a much smaller scale a century or more ago, Lachie said.

He has an assortment of circa 1910 early carbon filament exhaust tip C-6 series Christmas tree lamps, rare milk glass candles, and Matchless Wonder Stars, made of Austrian crystal.

Part of the charm of his exhibit is seeing the advertising and packaging manufacturers used years ago, including boxes of Double-Glo Christmas Snow.

Lachie said he enjoys displaying his collection for people to see.

”It’s quite a contrast to what we have today,” he says.