Craft House/Fairyland

1801 W. Diversey Ave
Chicago 14, IL
and
1511 W. 38th St.
Chicago 9, IL
and
5900 Northwest Hwy
Chicago, IL
and
4500 S. Packers Ave.
Chicago, Il

What does the Fuller Brush Company have to do with aluminum Christmas trees? Why, that would be Lee Kuppart of Craft House Corporation of Chicago! All we really know about this connection is that “Factory Women” were invited to apply to Mr. Lee Kuppart of Craft House to do “lite interesting factory work” in 1960; and that Mr. Lee Kuppart was a Fuller Brush man for 6 years prior. Incedentally, The Fuller Brush company had a line of bottle-brush Christmas trees and wreaths.

Fairyland trees personify their whimsical brand name. Delicate needles, slender poles and proportionately longer branches for tree height, give Fairyland trees a storybook aura.

“Interesting work with a good future!” Ted Loef is a name also found in the annals of Help Wanted ads for Craft house. Mr. Loef had an opening for a “man or woman” to design point of purchase displays. This ad stands out amongst the typical Help Wanted ads of the era, where the first qualification listed for a job was usually one gender or the other, but not either/or! Kudos to Mr. Loef.

The Aluminum Forest has 4 known addresses related to Craft House of Chicago. A classified ad from 1960 calls for “WOMEN” to apply to a “new firm” in Chicago.

There was an affiliate of Craft House/Fairyland located in Canada. French instruction sheets and boxes are a delight to find! Be sure to see our example in the photo gallery below.

ASSEMBLIX

Some Craft House aluminum trees appear in boxes with an attribution to The International Assemblix Company. Assemblix was founded in Chicago in 1948 and was the parent company to Craft House, a division for producing holiday decorations. Craft House, in turn, produced the Fairyland line of aluminum Christmas trees. The International Assemblix Company operations were moved to Toledo, Ohio in 1963. Behold an example of a Craft House/Assemblix box in the gallery below!

POLES

Wooden, silver painted. Colored trees may have silver paint or matching color paint. Exceptions to this are found in Craft House trees produced under the Assemblix umbrella. Thanks to intrepid collector Jodi Norton of Troy, Illinois, we have images of the foiled pole and box by Assemblix in The Gallery! The pole is also a wider diameter than the classic Fairyland painted poles.

STANDS

Aluminum tripod with thumb key

STORAGE

The dreaded honeycomb (ususally)

Enjoy the Fairyland Gallery!