Santa Riding Horse-drawn Sleigh and Winter Girl in Fur Hat on Traditional Cornucopia

9” Tall x 5” Wide, Plus 2-3” for Handle;  See Back Side for Village Scene

SPECIAL FEATURES

***This cornucopia was made with original materials that are at least 100 years old.  My goal with this special set of cornucopias was to was study the original old ones handmade over a century ago, most of which are now tattered beyond recognition, and re-create them by using the same techniques and materials to make them available to our collectors!***  (Scroll below description for more details.)

Gorgeous antique holly giftware came from an old-stock never opened package from the early 1900s. I backed it with metallic copper foil paper with embossed stars and tucked in this sweet little girl with golden curls, wearing a copper fur-lined hat. Here’s her story. This child lives in a country estate in southern France (as pictured on back-side photo). It is Christmas eve and she prays not for presents, but for her father to return; he has been away for many weeks. Finally she hears familiar sounds in the foyer and all is well; Daddy is home for Christmas!  She almost forgot about presents until she wakes up to the sound of sleigh bells. Excited, she grabs her cloak and dashes outside just in time to see Santa in his horse-drawn sleigh, arriving in the newly fallen snow.

Lovingly handcrafted and signed by Gail Giaimo.

What Makes this Cornucopia Look like an Original Old One?  
  1. It’s all about the paper.  I covered 7” squares on both sides with my oldest most coveted gift-wrap paper.
  2. It’s about trimming the edges by hand. Then I hand-cut larger diagonal chevron shapes on two sides and snipped out tiny stepped zigzags on each edge of the larger triangles.
  3. Scraps had great presence. I noticed that an amazing variety of playful and fanciful scraps on every subject imaginable were attached to both the outside and inside of each cone. (I paired two die-cut scraps together for each cornucopia that I felt told the story of Christmas).
  4. Most were made with tinsel handles. I was surprised to discovered that the handles were made of one continuous piece of wired tinsel, which was wrapped around the front outside edge underneath one scrap and then continued to the inside of the cone, and was tucked behind the second scrap to form a loop for hanging. Original tinsel garlands where made with a wide variety of metallic and colorful cellophane tinsel garland. The ones that were used for decorating ornaments were manufactured with wire so that the tinsel could be bent and formed around paper and glass ornaments. (I used some of my finest tinsel, twisting it with my own wire, as needed).  
  5. Bottom of cones were finished off. I also noticed that the bottom pointed edge of many of the cones were often reinforced with more material to protect them from being bent and torn. (I used old metallic paper and tiny metal cups.)

The History Behind Homemade Paper Ornaments
We’ve always admired the handmade look and feel of paper Christmas ornaments. Families decorated the tree on Christmas eve with many homemade ornaments, including paper candy cones and cornucopias made out of Christmas gift wrap paper, paper die-cut “scraps” from Germany, and attached tinsel garland for hanging on a tree branch. Parents would delight their children by waiting until they were sound asleep before tucking treats inside for them to discover in the morning!  Now that sounds like a really fun Christmas tradition!