4th-Graders Decorate Macculloch Hall Christmas Tree

This is he 22nd year Morristown’s Assumption School fourth-grade students have handcrafted period-style ornaments for the Macculloch Hall Historical Museum Drawing Room Christmas tree under the direction of their art teacher, Barbara Silverstein.

A sizeable collection of cornucopias, cotton Santas, tussie mussies, fans and scrap tinsel ornaments are carefully stored in the attic from year to year, donated over two decades by the children who made them. This year students worked with quality reproduction die-cut images or “scraps” mounted onto gold foil-covered cardboard bells and silver paper circles, fringed for textural dimension.

Popular during the mid 1800’s through the first quarter of the 20th century, brightly colored die-cuts were produced and sold in sheets that were cut up and combined with myriad materials to create ornaments.

Students also learned about Dresden ornaments, named for the area in Germany where they were made. These highly collectable embossed die-cuts were made into either flat or three-dimensional styles. Several reproduction Dresden ornaments have been donated to the museum and are hung near the top of the tree.

The tree and other decorations will be on display beginning the weekend of Dec. 1 and 2 when the Museum will be open, 1 to 4 p.m. for special tours through the decorated period rooms. The Museum is decorated for the holidays in traditional style by the Garden Club of Morristown.