Vintage Christmas Tree Pins: Which Ones Are Worth Money, and How to Tell

Christmas tree pins are the most common figural pin in American jewelry boxes, because so many women wore a new one every December and kept the old ones. That abundance is the honest starting point: the market is full of them, and most bring tens of dollars, not hundreds. But tree pins are also a real collecting field with its own favorite makers and its own rare designs, and the difference between a five dollar tree and a three hundred dollar tree is usually visible on the back in a few seconds. This guide explains which names matter, how to date a pin you are holding, and what tree pins have actually sold for.

Are vintage Christmas tree pins worth anything?

Yes, in tiers. Unsigned trees and late mass-market trees bring $5 to $50 a piece, often less, and sell best as a group. Signed trees from the 1950s and 1960s by makers collectors know, Hollycraft, Weiss, ART and their peers, commonly bring $35 to $150 according to price guides read October 2026. A short list of designs sits above that: the larger Weiss candle trees and the handmade trees of Stanley Hagler reach the low hundreds and occasionally more. The first mass-produced tree pins appeared in the 1940s, and the field peaked in the 1950s and 1960s, so that is the window where the value lives.

Which Christmas tree pin makers are collectors looking for?

The Weiss candle tree

If one tree pin is worth looking for in a family box, it is the Weiss candle tree: a rhinestone tree carrying small upright candles, sold for the 1962, 1963 and 1964 holiday seasons and made in three sizes. GIA’s holiday pin feature, quoting the tree pin expert Kathy Flood, calls it the most purchased tree of its era, and its stone-on-stone construction, rhinestones set over and against each other, is the reason good copies are rare. Dealers list three, five and six candle versions; the larger trees and the six-candle design sit at the top of the Weiss range. Weiss closed in 1971, so a genuine Weiss tree is more than half a century old. Many left the store with only a paper label, which is why an unsigned candle tree is a question for an experienced eye rather than an answer.

Hollycraft

Hollycraft is the name most collectors associate with Christmas jewelry. The company was founded in New York by Joseph Chorbajian; published accounts disagree on the year, so we will not pick one. It used paper tags from about 1948, and from 1950 many pieces were signed HOLLYCRAFT with COPR. and often the year itself, a rare gift for dating, through about 1959. Most of its Christmas jewelry was made in the 1960s: trees in gilt boughs set with multicolored pastel or jewel-tone stones, often sold with matching earrings. Hollycraft also made jewelry for other companies, including Pakula, which is why some Pakula holiday pins look like Hollycraft. An Antique Trader price guide puts most Hollycraft tree designs at $35 to $75, with a few unusual styles above $100, and notes that values have moderated since a peak around the turn of the century.

Eisenberg trees: read the mark

Eisenberg is a famous costume name, and that fame does more for its tree pins than their age does. The script Eisenberg Ice mark dates from 1970 on, and a 1990s revival issued limited tree pins of its own, by one dealer’s account a 1994 edition of 80 per color. Most signed Eisenberg trees on the market today are from those later decades. They are well made and sell readily, but Antique Trader reported in February 2021 that the more desirable Eisenberg Ice Christmas pieces sell for under $150, and one Eisenberg tree realized $80 at Davis Brothers Auction in September 2020, as reported by Invaluable. The Eisenberg guide explains the earlier marks.

Stanley Hagler

Stanley Hagler started his own company in the late 1950s after working as a business adviser to Miriam Haskell, and like Haskell’s, his best work is hand-wired from glass beads and small stones. His tree pins, some with Murano glass beads and some with mother-of-pearl, are the most valuable trees with documented results. A Stanley Hagler N.Y.C. Christmas brooch realized $250 at R Howard Collectibles in July 2019, and a Hagler Christmas tree brooch realized EUR 800 at Henry’s Auktionshaus in Germany in November 2015, both as reported by Invaluable. Treat the second as a ceiling. The Miriam Haskell guide covers the construction his work grew from.

How do I tell how old my Christmas tree pin is?

Turn it over. The back carries nearly every clue, and none of these checks needs a tool beyond good light.

• A year in the mark. Hollycraft pieces from the 1950s often carry COPR. and the year itself. Nothing else dates a pin so cleanly.
• A copyright symbol. A small c in a circle on any costume mark means the piece was designed in 1955 or later, after the court case that made costume jewelry copyrightable.
• Aurora borealis stones. The iridescent rainbow coating was introduced in 1956, so a tree thick with AB stones was made in 1956 or later.
• The maker’s life span. Weiss closed in 1971, so a genuine Weiss tree is from 1971 or earlier. Script Eisenberg Ice means 1970 or later.
• Prongs or glue. Better mid-century trees set each stone in a cup with small prongs over the rim; a fingernail feels them as tiny teeth. Glued stones in flat pans and painted enamel over light metal point to cheaper and usually later work.
• No mark at all. Many good trees were sold with paper tags that went in the bin the first December. A collector guide puts it plainly: an unsigned tree is very hard to date or attribute without a mark, so most unsigned trees are priced as lot pieces.

Is my tree a real Weiss, or Weiss style?

Weiss style is a seller’s phrase, not a mark. Because the Weiss candle tree was so popular, listings describe many unsigned candle trees as Weiss style or attributed, and some of those are honest guesses while others are simply hopeful. A signed Weiss tree carries the name on the back, usually on a small plaque or stamped into the metal. An unsigned tree can still be a Weiss, since many went out with a paper label only, but the attribution then rests on construction: prong-set stones layered stone on stone, matched candle stones, and the weight of good metal. Without a mark, expect a buyer to price it between an unsigned tree and a signed one, and be wary of anyone who prices an unsigned tree as a certain Weiss.

What have vintage Christmas tree pins actually sold for?

These are realized auction results, the numbers worth carrying into a sale. Guide figures elsewhere on this page are estimates, and dealer prices are asks.

Two things stand out. Every group lot here sold under its estimate, which is what happens when good trees are sold mixed in with ordinary ones. And the only results above a few hundred dollars belong to handmade designer work, not to the famous mass-market names. Most families’ trees will land in the tens of dollars, and a good Weiss or a Hagler is the exception worth looking for.

What mistakes destroy the value of a tree pin?

• Cleaning with water or jewelry dip. The foil mirror behind each rhinestone corrodes when liquid gets behind it, and the stone goes gray for good. A dry soft brush is the only safe tool.
• Gluing loose stones back. Household glue clouds the foil and yellows with age. Put a loose stone in a small bag with the pin instead.
• Replacing missing stones or candles. A modern stone in an old setting shows at once and reads as damage on top of damage.
• Pulling a pin out of its set. A tree sold with its original matching earrings is worth more as a set than as two halves.
• Throwing away the box or tag. A paper Weiss or Hollycraft tag, or the original box, is the only proof of maker on many unsigned pieces.
• Selling the whole box as one lot before anyone has looked at the backs. The signed trees are the value, and a lot price prices them as ordinary.

Should I sell a box of tree pins together or one at a time?

Both, in that order. Pull out anything signed or prong-set and price those pieces on their own, then sell the rest together. A box of unsigned trees is worth more as a group than piece by piece, because no single one carries the cost of a listing, and buyers for holiday lots are looking for exactly that. The signed trees are the opposite: in a mixed lot they are priced as ordinary, which is why the group lots in the table above sold under their estimates.

Where can I sell vintage Christmas tree pins?

Each route has a real tradeoff. Selling them yourself on eBay or Etsy usually brings the most per signed tree, and the autumn, when people are shopping for the holidays, is the natural time to list; you take the photographs, answer the questions, pay the fees, and ship each one. Antique malls and consignment shops will take a box at once and pay after the pieces sell, at a lower share. An estate sale moves tree pins quickly at the jewelry table, and the signed ones are the first to go, often for less than they would bring on their own. Auction houses take good designer trees but tend to group ordinary ones into lots, as the results above show. California Vintage Buyers buys costume jewelry outright, tree pins included: in Southern California at a free house call or our Laguna Hills warehouse by appointment, with cash the same visit, and from any state by video call, with the price agreed on the call and PayPal before you ship. The where-to-sell guide compares the routes in full, including what each platform charges.

How we buy Christmas tree pins and the jewelry box around them

Tree pins rarely arrive alone. They come in the same box as the brooches, the beads and the clip earrings of the same decades, so we buy costume jewelry as a whole box and read every piece from the back before we price it. Signed and construction-identified trees are priced individually, in front of you, with the maker explained as we go; the ordinary remainder gets one honest lot offer; and we will tell you plainly when a tree is a ten dollar tree. In Orange County that is a free house call or a warehouse appointment. For the makers that share the box, see the rhinestone guide, the Trifari guide and the costume jewelry value guide, then call or text (949) 449-1255.