The Holly Boy

I have a fun little "adventure" to share today.  Back in 2018 I made a cranberry jello tree 'salad' from a recipe I found in a Better Homes and Gardens magazine from 1958:

Along with setting the scene I decided to make the cute little holly elf seen in the back ground:

I figured he was a DIY kinda deal back then...but I was wrong!

He is a real thing!  

The Holly Boy!

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During the summer I was perusing Wishbookweb which has entire scans of vintage Christmas catalogs, and came across this page from Sears 1957.

 It's my cute little holly elf...only he is a boy!

...And he came with a deer pal too!

I was on the trail!  Who is the Holly Boy and what is his "quaint story"? 

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The only source of info I came across was from a lady named Diane of Always Crave Cute blog.  She owned a little booklet from 1955 called the Holly Boy:

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The story is about a little girl named Linda who is over thinking the emotions of a Holly Wreath.

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How can a holly wreath be happy?!  This oversensitive kid is crying about the branches not having a good time when all of a sudden the wreath starts to move....could it still have a squirrel lurking inside?

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No, no!  It's a magical Holly Boy who has been spying on Linda...he claims to know everything about her.  I think we have now discovered the secret link to how Santa keeps an eye on kids.  It's not from the elf on the shelf anymore.  Those little bastards have got too much work now coming up with various new comical set ups for the kids to see every single damn morning.  Now it's up to the holly wreaths to send in reports.

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So it turns out the Holly Boy is thrilled to be part of a wreath because the wreath brings people pleasure.  I don't know what kind of mental aguish Linda is going to be struggling with when that dried up dead wreath has to be thrown out, but I feel certain it leads her to a life of chronic hoarding. The end.

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The Holly Boy was a hopeful contender during the 1950s wanting to get into the cool club with Santa, Rudolph, and Frosty the Snowman but he just didn't make the cut.

I highly recommend you guys go read Diane's post with her research on the Holly Boy.  It has stories from people who claim to have been related to the entire Holly Boy world (a song, record, story, and the figurines).

And then I demand you check out Here we are: The Legend of Holly Boy.  This is were shit gets weird.. I mean weirder than a wreath coming to life.  At some point after 1955 the little story that was presented to you above gets a big heaping dose of bat shit crazy. There's time travel, the birth of Jesus, a slaughter war by a giant king, and an angel with healing beams in her palms.

Here's a sample:

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Have yourself a singed Christmas Weedy!

Now that I have been let into the mysterious world of The Holly Boy I will be hunting out more about him.

UPDATE (even if it's just minutes after I wrote the original post)!

 Saw these paper coasters on ebay (whooping price of 27.00):

Update Again!

While going virtual thrift-estate-store saleing on ebay I type in all sorts of combinations of words looking for stuff.  On one search I had typed in "Vintage flocked Christmas"

and noticed in this listing for "Lot of Vintage Christmas Decor Santa Snowman Flocked Stocking Tinsel"  

But what is that?!  To the left....

A trio of bedraggled Holly Boys!  These guys are what gets thrown out with the wreath at the end of the season.

The lot went for a mere 5.50 (plus 10.00 for shipping).  I didn't bid on them because I am happy with my own little Holly Boy.  But I am curious of their original construction and how much I may have gotten right.