Vintage Candy Boxes: Why You Need One

Hold on to that box! I am sharing all my fun ideas and a little history too surrounding vintage candy boxes and why YOU should have at least one!

I am thinking outside of the box today – literally!  And ….  I am so happy to be sharing a fun and unique vintage decor item with you. Usually, during the Valentine’s season, I begin pulling out my vintage candy boxes!  I briefly touched on these vintage candy boxes in a blog post I posted a few weeks ago, (you can read that here) and today I wanted to share a little more about them and how you can use them in your home.  These vintage candy boxes are a unique and easy way to add a subtle little vintage touch into your home!

A Quick History Behind The Heart Shaped Box

Candy boxes have been around for a long long time, but there is a little history surrounding the heart shaped box! And, since we are approaching the holiday of LOVE, I thought it would be fun to touch on the history of the heart shaped box. Richard Cadbury, the son of the founder of the Cadbury company, created the idea of packaging candies in fancy boxes to increase sales.  His first ‘fancy boxes’ had pictures on them – such as his family mountain tops, and so on. In 1861 he created the first heart shaped box chocolates for Valentines Day.  These boxes were marketed for having a dual purpose:  once the chocolates were eaten, you could display and reuse the beautiful box again and again.  People would (and still do) use them to store mementos and trinkets, such as love letters and buttons!

Varieties

These old candy boxes come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes – they don’t have to be just in the shape of hearts.  While many are the typical rectangle shape that we see on store shelves today, I also have had round ones and squares and even oval ones.  Remember too that you can have paper, tin, and even wood candy boxes as well! And the best thing is … they aren’t just for Valentine’s Day!

You can use the arrow to slide left and right to see a variety of candy boxes online!

Double Duty Decor

Not all of the candy boxes that I pull out this time of year have to be specifically designated for Valentine’s day.  I have all sorts of candy boxes – and I love to display them all during different times of the year. In fact, many of these boxes can carry you through the Easter season and some can even be displayed during Halloween. I like to think of it like this … the times that we are gifted candy are the times I like to pull out my candy boxes!  

Where To Find Them

From antique stores and estate sales, vintage candy boxes can be found in all sorts of places!  You can even look here to shop online!  A quick tip …  Remember that people use to store things in these boxes. So, with that in mind, if I am out at an estate sale or somewhere similar, I like to check in storage areas.  I have found some of my favorite candy boxes in closets and bathrooms, full of things like sewing notions and baby doll clothes. Over the years, I have found several in very unusual places!  Don’t forget to hunt around for them when the opportunity arises.

Also, don’t be afraid to invest in a vintage candy box if you find one that is a bit expensive.  Recently, I purchased a wooden candy box that I had been admiring for a while at a local antique store.  I decided to ‘go for it’ when I realized that I can use it year round in my home.  I saw this as in investment piece – again, I consider my new wooden candy box as a piece of “double duty decor”. 

How To Display Them

There are endless ways you that you can display your old candy boxes!  You can pop one on a shelf or add an entire stack.  You can flip a candy box over to display its beautiful top or you can leave it on its bottom and display the side. You can tuck in into the back of a shelf to serve as a backdrop or you can make it a focal point in a vignette. 

Below, I layered in some of the old candy boxes onto my white library shelves upstairs. I chose to use the boxes that were similar in color to the existing items on the shelf. For example, the muted orange wooden candy box really worked well with the chippy crate that was already there (Funny coincidence, the chippy crate is actually a candy box too – an old Dandy Mint Box).

While I have not dine this yet, I have also seen people hang their paper boxes on the wall – almost like art. I have seen them hung individually and in mass – similar to a gallery wall. If you choose to do this, I would suggest using push pins to hang them!

I have also seen smaller candy boxes tucked into cloches and displayed on fireplace mantels. I can imagine up a million vignettes using these … the possibilities go on and on.  

Wrap Up

I am so happy to be sharing the history, functionality and beauty of these vintage candy boxes with you today.  My hope is that you will stumble across one in the future and see its true beauty and scoop it up.  Whether to add interest to a shelf or to hold a special keepsake, you need one of these vintage candy boxes in your life! Happy Hunting!

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