Vintage Paper Houses For Christmas

I love these three old paper houses that I just found at an antique store recently. Come see how I used them in my home!

If you have been following along with me for any length of time then you are probably familiar with Putz Houses by now. I have shared them several times over the years over on Instagram and I love them so much …. but have you ever seen these charming little paper houses before?

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon these sweet little paper houses at an antique mall while out on a picking adventure. I was so excited to find these three fragile structures because I quickly realized that I had not seen them before. I love finding new pieces that speak to me and these absolutely were calling my name. Of course they reminded me of Putz Houses (see a bit of my collection of Putz Houses here), but I knew immediately that they were unique in their own way.

These three little buildings are much more fragile that the traditional Putz House and they are also a bit larger than most Putz Houses that I see. I also could tell immediately that they were indeed old. For example, there are small tears and signs of wear on all three houses. You can almost “see” where they have been sitting on shelves and where they have been handled over the years! In addition, they all had a ‘musty’ smell (kind of like you’d smell in an old basement – if you have smelled that smell before then you know exactly what I am talking about)!

I was so happy to find them because I knew, just like Putz Houses, they would be great to decorate with for the holidays! I got all three for around $20.00 and as soon as I got them home I began planning out how to incorporate them into my home this holiday season.

The very first thing I did was to air them out in my garage for a few days. After the smell dissipated a bit I then decided to create a little winter scene using some of the old deer and old sheep that I had recently purchased. I paired all of that with some of my favorite vintage red ornaments and some old trees. I love the way it all turned out!

I did decide to do a little research to see if I could figure out some of the history behind these little houses. I looked all over all three houses for any kind of markings to help me identify them – but I couldn’t find anything to go off of! After my first round of searching online, I thought these were possibly part of a Built RIte set. Built RIte created old paper house/building sets and were manufactured by Warren Paper Products Co which was founded in 1921 – a hundred years ago! In the 1930’s Warren Paper Co began producing paper house kits that kids could build. These paper sets came in a flat box and were a great option for parents to purchase for their kids during the depression when the prices for other toys were so high.

I searched for images of old Built Rite paper sets for quite a while but I couldn’t find an image of the three houses that I now have. I decided to do a broader image search and I found a listing for my same three houses that I have and the description read, ” … These were manufactured in the 1940s … and were sold as part of a set by Montgomery Ward.” I can not confirm this to be the case or not, but I plan to continue my research – stay tuned!

These little houses are so charming and, because they seem to mimc the details of actual buildings and homes from the long ago, they offer a very sweet and nostalgic look back at the past. Plus, the graphics and the script used on these little houses are an added bonus! I feel so lucky to be able to add these to my Christmas decor this year! Oh, and if you know anything about these my cute new houses – let me know! Cheers my friends!

*If you enjoyed this blog post then you may also enjoy reading about snowy Christmas village I created last year!

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