The History of Things: Angel Chimes

I LOVE knowing the background story behind various objects and traditions. Back in high school, when I was co-editor-in-chief of The Pony Express (our newspaper), I even started up a little occasional feature focusing on the history behind like, homecoming mums and such, just so i had an excuse to research and write about these things. I’m going to start doing that occasionally here too.

A Christmas pyramid from Lillian Vernon.

Angel Chimes and Christmas Pyramids

So my mom has a set of both of these back at home and brought them out for Christmas every year. They fascinated me as a kid. When I randomly came across a German grocery store near my doctor’s office this week and found them there, I instantly bought one for myself. I actually had no idea what they were called until I googled them to find out more.

Christmas pyramids (which aren’t actually pyramids at all) are basically like tabletop carousels, full of traditional nativity scenes and Christmas figures, like animals, angels, and wise men. Candles surround the pyramid and when lit, their heat turns a propeller at the top, which spins all of the figurines around and around.

Angel chimes work on the same principle of Christmas pyramids, only they tend to be smaller, made of metal, and emit a pretty chiming sound as they spin.

Both of these decorations originated in a mountain region of Germany, on the border of the old states of Saxony (which is part of Germany now) and Bohemia (the Czech Republic today). They derive from Lichtergestelle (“light stand”), which were made of four wooden poles, decorated with evergreen boughs, tied together at the top, and lit with candles. The Lichtergestelle was gradually replaced by the Christmas tree in many regions, but in the mountains, they kept them around and added the spinning motion of the similarly shaped whims/horse capstan (which were commonly used in mining to haul materials to the surface).

German immigrants brought angel chimes and Christmas pyramids to America with them in the 1700s and they’ve been around ever since! You’ll find super giant Christmas pyramids outside at some Christkindl markets in Germany and in some American towns during the holiday season, although those tend to be run electrically and feature fake candles/torches. :)