Colored flame-swirl bulbs from the early 1950s trigger Christmas memories from Paul Kachinsky’s childhood.
“I remember sitting outside in the freezing cold, bundled up like Ralphie from ‘A Christmas Story,’ sitting on my grandfather’s stone wall and looking at the lights on his house and just staring at them for as long as I could take the cold,” Kachinsky said.
Kachinsky – who owns a business called The Royalston Attic that rewires and restores vintage holiday lighting and decorations – has been fascinated with all things Christmas related, especially colored lighting, ever since. He attributes the passion to his grandparents, and specifically his grandfather, who were Christmas enthusiasts.
“I started out as a hobby of mine; electrical decorating with my grandfather, and my grandparents collected a lot of decorations. But I became addicted to it,” Kachinsky said.
Eventually he morphed the fascination into a full-time gig. For 14 years he sold antique Christmas decorations, toys and games, and repaired holiday lights, business that was largely conducted on eBay. He has since scaled it back to a side job done through his personal website and Facebook page.
Still, his two-car garage acts as a workshop that is decorated all year around with tinkling lights, garlands, a tree and an assortment of Christmas ornaments both expansive and diverse.
“This is just a smattering of what I’ve got,” Kachinsky said looking around his shop on a recent Thursday afternoon. “I work at it a little bit every week. It’s a constant, ongoing process.”
He calls his collection “pretty good”, but said he is part of a non-profit organization called the Golden Glow of Christmas Past that hosts a convention aimed at bringing together antique ornament, light and decoration enthusiasts from around world into one city every year. There, he said, collectors have items dating back to 1900s Germany and Switzerland.
“My ornaments are more from the ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s that I collect,” Kachinsky said. “They trip my memories. I do have a few of the older ones, but Christmas decorating is all about memories on branches for me” he said.
Handpainted winter scenes, waist high candle-shaped lights and a large NOEL sign above a fireplace are just a few of the items that line his workshop. Garlands made out of thinly sliced metal and colorful beads dangle from various areas in the room. Dimmed lights cast a subtle glow in the space. A women’s Christmas corsage laying on a windowsill ignites a memory of his grandmother walking down a main street with a pendant pinned to her black-fur coat.
“Every time she went out, she put a different corsage on her black fur coat,” said. “People don’t do that anymore.”
Kachinsky is surrounded by Christmas-related decorations every day of the year, he has made a living off the holiday and attends the convention every summer, yet event still he never tires it. December 25 is still just as special as it always has been.
“The very first thing I do every Christmas morning is get up, make a huge mug of cocoa and watch ‘A Christmas Story,’” Kachinsky said, adding the day has not lost its magic that captivated him all those years ago.
He also makes it a point to carve out time during the day to stop by a local senior home to play a few songs on the piano for the folks there to enjoy. For him, the holiday has never been about receiving, instead it’s about giving, and it’s about memories.