The story behind angel chimes

If I had to make a soundtrack to my childhood Christmases it would have to include When a Child is Born by Johnny Mathis and The Andy Williams Christmas Album (complete with a rather strange version of The Twelve Days of Christmas; in it, there’s no partridge or pear tree). Also featured would be the metallic crash as, daily, the same decoration fell from its place at the window, the crack of sellotape and a sweet, background chime that, although almost drowned out by the cacophony of other sounds, would quietly remind us that Christmas was here.

This musical note came from our angel chimes, constructed every year and placed on the mantelpiece. It was my favourite decoration, and I used to stand and watch it for ages, fascinated by how the delicate candles could make the golden angels, blowing their trumpets, turn around and around, tapping a little bell as they went. Watching these celestial beings was quite magical, a moment to daydream and wonder. I try to remember what I thought about when I looked at them. Would Santa bring me a Sindy house? Why couldn’t Christmas peace last forever? I thought the angels had the answer – that they were real.

These characterful creatures were first created (in embossed, lithographed tin) and patented in 1905 in Solingen, Germany, by the manufacturing firm Adrian & Stock, which was bought in 1933 by Paul Hartkopf. Once this latter company dissolved, large numbers of the chimes remained unsold, and can still be bought today, often in their original boxes.

After the Second World War Germany’s toy market pretty much died and Adrian & Stock’s patents expired. Sweden took up the post-war demand for angel chimes, creating their own, simpler designs in flat brass, that we know today.

My parents still have that angel chime and I now have one of my own, too. I still find it magical how the heat from the candles causes the angels to twirl. I still wish that the peace of Christmas would last forever, and that angels are real.