Boosting Delaware’s holly industry in the 1950s

It’s the Christmas parade time of the year and this photograph from the 1950s shows that the parade tradition has been alive and well in Delaware for many decades. Delaware’s state tree is the holly, and for many years in the middle of the 20th century, people from Sussex and Kent counties gathered holly branches to make fresh wreaths for sale in mid-Atlantic urban markets. Delaware’s holly resource sustained an important holiday cottage industry until the 1960s, when imported and cheaper plastic holiday decorations crowded out the fresh market.