From a childhood K-Mart snowman to Hoarding for the Holidays, thousands of blow molds, a legendary Christmas display—and one unforgettable Angel Teddy Bear hunt
By Curtiss Wayne Andrews
Today, I officially release a book about blow molds.
But here’s the thing.
The Glow That Won’t Go Out was never really supposed to be a book about plastic.
Yes, it’s filled with blow molds.
Santas. Snowmen. Reindeer. Candles. Nativity figures. Empire. General Foam. Union Products. Poloron. Beco. The manufacturers, the markings, the history, the hunt, the restoration and all the wonderfully obsessive details collectors care about.
But somewhere along the way, while researching and writing the book, something became obvious:
The interesting part isn’t simply what survived.
It’s why people refuse to let it disappear.
And I’m not sure anyone illustrates that better than Brandon Gress.
Readers of The Glow That Won’t Go Out already meet Brandon in the book through my look at Episode 3 of Hoarding for the Holidays, appropriately titled “Let It Blow (Mold).”
In the episode, Brandon and his mother, Lori, hunt for vintage Christmas decorations, go dumpster diving, laugh at themselves, and pursue a particularly elusive Angel Teddy Bear blow mold.
There’s even a wonderfully perfect ending to that particular story.
After finally finding the Angel Bear he had been hunting…
Brandon discovered another one he already owned buried in his storage shed two days later.
Collectors, I assume, require no explanation whatsoever.
But the television episode only scratches the surface.
Brandon’s relationship with blow molds began long before television cameras showed up. His collection now extends well into the thousands, and his family’s Christmas display has become an annual tradition for thousands of visitors.
It has also raised thousands of dollars for a children’s hospital.
So for the launch of The Glow That Won’t Go Out, I wanted to go back to Brandon.
I wanted to hear the story behind the story.
And appropriately enough, it begins with a snowman.
The $20 Snowman That Started Everything
When did you first get started collecting blow molds?
Brandon Gress: Blow molds have always been a part of my life.
Growing up in the early 2000s, you couldn’t pass a neighbor’s house without at least one holiday blow mold in their yard. Better yet—you couldn’t walk into any big-box store that did not sell blow molds.
I still have vivid memories of seeing blow molds in my local K-Mart and Walmart. And I still kick myself for not getting some of the pieces as a child!
My love for blow molds came from merely being exposed to them.
There were two houses by me that shaped my love for them. A home in Holmdel, New Jersey, on Richard’s Way, was the first time I remember being enamored by these pieces of plastic.
Another home right around the corner from me became my all-time favorite. “The house behind Toys R Us” became my inspiration for years.
The owner of this house, a fellow blow molder and exceptional friend, Tom, has become one of my closest friends in the hobby.
Making my mom and family members drive me by these houses became obsessive—and still is part of my holiday tradition.
Then came the piece that changed everything.
Brandon: For me, it was a small Grand Venture snowman from K-Mart.
Like any other five-year-old—ha!—I became obsessed with these plastic light-up pieces because of a snowman my grandmother bought me from the box store.
This blow mold, which would become a staple in my bedroom Christmas display—that every child has, of course!—is still used in my displays outside.
The tattered, faded K-Mart tag still clings to the backside of the piece as a reminder of simpler times and the catalyst for my lifelong blow mold obsession of well over a couple thousand molds.
That snowman is one of my favorite things in Brandon’s story.
Because it’s easy to look at a collection numbering in the thousands and assume collecting is about accumulation.
But there’s the original snowman.
Still there.
Still displayed.
Still wearing its battered K-Mart tag.
That’s what collecting is really about.
The Houses That Created a Collector
Look at that photograph and then look at Brandon’s display today.
There’s your origin story.
A kid gets driven past a spectacular Christmas house.
He stares at the lights and glowing plastic figures.
He asks to go back.
And back.
And back.
Eventually he starts building his own version.
This is how traditions propagate.
Not through instruction manuals.
Through wonder.
Brandon’s tastes today run all over the blow mold world, although he admits a particular affection for cartoon-character molds and Empire Santas.
Choosing a single favorite, he says, would be like choosing a favorite child.
And as an elementary-school teacher?
He knows better.
His collection now extends well beyond a couple thousand molds, and some of his European auction purchases have cost thousands of dollars.
Brandon’s justification?
There are worse things to spend money on.
Every collector just nodded.
Then Television Called
If you watched Hoarding for the Holidays, you might assume Brandon’s collection was discovered specifically for that program.
Actually, television already knew the Gress family.
Their displays have appeared on ABC’s The Great Christmas Light Fight, Hallmark Channel’s Ready, Set, Glow, AOL’s All Is Bright and HGTV’s Hoarding for the Holidays. According to Brandon, his family never applied for any of them; casting producers approached them.
How did Hoarding for the Holidays happen?
Brandon: I was contacted by a casting producer explaining they were looking for “passionate Christmas enthusiasts who were crazy about collecting.”
Needless to say, we fit that bill!
We agreed to film with them and the rest is history.
On three excruciatingly hot August afternoons, we donned our Christmas best and played like it was the holidays.
We filmed all around town—anywhere from my own yard to antique stores—and even dumpsters.
We had a BLAST filming for this show.
But there was one complication.
Brandon didn’t know the show’s title until filming had finished.
And then he saw the word:
Hoarding.
He wasn’t thrilled.
He worried that a genuine collecting passion might be presented as something exploitative or pathological. After talking with the production team, however, he was reassured that the title was tongue-in-cheek. When Brandon finally saw the finished episode, he says he was exceptionally proud of it and felt it captured just how hardcore holiday collectors can be.
That matters.
Because the best part of Brandon’s segment isn’t the size of the collection.
It’s the relationship at the center of it.
A Mother, a Son and a Completely Reasonable Dumpster Dive
One of my favorite elements of Episode 3—and something I wrote about in The Glow That Won’t Go Out—is Brandon’s relationship with his mother, Lori.
She doesn’t merely tolerate the hobby.
She’s in it.
When Brandon finds a goose blow mold at the thrift store, puts a wig on it and deadpans “add to cart,” Lori laughs.
When he decides discarded Christmas plastic might be waiting in neighborhood trash?
Mom drives.
There’s something important buried underneath the comedy.
Collecting can be generational.
A parent decorates.
A child remembers.
The child grows up.
Eventually those same decorations become something worth preserving because they’re attached to a person, a place and a particular December. A lot of this reminded me of my own mother who passed in 2024 and her extensive strawberry & Precious Moments collections, detailed in the book I co-authored, Hoarders of History.
That’s how a piece of molded plastic becomes an heirloom.
The Great Angel Teddy Bear Hunt
And then there’s the bear.
Every serious collector has one.
The piece that somehow keeps escaping.
The one you search for at antique stores, flea markets, auctions, Marketplace and every other place collectors congregate.
Brandon’s white whale was the Angel Teddy Bear blow mold.
The episode turns the search into a miniature Christmas adventure. It reminded me of American Pickers but with Brandon and Lori playing the parts of Mike & Frank, but sweeter!
And eventually, Brandon gets it.
The elusive Angel Teddy Bear appears at a thrift store in Red Bank, not far from home.
Victory.
Celebration.
Embrace the bear.
Roll credits.
Except blow mold collecting had one more joke to tell.
Two days later, Brandon found the Angel Teddy Bear he already owned buried in his crowded storage shed.
That may be the single most blow-mold-collector ending ever filmed.
When your collection reaches several thousand pieces, apparently you can become your own estate sale.
When a Christmas Display Becomes Something Bigger
This is where Brandon’s story changes.
Because the Gress House Holiday Light Spectacular isn’t merely a place to put the collection.
It has become part of the community.
Tell me about the display.
Brandon: My Christmas display—without sounding too cliché—has become a staple in my community.
“The Gress House Holiday Light Spectacular,” as it has become famously known on all social media platforms, started when I was very young.
I always decorated outside, but now it is next level.
I started doing it simply because it made me happy.
While it still makes me happy, it has so much more meaning now.
For one, it has become a holiday tradition for THOUSANDS of visitors annually.
Then Brandon told me something that changes how you see those photographs.
Around 2013, the family began using the display to support a Children’s Miracle Network-affiliated hospital in New Jersey. Brandon says the display has raised thousands of dollars through the years. In 2023, the family’s contributions were recognized as part of a hospital expansion with a dedicated Post Office Play Area, chosen because of its natural connection to Christmas and letters to Santa.
Brandon summed it up better than I could:
“It is truly crazy to think that some lights and pieces of plastic can bring so many people together.”
That’s the sentence.
That’s the entire book.
Vintage Empire Meets Brand-New Gemmy
I also wanted Brandon’s opinion on one of the livelier debates in blow mold collecting:
Old versus new.
His answer?
Why choose?
What’s your take on the newer generation of blow molds?
Brandon: I am in no way a blow mold purist.
In fact, my display is filled with new and old. A 1970s Santa sits alongside Gemmy counterparts from a few years ago.
It is all about your decorating style.
While some complain about the new blow molds coming out—how they flood the market and “just don’t make them like they used to!”—I feel quite the contrary.
I think Gemmy introducing these blow molds has been great for collectors.
I think we are in the blow mold renaissance.
That’s an interesting perspective, particularly from someone with such an enormous vintage collection.
Brandon argues that newer molds give younger collectors an affordable entry point while licensed characters can attract people who may never have gone hunting for a vintage Empire Santa. His own displays freely mix old and new. I write more about the old vs new debate here.
And then comes my favorite detail.
When Brandon was in fourth grade, he wrote to Gemmy for a persuasive-writing assignment asking the company to make the Miser Brothers.
Nearly twenty years later?
They’re available as holiday decorations.
Teacher-approved persuasive writing, apparently.
Brandon’s Advice for New Blow Mold Collectors
So what does someone with several thousand pieces tell the person buying blow mold number one?
First:
You’re not building Brandon’s display next weekend.
And that’s okay.
His advice is to start where collectors have always started:
Yard sales.
Antique stores.
Flea markets.
And yes…
Garbage.
Brandon’s rules for beginning collectors
Brandon: You won’t build a massive display overnight.
It takes time, perseverance, and willingness to get a little dirty!
Oh, yes! You have to be willing to dumpster dive and garbage pick!
Another tip is to save your money.
Start a savings account at birth for this hobby!
Most importantly, have fun.
There are so many dedicated people who make this hobby so enjoyable. Meet fellow blow molders, join the groups online, and share your ideas, displays and finds.
The sense of community in this hobby is truly unmatched.
And then he adds one final piece of advice:
“Don’t yard sale in my neck of the woods—those blow molds are reserved for me!”
Fair warning.
His larger message, though, is community: meet other collectors, join groups, share displays and enjoy the hunt rather than expecting to assemble a massive collection overnight.
This Is Why I Wrote The Glow That Won’t Go Out
There’s a reason I wanted this interview to publish on October 1—the day The Glow That Won’t Go Out launches.
Look at Brandon’s first snowman again.
It’s not rare because an auction house says it’s rare.
It’s valuable because his grandmother gave it to him.
Look at the old photograph outside Richard’s Way.
A kid staring at someone else’s Christmas display eventually creates one that thousands of other kids will remember.
Look at Brandon and Lori hunting for the Angel Bear.
The object matters.
But the person standing next to you when you find it matters more.
Look at the hospital play area.
Somehow an obsession with illuminated plastic Christmas decorations helped create something for children who may be spending part of their own holiday in a hospital.
And look at the thousands of blow molds covering the Gress property today.
They’re not museum pieces.
They’re outside.
They’re glowing.
They’re doing what they were made to do.
That’s the glow that won’t go out.
Not electricity.
Memory.
Tradition.
Family.
Community.
And a new generation looking through the car window at somebody’s Christmas display thinking:
I want to do that someday.
Brandon was that kid once.
Maybe somewhere in the crowd outside the Gress House this Christmas…
the next Brandon is watching.
Keep the Glow Going
The Glow That Won’t Go Out: The Complete Collector’s Guide to Vintage Holiday Blow Molds by Curtiss Wayne Andrews is now available in e-book, paperback & hardcover (be patient if all those editions don’t show up exactly on Oct 1st!).
The book explores the history, manufacturers, identification, restoration and collecting culture behind vintage holiday blow molds—but more importantly, it tells the stories of the collectors, families and traditions keeping them glowing.
And yes.
Brandon, Lori and that Angel Teddy Bear are in it.