Hang a bit of Park City history on your Christmas trees with this year’s brass gondola ornament.
The keepsake recalls the Park City Mountain Resort lift gondola cars which were in use from 1983 to 1997, said Park City Museum special projects curator Wendy Ashton.
“The gondola represented is modeled after the gondolas when the resort was called Treasure Mountain,” Ashton said. “They are not modeled after the original bubble-shaped gondolas, but after the box-shaped ones that were running in the 1980s, like the one we have on display in the museum.”
Unfortunately, Ashton said, all the original egg-shaped gondolas were destroyed when they were replaced in 1983.
“So there are no existing gondolas from the early days,” she said.
Ashton said the limited-edition ornaments, designed by Park City artist Jan Massimino, come in three colors red, yellow and blue.
“They are also made of brass and are three-dimensional,” Ashton said. “We started making three-dimensional ornaments in 2002 and now they are in color. And that’s fun because people can come in and pick their favorite color or come in for a set.”
This year, the museum had 1,000 ornaments made.
“They’re popular,” she said. “So there is a fair number available for the public.”
The individual subjects for the annual Christmas ornaments, which sell for $25 each, are usually decided in May or June, Ashton said.
“Once we choose a theme, we give it to an artist to play around with,” she said. “There is a lot of going back and forth with tweaking the design.”
While the artist refines the piece, the Park City Museum staff conducts some extensive research.
“We want to make sure there is some historical reference that goes with the ornament,” Ashton said.
Last year the ornament theme was Park City’s First Skiers and the ornament was a sculpture of Emmett “Bud” Wright, Ashton said.
“We have a handful of ornaments from previous years available as well,” she said.