There’s something about the mid-century style that touches me. Once finished off with period furniture, the place looks like something out of a magazine. To top things off, new, modern light fixtures replaced the tired fluorescent lighting installed in the 1970’s. Other elements like sliding closet doors were preserved and I opened up the drop ceilings to reveal soaring gabled ceilings which opened up the space. Under the carpet were gorgeous terrazzo floors which we refinished to their 1959 shine.

While we have a “new” house now, I saved the soul of the home. My dad and I spent six months ripping out walls painting and generally bringing the place into the new millennium. The “guts” of the house were good, but they stopped decorating in 1978! Covering up some of the wonderful mid-century elements were 1970’s horrors such as wall-to-wall, cream-colored shag carpet throughout the entire house, tired faux butcher block formica counter-tops, drop ceilings, and crummy paneling. Last year, my wife and I purchased a mid-century home, built in 1959, from the original owners. Matt has great love for his grandfather and his creation and he hopes the Sharks share his love this Christmas and for many Christmases to come. $50 from each sale goes to the Alzheimer’s Association. Now, Matt sells the trees in a variety of retail outlets and on Amazon. He went slow at first, but sold nearly 200 to customers like Disneyland, Red Bull, and The National Association of Manufacturers. Stoecker began to fail, Matt started tinkering with creating a new version of Modern Christmas Trees. The plexiglass tree became a Christmas staple in the Stoecker household for years to come. The following year, Stoecker made one out of wood, then plexiglass.

Concentric rings of differing sizes create a tree-like look, but with a very modern flair. It isn’t really a tree at all, it’s more like a cone. Stoecker brought that sense of design to the Christmas tree when he created the first iteration of Modern Christmas Trees when Matt’s parents were just kids. His style leaned toward mid-century modern, a clean, simple form of architecture popular in the USA from the 1930’s to the mid 1960’s. Stoecker was a NASA engineer who left his job to build A-frame cabins throughout Colorado.

Bliss to market Modern Christmas Trees to the world. Stoecker died in 2012 from Alzheimers, which inspired Mr. Matt enters the Shark Tank in the Shark Tank Holiday Special to pitch his version of the product. Modern Christmas Trees were originally envisioned by Lawrence “Bud” Stoecker, the grand father of Matt Bliss.

Watch shark tank modern christmas tree