Christmas Ornaments

Simple beginnings

Christmas trees date back to 15th-century Germany, but were not popular in the United States until 1840, after German immigrants introduced hand-blown glass ornaments to replace hanging fruits, nuts, and strands of berry/popcorn garland. Victorians had been adorning trees with intricate paper, lace, and beaded ornaments, and Germans with gingerbread and other shaped cookie decorations.

Christmas around the world

The cottage industry of hand-blown and molded glass Christmas ornaments surfaced in Germany in the 1800s. Men were glassblowers, women silvered, and the elderly and children painted the ornaments. In the late 1800s, F.W. Woolworth became the largest Christmas ornament importer. By the mid '20s, Germany was exporting colorful pressed tin ornaments and Japan was mass-producing ornaments in brilliant colors. Czechoslovakia and Poland began exporting hand-blown glass ornaments. By the mid '30s, 250 million Christmas ornaments were delivered to the U.S. yearly.

In the late '30s, the Corning Company manufactured glass ornaments from a machine that made light bulbs; by the mid '40s Corning produced 1.5 million Christmas ornaments per week; the Shiny Brite Company was silvering and lacquering/painting these vintage ornaments.

What now?

Today's Christmas ornaments are mass-produced from metal, wood, plastic, and glass. Bulk amounts of clear glass are melted and poured into a series of molds. Ornaments are silvered on the inside for mirror-like reflection, dipped into a white base coat, and immersed in a colored lacquer.

p>Modern glassblowers spin tubes of glass over gas-powered torches. The soft glass is inserted into highly detailed plaster, cast iron, graphite, or porcelain molds. Glassblowers puff air to expand the glass to fill the molds. Glass begins to harden as soon as it hits the molds, and each ornament captures every detail of the mold.

Christmas ornaments made from various materials may be painted by machine or hand, and adorned with frosting, glitter, feathers, beads, ribbons, or spun glass. Ornaments may be personalized, or decorated at home. Some of today's glass ornament molds are recreated from 19th-century German molds.