Christmas ornament
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Christmas ornaments are decorations (usually made of glass, metal, wood or ceramics) that are used to festoon a Christmas tree.
Ornaments take many different forms, from a simple round ball to highly artistic designs. Ornaments are almost always reused year after year, rather than purchased annually, and family collections often contain a combination of commercially produced ornaments and decorations created by family members. Such collections are often passed on and augmented from generation to generation.
Santa Claus is a commonly used figure. Candy canes, fruit, animals and snowflake imagery are also popular choices
Lucretia P. Hale's story "The Peterkins' Christmas-Tree" offers a short catalog of the sorts of ornaments used in the 1870s:
- "There was every kind of gilt hanging-thing, from gilt pea-pods to butterflies on springs. There were shining flags and lanterns, and bird-cages, and nests with birds sitting on them, baskets of fruit, gilt apples, and bunches of grapes."
The modern-day Christmas ornament was originally invented in the small German town of Lauscha in the late 16th century.
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[edit] Bauble
A bauble is a spherical decoration that is commonly used to adorn Christmas trees. It is one of the most popular Christmas ornament designs, and you can find at least one bauble on virtually any Christmas tree. Baubles can have various designs on them, from "baby's first Christmas," to a favorite sports team. Baubles have been in production since 1847.
[edit] Invention
Glass baubles were first made in Lauscha, Germany by Hans Greiner who according to legend, began hand blowing glass into Christmas decorations because he was unable to afford usual ornaments such as nuts, apples and candy.
Greiner originally started by blowing glass into the shape of fruit and nuts. The inside of his decorations were made to look silvery, at first with mercury or lead, then later using a special compound of silver nitrate and sugar water.
As demand for Greiner's ornaments grew, he began blowing the glass into new shapes including the sphere which is now the most popular.
[edit] Export
Other glassblowers in Lauscha recognised the growing popularity of Christmas baubles and began producing them in a wide range of designs. Soon, the whole of Germany began buying Christmas glassware from Lauscha and after Queen Victoria's Christmas tree was pictured in a London newspaper decorated with glass ornaments and baubles from Prince Albert's native Germany, Lauscha began exporting its products throughout Europe.
In the 1880s, American F. W. Woolworth discovered Lauscha's baubles during a visit to Germany. He made a fortune by importing the German glass ornaments to the U.S.A.
[edit] Mass production
By the 1920s, traditional handblown methods gave way to mass production and before long there was competition from other regions of Germany and from abroad as well. The demand for the decorative items grew steadily, especially as new colours regularly became fashionable.
[edit] Post World War II
After World War II, the East German government turned most of Lauscha's glassworks into state-owned entities, and production of baubles in Lauscha ceased. After the Berlin Wall came down, most of the firms were reestablished as private companies. Today there are still about 20 small glass-blowing firms active in Lauscha that produce baubles.
[edit] The modern bauble
Although glass baubles are still produced, baubles are now mainly made from plastic and available worldwide in a huge variety of shapes, colours and designs.
[edit] Handcrafted christmas ornaments
Besides mass-produced ornaments, there is a thriving market in handcrafted Christmas ornaments[1] of every sort. These are typically sold at craft fairs, in craft shops and on the Internet.
[edit] Christmas Pickle
The Christmas pickle is a pickle-shaped ornament hidden in the tree. The child who finds it first on Christmas morning receives an extra present. While the Christmas pickle is believed to be a German custom, it is fairly unknown in Germany but widely spread across the USA.[2]
[edit] The star
It is common to place a large star or other large bright ornament at the top of the Christmas tree. Hans Christian Andersen's story of The Fir-Tree describes the decoration of a Danish Christmas tree:
- On one branch there hung little nets cut out of colored paper, and each net was filled with sugarplums; and among the other boughs gilded apples and walnuts were suspended, looking as though they had grown there, and little blue and white tapers were placed among the leaves. Dolls that looked for all the world like men—the Tree had never beheld such before—were seen among the foliage, and at the very top a large star of gold tinsel was fixed.[3]
In American English this is called a "tree-topper". The star is used to represent the Star of Bethlehem that the Magi used to find the baby Jesus.[citation needed]
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- The Christmas Pickle
- About The Christmas Pickle
- German Myth 11: The German Christmas Pickle
- History & Traditions of Christmas Ornaments
- The Legendary Pickle Oranament The Pickle Ornament available as made by Inge-glas of Germany, a glass blowing tradition since 1596
- How to make a Digital Photo Ornament Your source for Digital Photo Christmas Ornaments
[edit] Notes
- ^ Canadian Living : Crafts : Other Crafts : A collection of Christmas ornament crafts
- ^ Flippo, Hyde. About.com:"German Myth 11: The German Christmas Pickle". Accessed 19 December 2007.
- ^ Andersen's Fairy Tales, Project Gutenberg text
- ^ Lucretia P. Hale, The Peterkin Papers. 1960; Houghton Mifflin
- ^ German Christmas Ornaments
