Christmas Ornaments

Decorating with Holiday ornaments began in 1500's.

Until the mid 1800’s trees were decorated with edibles such as cookies, chains of popcorn, raisins, nuts, and pretzels. The tops of trees held flags, angels or stars. By the 19th century toys, bells, garlands and paper decorations were being included as decorations.

Germany provided the world with the bulk of its ornament production. Nuremberg in Bavaria produced metal decorations for export. Unique ornaments such as butterflies, stars, miniature musical instruments and icicles of silver foil were produced. Dresden and Leipzig Germany produced embossed paper or cardboard decorations known as Dresdens and angel hair. From the Thuringian mountains and Lauscha in Eastern Germany the creation of delicate blown glass ornaments began. Select here read about German Ornaments.

During the dark ages, German natives in northern Bohemia developed a new form of blown glass in the 4,000 year history of glass. They learned the glass blowing skills from wandering Venetian traders, and created glass decorations to adorn the Tannenbaum (fir tree) for the winter solstice festival.

Early Christians adapted this custom to celebrate the birth of Christ, and the Christmas tree ornament was born. The invention of the blowpipe by some unknown artisan helped bring about the craft of blown glass. Glass blowing in Germany dates as far back as the 1500’s. The craft began as a cottage industry in Lauscha East Germany and it spread through most of the German country side. Beginning in the 1860’s Germany would change the world when glass blowing expanded to include delicate ornaments made from glass molds. For many years, Germany was the major world source for glass ornaments.

In the United States the German settlers in Pennsylvania decorated trees as early as the 1800's. During the mid-1800's the custom of trimming the tree spread rapidly through the world. Select here to view our German glass ornaments.

The work and living situation of the Thuringian glass blowers and the distribution remained almost unchanged from the middle of the 19th century through World War ll. After World War II many of the families moved from Bohemia to Rosenheim, Bavaria, Germany, to continue the hand blown glass tradition. During the post war years the craft families built a cottage industry and built a reputation for fine traditional glass. The cottage industries developed many different glaze colors, styles and shapes during this period. West Germany, Neustadt became recognized as the production center of the toy and ornament industry. Neustadt also became a refuge for glass blowers fleeing from Lauscha in Eastern Germany after World War II.

The German glass ornaments became popular and these keepsakes are still being made as today. Select here to view our Birgits Limited Edition Glass Inge Ornaments.