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Christmas ornaments, baubles, globes, "Christmas bulbs", or "Christmas bubbles" are decoration items, usually to decorate Christmas trees. These decorations may be woven, blown (glass or plastic), molded (ceramic or metal), carved from wood or expanded polystyrene, or made by other techniques.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cc/Christmas_market%2C_Strasbourg_%285226808667%29.jpg/220px-Christmas_market%2C_Strasbourg_%285226808667%29.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e5/Weihnachtsbaum_mit_Kugel_und_Kerzen_2013.jpg/220px-Weihnachtsbaum_mit_Kugel_und_Kerzen_2013.jpg)
Ornaments are available in a variety of geometric shapes and image depictions. 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. Festive figures and images are commonly preferred.
Lucretia P. Hale's story "The Peterkins' Christmas-Tree"[1] 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 mold-blown colored glass Christmas ornament was invented in the small German town of Lauscha in the mid-16th century.[2]
History
Grinch here.
Modern baubles
Although glass baubles are still produced, as expensive good-quality ornaments often found at markets, baubles are now frequently made from plastic and available worldwide in a massive variety of shapes, colours and designs. Since the 19th century, there are a large number of manufacturers producing sophisticated Christmas glass ornaments in Poland, which produce "bombka" or the plural form "bombki"; Poland is the largest producer of glass bombe (bauble) ornaments that are exported to many countries all over the world, mainly to the United States, Japan, Australia, Sweden, Norway, France, the UK, and millions of glass-blown Christmas ornaments are made year-round in Tlalpujahua, Michoacan, Mexico, and exported to Spain, New Zealand and France. They are also made in Chignahuapan, Puebla, Mexico.[3]
Handcrafted
Handcrafted Christmas ornaments have become a staple of craft fairs, and many smaller online businesses owe much of their success to both the internet and the growth of craft stores. Sugar cookies, popcorn balls, gingerbread and many types of cookies can be used as ornaments.[4]
Manufacture of handmade glass ornaments
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Design of a glass Christmas ornament
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Sculpturing to produce a mould for a Christmas glass ornament
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Blowing glass ornament fabrication
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Silvering of glass ornaments
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Painting of a glass Christmas ornament
Types
- Christmas tree ornaments
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Bauble, or ball ornament
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Blue glass ornament
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Imitation tree snow
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Glass snowman ornament
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Red and gold ornamented bauble
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Angel decoration
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Glass Fabergé egg as a decoration.
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Bear ornament
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Polish folk Straw ornaments
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Crochet ornaments
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Cloth ornament
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Angel as tree top decoration
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Pre-1939 Polish snowman ornament
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Glass owl ornament
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Hand-painted glass bauble
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Polish bombki baubles made with ribbons
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Popcorn garland on Christmas tree
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Stringing lights on Christmas tree
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Christmas tree with tinsel garland.
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Christmas tree with tinsel lametta (long narrow strips)
See also
References
- ^ Lucretia P. Hale, The Peterkin Papers. 1960; Houghton Mifflin
- ^ "Learning and Teaching German". Archived from the original on 10 September 2016. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
- ^ "Admire the skill of the hands of Tlalpujahua". Visit Mexico. Archived from the original on 16 December 2018. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
- ^ "Homemade ornaments for the family Christmas tree". 4 December 1985. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
Further reading
- Brenner, Robert. "German glass ornaments in America". Max Kade Institute Friends Newsletter, vol. 12, no. 4 (Winter 2003): 1,12.
External links
- Media related to Christmas tree ornaments at Wikimedia Commons