Skip to main content

THE TRADITION OF CHRISTMAS TREE ORNAMENTS!!!


   Looking at a fully decorated Christmas tree, one of the most outstanding things you notice are the ornaments.  Their color and the way they reflect the lights.  They add so much to the tree's beauty.  They come in so many different shapes, colors, designs and styles.
   When the tradition of Christmas trees first came on to its own, it was decorated with candles, fruits, nuts and candy.
   It was not until the 1800's that glass ornaments came along.  It started in Germany in the town of Lauscha.  The men did the glass blowing, the women did the silvering and the children painted them.  It did not take long for the new tradition of decorating the tree with the new ornaments replacing the fruit, nuts and candy.  Spreading throughout Gemany, and then quickly throughout Europe.



Glass ornament made by Krebs Glas, has 5.1 carats of diamonds priced at $30,000.00

   After the 1850's, the Europeans brought this new tradition to the United States.  Here the ornaments became larger in size and variety.  However, the tradition did not take off right away.  It was not until the 1880's, when F.W. Woolworth started importing ornaments from Lauscha to the United States and quickly added to his fortune.
   When Queen Victoria of England married Prince Albert of Germany, the tradition of using ornaments instead of fruit and candy spread through England.



   For a while, brightly painted pressed tin and pressed paper ornaments were being made.  While this new type did not become as popular, a variety of ornaments started appearing on the Christmas tree.
   After World War II, Lauscha which was eastern part of Germany, found itself behind the Iron Curtain.  That is when the ornaments started to be made in Czechoslovakia and japan.  Japan had already started to challenge Germany's dominance in the market.  japan offered more variety of colors, styles and designs than Lauscha did.  Czechoslovakia was doing the same thing, but was slower in the production of their ornaments.



   Today, ornaments are made all over the world.  You can find every kind of style, from modern to Victorian style.  Some are glass, some are plastic, they all are beautiful and really add to the benefit of the tree.
   People nowadays have the option of decorating their trees with ornaments that suit their personality or even their hobbies.
  While the history of ornaments is interesting, the pleasure of just looking at a well decorated tree takes precedence.  Ornaments certainly do their job of making your Christmass tree special each and every year.  What better compliment to the people that make them than that.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

VANILLA PEACH COFFEE CAKE!!

Did you know that the fruit this summer is supposed to be the best it has been in years? Apparently, fruit loves hot weather. I personally have eaten more peaches and cherries this summer than I have in about five years just for that reason.  As I have been a little overzealous lately buying peaches and cherries I found myself with a few peaches that were going to be too ripe for me to eat on the same day. That is unless I wanted to have them for every meal plus a few snacks. So I decided to make this recipe for Vanilla Peach Coffee Cake.  Vanilla Peach Coffee Cake Adapted from  Allrecipes.com Batter: 2 eggs 1 C milk 1/2 C oil 1 tsp. vanilla 1/2 C  sour cream 3 C flour 1 C sugar 1 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. baking soda Topping: 5 or 6 large peaches, diced. 3 Tbsp. butter, melted 11/4 C brown sugar 1Tbsp. cinnamon 2 tsp. nutmeg 4 Tbsp. flour Vanilla Icing: 1 Tbsp. butter 1 tsp

PRESENT TOPIARY TO DECORATE YOUR PORCH AND FRONT DOOR!

   This comes from www.thatvillagehouse.blogspot.com .  I made something similar a couple years ago, without the pots.  It was about 6 feet high.  I got the inspiration from a Chirstmas dectoration that we bought at Target. This is a very good idea and make a great enterance to your home.  So here's a little something to thing about for next year.  Before you know it December will be here again.  You could also do something like this for an Easter theme.   Enjoy! A Merry Welcome! So here is my first Christmas project for the year!! I saw something similar at our church's Advent celebration & pretty much straight up copied it. I couldn't help it. It was love at first sight! I plan to make a 2nd stack to go on the other side of my door, so I'm not completely done, but I thought I would share it with you anyway. I started with 3 different sized boxes...9, 12 & 14 inch cubes. I used an ice pick to punch holes in each of them so that I could run

SAPPORO SNOW FESTIVAL FROM JAPAN!!!

     The Sapporo Snow Festival is a famous festival held annually in Sapporo, Japan, over 7 days in February.  Currently, Odori Park, Susukino, and Tsudome are the main sites of the festival.  The 2011 Yuki-matsuri dates are February 7th to the 13th.    The festival is one of Japan's largest and most distinctive winter events.  In 2007, about 2 million people visited Sapporo to see the hundreds of snow statues and ice sculptures at the Odori Park and Suskino sites, in central Sapporo, and the Satoland site.  The festival is thought to be an opportunity for promoting international relations. The International Snow Sculpture Contest has been held at the Odori Park sit since 1974, and teams from various regions of the world participate.      The subject of the statues varies and often features as event, famous building or person from the previous yer.  For example, in 2004, there were statues of Hideki Matsui, the famous baseball player who at that time pl