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It is our hope that knowing a little more
about the origins of your beautiful
blown-glass ornaments will add
to your appreciation of them.
Some may eventually be passed down
in your family for generations to come. |
There are many versions of how Christmas ornaments came to be, but the most widely accepted notion of their birth is attributed to Martin Luther. Legend has it, Luther strolled through a forest one Christmas Eve and was so enchanted by the beauty of starlight on the snowy fir trees, he brought a small tree indoors and decorated it with candles to recreate what he'd seen. It was his idea such a tree would help remind his children of God’s glorious creation and the promise of the Christmas Star.
However it evolved, the custom of decorating an evergreen tree for Christmas quickly spread throughout Europe, where families eagerly decorated their trees with fruits, nuts, sweet and paper creations. As the idea began to grow in popularity, other handmade decorations were added.
In the 1800s, the Muller-Greiner glassworks began making glass ornaments in the shape of the familiar fruits and nuts. These new mouth-blown ornaments became so popular that they were soon found across Europe and Great Britain. In 1846 a newspaper picture of Queen Victoria’s Christmas tree showed her tree to be completely decorated with glass ornaments from Germany.
European immigrants subsequently brought the Christmas tree tradition with them to the U.S. in the 1800s, but it still took dime-store mogul F.W. Woolworth to turn the German glass ornaments into a multi-million dollar business. Woolworth discovered the ornaments on a trip to Germany and, as an experiment, began importing them to America. The rest, as they say, is history.
During WWII, some glass ornaments were manufactured in the U.S. Due to shortages of materials important to the war effort, they were not "silvered" inside and the ornament caps and wires (usually made of metal and wire), were made of paper and string.
After the end of World War II, many Lauscha residents fled East Germany to the West German town of Neustadt, bringing with them the molds used to form the glass ornaments. One account of the times indicates that following the war, many of the precious molds handed down through generations of families were destroyed. Fortunately, some were later discovered intact.
It is our hope that knowing a little more about the origins of your beautiful blown-glass ornaments will add to your appreciation of them. Some may eventually be passed down in your family for generations to come. At the very least, they deserve special care as you use and then store them from year to year.
Written by Dorothy Bryant, Honorary WOOTR Pictures: Connie Porcher, CELEBRATE 365 |
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