So we have our Christmas tree, and of course it has ornaments. Now, my mom's tree is solely horse ornaments, that's her jam. The family tree however has ornaments of various shape, color, and sentimental value.
I am picky when it comes to what ornaments I will customize. I mean, I'm not spending hours on a pet portrait ornament to put it on a plastic ball that might easily scratch (now, one could make the argument the glass ornament could more easily break than plastic, but it's the value of the thing). So, once again, there's a question... who created the first glass ornament for the Christmas tree?
A German of course! It makes sense that if the Germans were credited with the Christmas tree, they'd also be responsible for creating the decorations. Plus, apparently they were tremendous glassblowers even back in the 1500's! Christoph Muller and Hans Greiner set up Lauscha, Germany's first glass works shop in 1597. 250 years later, in 1847, another Hans Greiner (descendent of the original Hans Greiner) created the first glass ornaments in the shape of fruits and nuts. His decedents would carry on his legacy of producing ornaments which soon spread around the world. German-born Prince Albert and his wife, Queen Victoria, decorated a Christmas tree with German ornaments and an illustration of the tree made the London paper. F.W. Woolworth was responsible for importing them into the United States in the 1880's.
It's impressive how far ornaments have come in less than 200 years (given it took well over that to get to glass ornaments in the first place). But I guess technology and information will do that! Leaps and bounds my friends, leaps and bounds. So the next question is, do you have special ornaments you hang on your tree?
