Handling Glass Christmas Ornaments

Glass decorations must be handled carefully. Whenever they are removed from storage, it should be done on a padded surface. There should also be a padded tree skirt under the tree to soften the impact of any glass ball that falls from the tree. You should also use an old-fashioned Christmas tree fence to keep your young children and pets away from the ornaments. Otherwise, place your delicate glass balls near the top of the tree. Make sure that these ornaments are also positioned away from sunlight so that the paint will not fade.

Cleaning Christmas Ornaments

The colors of antique ornaments are from favorite family recipes, which were not very durable and with age they become even more fragile. Most of them are water-soluble, so they should never be washed or have any type of chemical solution used on them. Instead, gently flick them with an ostrich- feather duster to clean them.

Storing Christmas Ornaments

Strong, acid-free cardboard storage boxes with close-fitting lids are needed to store your Christmas ornaments. You should try to find one that has been specifically designed to store ornaments and thus has appropriately-sized compartments. Plastic boxes are sturdier than cardboard boxes, but the completely airless space they create is not necessarily suitable for valuable or antique ornaments. Of course, you will still want to individually wrap each piece with acid-free tissue paper, or acid-free paper towels before placing it in the storage container. Bubble wrap or crumpled paper towels should be placed at the bottom of the storage container before placing your wrapped Christmas ornaments inside.

Even with all this padding and protection, it is still possible for ornaments to be damaged by extreme temperatures and humidity levels. These elements can cause stress fractures to eventually occur in your ornaments. This is why you do not want to store your Christmas ornaments in unheated attics or cellars. Instead, you should keep them inside of a closet.

Taking time to care and properly store will ensure that your Christmas ornaments go undamaged. This is not something that is difficult to do; consider it as an investment in preserving heirlooms for generations to come.
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Caring for Christmas Ornaments

The Earliest Christmas Ornaments for Trees

The earliest Christmas trees were found in Germany where they were decorated with such Christmas decorations as apples, onions, pears, nuts, candies and fruits. It was not until the 1800s that glass Christmas ornaments were first made. This took place Lauscha, Germany where the entire family was part of the business. This beautiful new glass Christmas ornaments began to replace edible decorations.

Until 1925, almost all of the hand blown glass Christmas ornaments were manufactured in Lauscha, Germany. During this time there were more than 250 million Christmas ornaments being imported into the United States alone. However, all of this changed after World War II, which is when the Lauscha area became a part of East Germany. At this time there were a lot of glassblowers who fled to West Germany and the industry began to decline at this time. It was also around this time that both Japan and Czechoslovakia began to produce glass Christmas ornaments for the North American market

Unfortunately, in the 1960′s glass Christmas ornaments went out of fashion. This is when the aluminum Christmas tree, adorned with ornaments that were shaped and colored from aluminum, became quite popular. During this time a lot of the traditional Christmas ornaments were thrown away.

What to Look for in Antique Christmas Ornaments

If you are lucky enough to still have any vintage Christmas ornaments, then you really should hang on to them. Of course, it is difficult to tell whether or not they are truly vintage- but it can be done. This is because earlier ornaments were smaller than today’s modern ornaments and they were usually created out of soft colors and had many hand-painted details. Of course, this paint may be either faded or distressed in areas of the ornament today.

The best places to find these ornaments today is on Ebay, at flea markets, at church sales and at garage sales too. You will want to check them carefully by removing the stem from the base of the ornament. If the base is uneven, then you can be sure that this was a hand blown ornament because the glass blower is unable to make a clean break whereas modern machinery can do so.
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The History of Christmas Ornaments