Ever Wonder Why We
Decorate Christmas Trees?
The fir tree has a long association with Christianity, it began in Germany
almost a 1000 years ago when St Boniface, who converted the German people to Christianity,
was said to have come across a group of pagans worshipping an oak tree. In anger, St
Boniface is said to have cut down the oak tree and to his amazement a young fir tree
sprung up from the roots of the oak tree. St Boniface took this as a sign of the Christian
faith. But it was not until the 16th century that fir trees were brought indoors at
Christmas time.
From the book "Christopher
Radko, The First Decade"
"It is from Germany that we today get many of our customs, songs, images of Santa, pine trees and European hand blow glass ornaments.
How these traditions traveled to England is interesting. Queen Victoria often visited relatives in Germany in the town of Coburg and while there she fell in love with a young Prince Albert. After they got married they returned to England to raise their family.
The tree that Price Albert provided his family was admired by all in England. This tree was decorated in the finest of hand blown glass ornaments. Since everyone liked the Queen they copied her Christmas customs including the Christmas tree and ornaments.
A F.W. Woolworth brought the glass ornament tradition to the United States in 1890. From 1870's to 1930's, Germans made the finest molds for making ornaments with nearly 5,000 different molds at the time. At the turn of the century there were over one hundred small cottage glass blowing workshops in Europe. Today only two respected German factory teams are capable of producing ornaments to the precise specifications of the Christopher Radko collection.
During the hayday of turn of the century ornament
making, almost all ornaments were made in Lauscha, a small town nested in the Thuringian
mountains. After the war, however, glass ornament production declined. Many of the
craftsmen left for West Germany. Quantity rather than quality, was the Communist
management philosophy. Some old molds fell into disrepair and many others were left to
collect dust or were lost.
In the 1960's it was fashionable to have an Aluminum tree and all the same shape and color
ornaments. Many threw away the old ornaments from Germany.
It was in the 1980's that Christopher Radko brought back the old art of making the glass
ornaments for all to enjoy." Click here
to learn more.
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