The definiton of Christmas tree ornaments comes to us from the word ornament which is defined as an accessory used to beautify, enrich, or improve the looks and appearance of an object. To decorate a tree with a Christmas ornament is an adornment. They are ornamental by nature and add beauty to the Christmas trees.    German families adopted the custom of decorating a wooden pyramid with greenery and other objects in place of the Paradise tree. In Bavaria, Paradise was the term used for the Christmas tree for ornaments. In Latvia around 1510 a fir tree was decorated with roses which was associated with the Virgin Mary. In 1605 a tree in Strasbourg was brought in doors and decorated with paper roses, wafers, nuts, lighted candles, and sweets on trees. Later decorations included painted eggshells, cookies, and candies.    Until the mid 1800’s trees were decorated with edibles such as cookies, popcorn, raisins, nuts, and pretzels. The tops of trees held flags, angels or stars. By the 19th century toys, bells, garlands and paper decorations were being included as Christmas ornaments for decorations.    Germany provided the world with the bulk of its ornament production. Nuremberg in Bavaria produced metal decorations for export. Unique ornaments such as butterflies, stars, miniature musical instruments and icicles of silver foil were produced. Dresden and Leipzig Germany produced embossed paper or cardboard decorations known as Dresdens and angel hair. From the Thuringian mountains and Lauscha in Eastern Germany the creation of delicate blown glass ornaments began.

During the dark ages, German natives in northern Bohemia developed a new form of blown glass in the 4,000 year history of glass. They created glass decorations to adorn the fir tree for the winter solstice festival. Early Christians adapted this custom to celebrate the birth of Christ, and the Christmas tree ornament was born. The invention of the blowpipe by some unknown artisan helped bring about the craft of blown glass. Glass blowing in Germany dates as far back as the 1500’s. The craft began as a cottage industry in Lauscha East Germany and it spread through most of the German country side. Beginning in the 1860’s Germany would change the world when glass blowing expanded to include delicate ornaments made from glass molds. For many years, Germany was the major world source for glass ornaments. In the United States the German settlers in Pennsylvania decorated trees as early as the 1800's. During the mid-1800's the custom of trimming the tree spread rapidly through the world. The German glass ornaments became popular and these keepsakes are still being made as today.

The glass pickle ornaments are the oddest German ornaments of all. The glass pickle ornament is always the last one to be hung on the tree. The parents would carefully hide the pickle in the tree among the other decorations. When the children were allowed to view the Christmas tree decorated, they would begin gleefully searching the tree for the Pickle ornament. The children knew that whoever found the pickle first would receive an extra little gift and would begin the unwrapping of the Christmas gifts.

Creativity in the making of Christmas ornaments increased in the late 1900’s with the introduction of injection plastic molding. Plastic molding gave the Christmas industry a new medium to make an endless variety of unique ornaments. Tiny miniatures could be made easily and fast. Characters depicting all walks of life, cartoon characters, Angels, and an endless array of characters are produced with injection molding. Snowflakes, stars and crosses are also popular decorations made with the injection molding process. The cost of injection molding is relative low allowing shoppers to buy a greater number of decorations with their budgets. Another advantage of the injection molding process is that the molds can be created in a short period of time and production of new items can start within months.

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