The Christmas baubles are nowadays the most popular ornaments for the traditional Christmas tree. You can't even imagine a tree without the baubles, right? At the beginning of
Christmas celebrations as we know them today, the trees were adorned with natural elements like apples, candies or pine cones, but since the invention of the glass baubles, the history of the Christmas decorations changed completely.
The glass baubles were invented in the small town of Lauscha, in Germany, by Hans Greiner (1550-1609) and Christoph Müller. The little town, located in a river valley in the German state of Thuringen, had the necessary elements for glass-making: timber and sand. So, in 1597, Müller and Greiner opened the Glashütten ("glassworks") in Lauscha. First, they started producing garlands of glass beads and tin figures that could be hung on trees.The original Lauscha ornaments in shape of fruits and nuts soon grew into the production of artistic glass figures made by highly skilled artisans.
The baubles were so popular, that other glassblowers in Lauscha began producing them in a wide variety of designs and soon the whole of Germany started buying the Lauscha Christmas ornaments. Lauscha started exporting its products throughout Europe after Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom decorated the Christmas tree with the glass baubles received from her German husband Prince Albert. In the 1880's, American F.W. Woolworth discovered the Lauscha baubles during a visit to Germany and started importing them to the United States.
Today, there are still 20 small glass-blowing firms in Lauscha that produce glass baubles. You can find at the end of this article a list with some of these. They might be a bit more expensive than the plastic or the big-scale production glass baubles, but they are worth it. The Lauscha baubles are a part of the history and of the Christmas traditions in Europe.
Glass-baubles companies in Lauscha:
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