Antique German Ornaments

♫ Deck the Halls ♫

We cherish the old ornaments that belonged to Grayden's family when he was a child.  These ornaments were not bought in the finest of department stores.  They came from the  F.W. Woolworth store in Richmond, Virginia.  Woolworth was the store where many homemakers found ornaments to decorate their Christmas tree. 

 F. W. Woolworth had purchased blown glass ornaments from a German importer in 1880.  He was not sure that these ornaments would appeal to the public in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  There was a large German population in the area that bought all of the ornaments in two days.  As the Woolworth company grew to 14 stores he decided to visit Dresden and Lauscha.  He placed an order of over 200,000 hand blown glass ornaments.  His decision proved to be profitable as Woolworth sold over $25 million dollars worth of Christmas ornaments.  

We are not sure when these ornaments were purchased, but from a little research it appears they are from the 30's to the 40's.  Grayden's parents were married in the 30's.

Many of the traditional elements of our Christmas celebrations began in Germany.  Of course the Christmas tree began there and the shiny glass balls we decorate with are German in origin. They were masters at glass blowing.  Christians bought decorated trees into their homes in 16th century Germany. 

These ornaments are very lightweight and very fragile.  We do not own the original boxes, so Grayden made a special box to store them in.

I think they look pretty good to be 70 or 80 years old!

  

We have several of the same type, but I have shown at least one of each. 

 

All of these ornaments from one generation to another generation.  

“Christmas is a bridge. We need bridges as the river of time flows past. Today's Christmas should mean creating happy hours for tomorrow and reliving those of yesterday.” 

― Gladys Taber