ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Christmas Decorations - Ideas For Your Tree And Home

Updated on December 6, 2012

Start Your Christmas Decorations Collection

Christmas decorations: stowed away for eleven months of the year, then brought out to shine for the Christmas season. Ornaments are generally reused year after year, and family collections often contain a mixture of shop bought ornaments and decorations made by family members, passed on and added to from generation to generation.

Santa Claus, candy canes, baubles and streamers, glittering orbs, strings of lights - and, of course, the fairy at the top. Or a star.

Christmas Wreath

Christmas Wreath.
Christmas Wreath. | Source

Christmas Decorating Ideas

Hang a wreath
- Use a 3M hanger, adhesive backed so you don't need to use a nail.

Festive biscuits
- Bake some Christmas cookies using Christmas themed cookie cutters and use them to decorate the tree.

Hang a stocking

- Over the fireplace. Where else? But make it a big stocking. Maybe crocheted squares, multicoloured. I'm talking impressive stocking.

Christmas Baubles

Baubles are one of the most popular Christmas ornament designs, and they've been in production since 1847, first made in Lauscha, Germany, by Hans Greiner, who first produced them.

Before baubles came along, the first decorated trees were hung with apples, strings of popcorn, candy canes and pastries shaped like stars, hearts, and flowers.

Christmas Decorations

Christmas Decorations
Christmas Decorations | Source

Handmade Christmas Ornaments

Lauscha, a small town in Germany, became known for its glass-blowing when Hans Greiner and Christoph Müller set up the town's first glassworks in 1597. The Thuringia region where it was located had been home to glassmaking since the 12th century.having a fortunate confluence of those elements necessary for glass-making: timber, for firing the glass ovens, and sand.

In 1847 another Hans Greiner, descendant of that Hans Greiner who had established Lauscha's first glassworks, began to make glass ornaments shaped like fruits and nuts.

His artisans heated a glass tube, inserted the tube into a clay mold, and blew the heated glass to fill the mold. The inside of the ornament was silvered using a compound of silver nitrate and sugar water, a technique developed in the 1850s by Justus von Liebig. Afterwards, the ornament was painted by hand and had a hanging hook attached.

Queen Victoria's Christmas Tree

Soon, the whole of Germany began buying Christmas baubles from Lauscha, and other glassblowers began to follow the trend, and make them in a wide range of designs.

On Christmas Eve, 1832, a young Queen Victoria wrote of her delight at having a tree hung with lights and ornaments, with presents placed around it. In the 1840s, after a picture of Victoria's Christmas tree had appeared in a London newspaper, decorated with glass ornaments and baubles from Germany, Lauscha began to export its glassware throughout Europe.

In the 1880s, American F. W. Woolworth discovered Lauscha's baubles during a visit to Germany, and made a fortune importing the ornaments to the still wider market in the USA.

Outdoor Christmas Decorations

Outdoor Christmas lights
- This is where you compete with the neighbours. Not that it's going to get hostile, or weird. No sir. Nothing unhealthy going on here.

Christmas inflatables
- See the nothing weird ruling above. Ah heck, go to town with the lights and inflatables. 'When it comes to inflatables - GO BIG, OR DON'T GO AT ALL.' That's my motto. It's on my family crest.

Christmas Tree Decorating Ideas

Tree topper
- Go eccentric. It doesn't have to be an angel or a star. There are options.

Feathers?
- Well, why not? Everybody likes feathers.

Monochrome
- The Christmas tree style statement. Try gold on its own, with no other colour. Or silver. Silver's good.

'And At The Very Top, A Large Star...'

Although glass baubles are still produced, many are now made from plastic, available worldwide in a variety of shapes, colors and designs.

'And at the very top a large star of gold tinsel was fixed.'

- From 'The Fir Tree', by Hans Christian Andersen.

In American English, this star is known as a 'tree-topper', and is often the prize item in any collection of Christmas decorations. Tree toppers are often electrified and light up. Various Christmas icons, such as Santa Claus, have been used as electrified tree toppers. The angel or star are still the toppers of choice for most people.

Christmas Tree Decorations

Old World Christmas Ornaments: Dancing Shoes Glass Blown Ornaments for Christmas Tree
Old World Christmas Ornaments: Dancing Shoes Glass Blown Ornaments for Christmas Tree
Because we all know the story of the Christmas Ballerina Hippo. Don't we? Me neither. Anyway, this ornament is hand crafted using techniques mentioned in the article. Molten glass is mouth-blown into finely carved molds, before a hot solution of liquid silver is poured inside. The ornaments are then hand-painted and decorated.
 

Christmas Table Decorations

Rudolf
- Because it's Christmas.

Holly centre piece
- Get the real thing from the garden. Or steal it from someone else's.

Crackers
- Because relatives become almost bearable when they're wearing party hats.

More Christmas Decorations

More Christmas Decorations
More Christmas Decorations | Source

A Great And Persistent Christmas Tradition

And that's it. A great and persistent Christmas tradition which provides harmless pleasure to families all over the world today. Have you got a Christmas decorations collection? It's a good time to start one, and a great gift to leave your children.

The Best Way To Handle Christmas Is...

Well, what is the best way to handle Christmas?

See results
working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)