The history of baubles, or how the most famous Christmas tree decorations were created

 The bauble is the most popular Christmas decoration in the world. It's hard to imagine Christmas Eve without a tree decorated with colorful baubles. How were the first bombs made? What did they look like and who exactly came up with the idea of creating them? When did baubles appear in Poland and what is the process of blowing out baubles?

Baubles are probably the most associated decorations with the Christmas tree. They decorate Christmas trees every Christmas. Traditional baubles are made of thin glass. They are usually painted by hand and silvered from the inside. The first baubles that appeared in our country were made of blown glass. Many of them imitated nuts and fruits, as well as animals and objects that we use every day (e.g. shoes, and umbrellas). It is interesting that over several dozen years Poland has become an expert in the field of making baubles to such an extent that to this day it exports Christmas decorations all over the world.

Before we discuss who exactly came up with the idea of creating the first bauble in the world, it is worth telling you about the custom of decorating the Christmas tree. Well, the tradition of decorating a Christmas tree is pagan - it was only later adopted by the Catholic Church. The tradition of decorating Christmas trees was born in Germany around the 16th century when Protestantism was dominant at that time. It was in Germany that the first coniferous trees were placed in houses, and then they were decorated with, among others, ornaments. food and paper decorations. For example, Martin Luther was a huge proponent of practicing this custom. During the time of the German religious reformer, however, there were no round glass baubles that we hang on our Christmas trees today. They were not invented until several hundred years later.

At first, Christmas tree decorations looked completely different than those we know from stores. The pagans hung mainly food on their trees. So candies, cookies, apples, nuts, and gingerbread hung on most of the conifers. Between them also dangled spectacular paper ornaments in various shapes and colors. There were also decorations made of tissue paper and eggshells. Twigs were often covered with straw or blades of grass - there were no shiny chains like those available in shopping malls today. There were also no lights shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow. Instead of them, candles were used, which were carefully placed on the branches of the tree - this was of course a very dangerous solution but at the same time the only one that allowed you to light up the Christmas tree. Interestingly, all the ornaments had their own special symbolism. Nuts, for example, were a symbol of prosperity, apples were supposed to ensure the health of household members, and a paper or straw chain reflected family ties.

The first bauble was produced only in 1847. The creator of this unique Christmas tree ornament was Hans Greiner. It was he who came up with the idea of creating a thin glass shell. According to historical records, Greiner invented the bauble when he was poor - lack of money to buy Christmas decorations motivated him to create his own decoration. The man worked at the Lauscha glassworks in Germany. He knew very well that the money he earned would not be enough to buy an apple or buy cookies, nuts or even colored paper with which he could decorate a Christmas tree. So he thought for a long time what to decorate his Christmas tree with. Finally, he managed to blow a round bauble out of thin glass and decorate his Christmas tree with it. Greiner decided that the ornaments came out really interesting, so he started making more and more of them. This is how the mass production of baubles began. People fell in love with them! With his innovative idea, Hans Greiner saved the steelworks from bankruptcy, because over time it began to earn huge money from the sale of baubles. More and more people wanted to decorate their Christmas trees with round, blown baubles. Over the next hundred years from the day when Greiner blew the first bauble, a multitude of craft workshops opened around the world, where similar Christmas tree decorations were made.

It's hard to believe that baubles were born out of poverty. Today, looking at some of them, you can grab your head - mainly due to the exaggerated prices of some of them. People looking for unusual Christmas decorations can afford innovative solutions today. Currently, there is no major problem to buy baubles in interesting patterns, with various accessories, and even hand-painted and dedicated - even the luxurious ones, from the greatest fashion designers in the world. Before we get to the process of their creation, it is worth recalling the history of baubles just after the great success of Hans Greiner.

After baubles reached the peak of popularity in Germany, they also gained a huge number of fans in the UK. It was the British who first began to import German baubles to their country. One of the first Christmas trees in England to be decorated with round baubles was the Christmas tree at Windsor Castle. The fame of baubles then spread throughout Europe, and in the second half of the 19th century, many factories began to be established where Christmas decorations were blown out, decorated, and then sold. In the United States, the first decorated Christmas tree appeared in 1856 in the White House. More or less at the same time, the baubles reached Poland.

At first, our compatriots imported baubles from their German neighbors, but later the first factories producing Christmas decorations began to appear in Poland. At first, Poles were blowing round shapes of baubles, but later they started creating completely different glass shells - for example in the shape of everyday objects (such as hats or shoes). Over time, angels, animals, snowflakes, and snowmen also appeared. In the middle of the 20th century, the largest manufacturer of glass Christmas decorations in Poland was opened in Milicz. From that moment, the factory operated continuously until 2008, producing up to a million different baubles each year.

Today, the largest bauble factories still rely on blowing them themselves. Trained employees blow baubles out of glass pipes at a high temperature, to which the glass is heated using burners - usually it is about 900 degrees C. It is at this stage that the decorations can be given the desired shape. How to make a bauble perfectly round? The walls of the glass tube should be evenly heated. To make a different shape than the traditional one, an aluminum mold is used. The next stage of bauble production is its silvering. When the interior is silvered, i.e. covered with silver nitrate, the bauble is immersed in warm water. This makes silver nitrate mirror-like. This allows you to get more expressive colors of any paint on the bauble.

What's next? Only the last touches remain, i.e. finishing the baubles. Dried decorations can be immediately covered with any varnish intended for Christmas decorations - in this way they are given a uniform color. Then you can decorate the bauble with any ornaments, of course by hand. Some choose only paints and glitter, while others add e.g. beads or sequins. After drying, you can finish the bauble by shortening the edge of the tube that was left after it was blown. It remains only to insert the cap with a loop, thanks to which you can hang a ribbon, hook, or thread through it and hang the decoration on the Christmas tree. There are bauble factories in Poland that regularly organize demonstrations of the production of Christmas decorations. It is worth going on such a trip at least once in your life to see for yourself the craftsmanship and amazing art of making baubles by hand.

Curiosities about baubles - did you know?

1. Poland is currently one of the largest and most desirable producers of baubles in the world. Our baubles go to the European market, but also to the United States, Canada, and Australia.
2. In 2012, Nowa Dęba, there is the most popular Museum of Christmas Tree Baubles in Poland. There you can see Christmas tree decorations from different eras.
3. In Germany, in 1923, the world's first art school was founded, where you could master the art of shaping glass in the fire of a burner.
4. In 2013, in the Creative Multifunctional Facility, the first Christmas tree bauble was created using the 3D printing method. It was a limited series because only three pieces of these modern ornaments were created.
5. The most expensive bauble in the world was made of 188 rubies, 18-carat gold, and 500 diamonds. Artist Mark Hussey from Hampshire, UK, worked on it for a whole year. The bauble is stored in a steel box, which is additionally surrounded by thick glass.

Bibliography:

1. Fr. Józef Naumowicz: The Story of the Christmas Tree, Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków 2007
2. Brand Sofie Maria: Holidays in the world, Znak Emotion Publishing House, Warsaw 2021