Design History

Like most people, our family’s Christmas tree is our most important Christmas decoration, the place where we gather on the holiday. Ours is adorned with frosted colored bulbs and ornaments that evoke family memories while we make new ones each Christmas. It sets the tone for the Christmas mood in the house. And I also love it because it involves decorating. Here are some fun facts about the history of the Christmas tree and its ornaments, which help to explain why we started doing this in the first place!

The tradition of the Christmas tree as we know it is thought to have begun in Germany in the 8^th century. Legend has it the monk Saint Boniface presented a fir tree to decorate for the season because the tree’s triangular shape represented the Holy Trinity. Martin Luther has been credited with being the first to light his Christmas tree with candle light to further explain the story of Christmas to his children. The candles represented the Heavens and stars.

An illustration of Martin Luther explaining the Christmas story with the first lighted Christmas tree.

The first indoor, decorated tree is said to have been in Strasbourg, France in 1605. Early ornaments were paper roses, lighted candles, wafers, nuts, and sweets. As the tradition evolved, advanced homemade ornaments included painted egg shells, cookies, replicas of food made of paper, glass beads, and hand-sewn snowflakes. Tinsel was introduced in 1610 and was made of pure silver!

Queen Victoria had much to do with widespread popularity of celebrating the season and many of the traditions that we know and love. In 1860, an illustration of the queen and Prince Albert around the Christmas tree in their home was published in Godey’s Lady’s Book and inspired British as well as American Christmas trees in the home. Other Christmas traditions she spread were singing carols, charitable giving during the holiday season, and hearty family feasts of roast beef, goose or turkey and plum pudding for desert. Like Martha Stewart of the 19th Century, many of Queen Victoria’s ornaments were handcrafted, and instructions for creating them were included in popular magazines. One example was a hot air balloon made with an early light bulb and net.

Queen Victoria, Prince Albert around their tree as published in Godey's Lady's Book

Victorian Santa Claus ornament collection

Cookies were key players in early homemade ornaments, baked into the shapes of bells, stars, hearts and other symbols of the season. German manufacturers took this concept to the next level during the Industrial Age and began making ornaments out of glass molds. The shapes were infinite and included animals, saints, famous people, and children, and their popularity had a global impact.

Ornaments made of cookies, such as these by Martha Stewart Living, were popular homemade ornaments in the early days of the Christmas tree.

Blown glass ornaments like these were made in Lauscha, Germany.

The history of the ornament industry is rich and has influenced the way we value ornaments as collections. Every charm imaginable was created, from Santas, angels and other symbols of Christmas, to souvenirs of vacation spots, icons of popular culture and milestone markers. A tree rich in ornaments reflected the lives and interests of the owners and became monuments to families and time capsules to reopen each year and add even more meaning. By 1890 F.W. Woolworth reportedly had sold $25 million worth of German glass ornaments in the United States. During and after the World Wars, there was a backlash against items made in Germany. In the 1930s, German ornament manufacturer Max Eckhardt, sensing his business was going to go under, partnered with Woolworth and approached Corning Company to start manufacturing American-made glass ornaments. They repurposed a machine that made ribbon glass light bulbs to produce Christmas ornaments! Eckhardt later founded popular American silvered ornament company Shiny Brite. Ornament entrepreneur Christopher Radko now reproduces both the 19th and 20th Century German ornaments as well as Shiny Brite classics from the mid-20th Century.

Shiny Brite silvered ornaments, reproduced by Christopher Radko.

A Shiny Brite tree topper reproduction by Christopher Radko.

One thing that’s remained consistent is that no matter the time in Christmas tree history, homemade ornaments have created one of a kind Christmas trees and added personal touches that in my opinion, glass ornaments just can’t reproduce. When home for Christmas at my parents’ house, 20-something year old sticky, glittery paper ornaments my brothers and I made at school resurface every year attached to memories, and the felt Santas and Snowmen my mom made when we were kids will find prominent spots on the tree no mattered how tattered they appear when their boxes are reopened this year. Among newer ornaments, these are still our favorites and make our tree uniquely ours. Click HERE for instructions on how to make Mr. and Mrs. Clause shown at the top of the blog post! And for more fun facts and a more thorough history of the Christmas tree and its ornaments, visit The Ornament Shop!

Merry Christmas!

Lana

Whimsical, theatrical Strawberry Hill during a recent renovation. In the Gothic Revival style, the quatrefoil and trefoil were major motifs. Photo by Andrew Urwin for The Guardian.

It might not be St. Patrick’s Day, but at Chestnut Hall we’re feeling lucky. We’re noticing clover shapes surfacing in our furniture and accessories lines and they’re sprouting up on our showroom floor. I’m taken back to Design History class, where a lovely and quirky English professor referred to herself as Auntie Lorella (pronounce that AHN-tee) and made every style spanning Medieval to Victorian seem romantic and world-changing. She taught us that contrary to our common association of clovers with the luck of the Irish, in decorative arts, they relate to the Gothic and Gothic Revival styles from all across Europe.

For word of the day purposes, Auntie Lorella explained these clover shapes are formally called quatrefoil and trefoil and translate to “four leaves” and “three leaves,” respectively. They were widely used in Gothic architecture, but their popularity peaked in the Gothic Revival period, which began in the mid-18th century. Gothic Revival was a whimsical era in decorative arts history, as the darkness was sucked out of Gothic design. Gothic symbols and principles were theatrically exploited, multiplied, and often painted white. Gothic ruins were treasured for their dark and romantic novelty. Horace Walpole was the trendsetter, a writer who built Strawberry Hill in London, a Gothic Revival “little plaything house,” or others might call it a palace, when everyone else was building in the Classical style. He coined the term “gloomth” to express a joyful pleasure in the gloominess of Gothic design. He filled his home with art and treasures from ancient to then-modern times, hosted extravagant parties, and allowed tourists to visit his masterpiece. Click here for a slideshow by The Guardian showing Strawberry Hill during its recent restoration and to learn more about the fantastic Horace Walpole. You’ll gain a lighter and brighter appreciation for Gothic style!

Here are some of our favorite pieces available at Chestnut Hall that include trefoils and quatrefoils.

Yours,

Lana