When the tradition of Christmas trees first came on to its own, it was decorated with candles, fruits, nuts and candy.
It was not until the 1800's that glass ornaments came along. It started in Germany in the town of Lauscha. The men did the glass blowing, the women did the silvering and the children painted them. It did not take long for the new tradition of decorating the tree with the new ornaments replacing the fruit, nuts and candy. Spreading throughout Gemany, and then quickly throughout Europe.
After the 1850's, the Europeans brought this new tradition to the United States. Here the ornaments became larger in size and variety. However, the tradition did not take off right away. It was not until the 1880's, when F.W. Woolworth started importing ornaments from Lauscha to the United States and quickly added to his fortune.
When Queen Victoria of England married Prince Albert of Germany, the tradition of using ornaments instead of fruit and candy spread through England.
For a while, brightly painted pressed tin and pressed paper ornaments were being made. While this new type did not become as popular, a variety of ornaments started appearing on the Christmas tree.
After World War II, Lauscha which was eastern part of Germany, found itself behind the Iron Curtain. That is when the ornaments started to be made in Czechoslovakia and japan. Japan had already started to challenge Germany's dominance in the market. japan offered more variety of colors, styles and designs than Lauscha did. Czechoslovakia was doing the same thing, but was slower in the production of their ornaments.
