Anne here, and today I’m talking about Christmas Ornaments — particularly the making of. In her novel Persuasion, Jane Austen painted a picture of a family Christmas:
“Immediately surrounding Mrs. Musgrove were the little Harvilles, whom she was sedulously guarding from the tyranny of the two children from the Cottage, expressly arrived to amuse them. On one side was a table occupied by some chattering girls, cutting up silk and gold paper; and on the other were tressels and trays, bending under the weight of brawn and cold pies, where riotous boys were holding high revel; the whole completed by a roaring Christmas fire, which seemed determined to be heard, in spite of all the noise of the others.”
I’m focusing on the chattering girls cutting up silk and gold paper, which I think is about them making Christmas ornaments, though not necessarily to adorn a Christmas tree.
In the Regency era, Christmas trees had not yet gained the popularity that came in the Victorian era. Queen Charlotte was the first to display a decorated Christmas tree in the German manner in 1800, which she did for a children’s Christmas party. And though some people adopted the idea, it was mostly only a few aristocrats who’d witnessed it.
It was only when a newspaper printed an image of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their children with a magnificent Christmas tree that the practice really took off in England.
But the tradition had been established in Germany well before that. Hanging tinsel on the tree, for instance, dates back to the early 17th Century, when people used real strands of silver to hang on their tree which was meant as a means to show off their immense wealth. But as silver tarnished so quickly, it was soon replaced by copper or tin strands, which was much cheaper and just as glittery and shiny.
Christmas ornaments were often made by the lady of the house — and her daughters. They made cones of bright paper which they would fill with sweets or dates and hang up as a treat for children. They sewed ornaments out of silk and scraps of fabric and embroidered them, and added sequins and braids and made tassels to embellish them further. They gilded nuts and pinecones. And of course, there would be those ornaments made from gold or silver paper, made by Austen’s chattering girls.
Ladies’ magazines printed instructions for making ornaments, and they became more and more ornate. Of course ornaments could be bought, but making beautiful ornaments at home was a way to show off your domestic skills. And of course, they were more personal.
These days you can find hundreds of instructions for all sorts of Christmas ornaments. If you’d like to try your hand at making a Victorian-style ornament, this shows you a couple that are pretty and quite easy.
And here’s another video that shows you how to make lovely Victorian-style ornaments. If you want to find more, just google Victorian style Christmas Ornaments and there are heaps of good instructions that I’m sure will inspire you.
If Queen Victoria popularized the Christmas Tree, it was Dickens who brought the magic alive in people’s imaginations. “I have been looking at a merry company of children assembled round that pretty German toy, a Christmas Tree. The tree was planted in the middle of a great round table, and towered high above their heads. It was brilliantly lighted by a multitude of little tapers; and everywhere sparkled and glittered with bright objects. There were rosy-cheeked dolls, hiding behind the green leaves; and (snip)…sugar-plums; there were trinkets for the elder girls, far brighter than any grown-up gold and jewels…there were teetotums, humming tops, needle-cases, pen-wipers…real fruit, made artificially dazzling with gold leaf; imitation apples, pears, and walnuts, crammed with surprises; in short, as a pretty child before me, delightedly whispered to another pretty child, her bosom friend, “There was everything and more.”
(From A Christmas Tree by Charles Dickens. You can read the full short story here. By the way, a teetotum is a spinning top.)
My new book, The Secret Daughter, comes out on Christmas Eve, and although it isn’t a Christmas story, as such, there is a small Christmas scene in it.
The hall was in relative darkness too. Lucy gathered them to stand outside the double doors of the drawing room. “Now, everyone, close your eyes and you must not open them until I say so or it will spoil the surprise.”
There were a few excited giggles from the children, but they scrunched their eyes firmly closed. Finally, the doors opened.
The scent hit Zoë first. A pine forest, fresh and sharp and clean. She breathed it in. Pine and candle wax. Perfect.
“You can look now,” Lucy said.
“Ohhhhhh.” It was a universal gasp of awe and surprise and pleasure, and for a moment nobody spoke.
“Oh my, that’s beautiful,” Clarissa breathed. “Look, Race, isn’t it lovely?”
“It’s magic,” Lina exclaimed.
“It’s a Christmas tree,” Lucy said, delighted with their reactions. “You know how when Gerald and I were first married, he was posted to Vienna? We spent several years there, and the Viennese—all the Austrians and Germans, actually—have this beautiful Christmas tradition, and we loved it so much, didn’t we Gerald, that we decided to adopt it ourselves.”
They all gathered around to examine it.
A small fir tree had been placed in a solid red pot. The only light in the room came from dozens of slender candles clasped in tin holders that were wired to the branches. The tree glittered with shapes cut out in gold and silver paper that twirled gently on invisible threads, along with tiny parcels in bright colors, small painted wooden toys, gold-painted nuts, delicate crystal figurines, round glass baubles and small brown biscuits in various shapes, tied on with narrow red ribbons.
“Those paper shapes are exquisite,” Clarissa commented, examining them closely. “Look, there’s a deer, and that’s a wolf, and a swan—”
“And a sailing ship, and a drum and a basket—”
“And cats,” Debo said happily. “Lots of cats.”
“Zoë made them. She’s very clever, isn’t she?” Lucy said.
The children and several adults turned accusing gazes on her. “You knew about this, Zoë? And you didn’t say a word!”
She laughed. “And spoil the surprise? Of course not.”
“The crystal ornaments, the glass baubles and the little wooden toys we bought in Vienna. We put them on the tree every year,” Lucy explained. “But the biscuits are freshly baked—they’re ginger. And those brightly wrapped lumps with twisty ends are sweets. And the gold-painted nuts are real. You children can each take a nut, a sweet, and a biscuit every day for the twelve days of Christmas, starting tonight.” (You can pre-order The Secret Daughter here.)
So what about you — do you make Christmas Ornaments? Do you have some favorite ornaments that you bring out every year? Or do you not bother with Christmas decorations? I admit, I love making ornaments—you can see some of mine here— but I’m actually pretty minimal with the decorations.
I remember as a child we would make chains made of popcorn and cranberries to hang on the tree. As an adult. when I was younger, I would save all of the tiny boxes I could during the year and at Christmas time I would I would wrap them as tiny presents and hang them on the tree as ornaments. Had fun doing it.
Your new book sounds great.
Mary, saving the tiny boxes you get through the year and turning them into ornaments is a brilliant idea. I’ve never strung popcorn or cranberries, which are still uncommon here. But it sounds like fun.
Thanks for a lovely post, Anne. I took a look at your blog and think that your ornaments look wonderful; I also enjoyed hearing about your gatherings with friends and about ‘bring a plate’!
It’s been quite a while since I’ve made ornaments, but we did hang one on the tree yesterday that I made some years ago. It is a flat snowman made from Fimo with my daughter’s face on it. I do remember making paper chains as a child.
Thank you, Kareni. Glad you enjoyed my personal blog. And I smiled when you mentioned FIMO (which to others reading this is a brand of brilliantly colored polymer clay). I made a lot of FIMO things many years ago, and still have some of them. In fact a friend brought around a broken FIMO Christmas necklace I made her — it must be 30+ years ago) with two Santa faces and some holly and I’m delighted to report those faces were as bright and sharp as they’d been the day I made them. As for paper chains, I made them a lot when I was a child too, but in recent years I saw a version that is made without glue, which would be a lot less messy than the ones I used to make.
Anne, apart from stringing popcorn in the past (which I found rather boring) I’ve never made ornaments, but we do have special ornaments with stories that we’re always happy to unpack and hang every year,
Mary Jo, I think it’s the stories that go with some ornaments that make them so special. I have a small, plastic Greek bouzouki that was given to me many years ago by a young Greek girl who’d come to Australia for a year, and attended the school in which I taught. She was a sweetheart, and even though there were lots of Greek-speaking girls at the school, she was homesick for much of the time. Every year when I get out my ornaments, I hang up my little bouzouki and think of Effie Baxenavros and wish her well, wherever she is.
What a lovely post, Anne. I love the references to Christmas scenes in literature, which reminds us that the holiday was as magical to children in the past as it is todya.
I’ve never been an ornament maker, but my mother made elaborate brightly-colored felt birds and angels that she hung around the house. It added a wonderful sense of whimsy to the holidays. Your creations are fabulous!
Thanks, Andrea. I love the sound of your mother’s felt birds and angels. I’ve seen a lot of beautiful embroidered felt ornaments, and every year I resolve to make some — and then I don’t. But the paper ornaments — easy and elegant. I have a graceful twig in a vase at the moment, with seven or eight of the “German bell” design paper ornaments hanging from it, and they remind me of hot air balloons hanging in the air. So pretty.
I don’t make my ornaments but my tree is decorated with many Tinkerbells, various Hallmark & Disney Fairies & castles. I love unwrapping them each year & sad when I put them away at the end of January.
Jeanne, they sound so pretty, and I’m sure everyone loves them. And yes, it is sad, packing up the ornaments at the end of the Christmas season, but I also think that part of the magic and the pleasure is the ritual of bringing them out again the following year.
I don’t make tree ornaments, but I love making fresh greenery pieces. I actually like the fact that they don’t last……..you have to compost them and then make new designs the next year! It’s a wonderful opportunity to use creativity and doesn’t require storage and dusting, which I don’t need more of! Haha
Thanks for the great post!
Fresh greenery sounds lovely, Jenni. I used to make wreaths for the front door and the Christmas table in my old house, which had lots of lovely climbers and wreath-friendly vegetation, but my new garden hasn’t got much of that kind of thing. And I hear you on the recu=ycling instead of dusting. 🙂
Lovely post Anne! I don’t make any ornaments these days as I have too many but I used to always do it with my grandmother when I was a child. We made Pom-poms out of coloured tissue paper with a sugar cube in the middle to add weight. I loved it!
Thanks, Christina — I’ve never heard of tissue-paper pom poms, though I remember making a stack of paper “carnations” out of tissues when my first sister got married. They were for the pews. They were quite pom pom in shape, so it might have been a similar method. But no sugar cubes. 🙂
I have a pop-up tree with pine cones, berries and white lights. I add wooden white snowflakes, woodland creatures that are furry, other stuffed toys, porcelain angels around the top and bird houses around the tree with a Cardinal on each one. On top is a larger angel with a starburst ornament behind it.
The ornaments you made, Anne, are beautiful in their shape and color. I never tried to make my own ornaments. I find them in housewares’ stores, and even CVS Pharmacy chain stores, and online.
Patricia, your tree sounds lovely, as do the ornaments that adorn it. I have a few wooden ornaments that I bought at a German Christmas market in Australia. But the first one I bought many years ago in Switzerland, at a chilly outdoor night market and I watched a woman with a jigsaw make it by hand. When she finished it, I bought it, and each year when I hang it up, I remember that scene.
Alas, other than the paper chains made to decorate my elementary school’s Christmas tree, along with other such decorations, I have not made my own ornaments. As a retired teacher, I have handmade as well as store- bought ornaments that were gifted to me over the years by students and colleagues. When it was time to store such a present, it was carefully wrapped, with the notation of the year and the name of the giver. I cherish each and every one of them! I have also collected ornaments on family trips, and have received ornaments as gifts from the overseas travels of friends and family members. What adds sparkle to our tree are the Swarovski crystal snowflakes that I collected for several years. One of my most precious ornaments, however, is nothing more than a package decoration from a gift that I received when I was just five years old: a shiny miniature house.
Patricia, that sounds lovely. I’m also a retired teacher, and have a number of small gifts and ornaments that recall those times and the people I worked with. But I’m not as organized as you, labelling each one with the year and name of the giver. And I love the sound of your little miniature house that you got when you were five. I had special ornaments from my childhood, but sadly, Mum and Dad’s ornaments were stolen, along with a lot of other precious stuff.
Back in the day my friends and I were into handcrafts and so we made a lot of different things like Christmas tree ornaments. My specialty was stuffed birds, made of colorful calico and stuffed with cotton. They had crests of looped yarn and tiny buttons for eyes. Fast and easy to do and if a pet batted them around there was no harm done. We also did those styrofoam balls with sequins and beads – very hard on the thumb to do! It was fun to sit with my friends watching bad TV shows and making Christmas stuff.
Janice those stuffed birds sound gorgeous. And I agree with you on the fiddliness of those styrofoam balls and sequins, etc. I think I only made one or two in the end. And I totally agree with you about what fun it is to make ornaments with friends — that’s what my friends and I did a few weeks ago — we sat around a table making paper ornaments and talking non-stop.
As a child, I made paper chains and other simple things that were projects from school. When my children were little, I made felt ornaments, for the tree. Birds, snowmen, and that sort of thing. We cut them out and glued two pieces together so they had a front and a back. When they were a little older we made other ornaments – we created items, trees, angels, etc. out of a flour mix and then baked them, and painted them. Several of them were so heavy it is a wonder a tree other than a sequoia could hold them. The children and I made other ornaments, foil covered dixie cups that were bells was an easy one. Most of these things lasted for a long time and the kids and even a couple of my grandchildren have adopted those ornaments. Looking back, I think I enjoyed all the creating as much as my children. It was exiting to see how things came out.
Annette, you’ve summed up the fun of making your own ornaments, especially with your children. And seeing the final result — that was the case when my friends and I made paper ornaments. I don’t think they expected the results to be so pleasing. Your flour ornaments being a bit too heavy for the tree reminded me of the year I made porcelain ornaments. They were beautiful — I did a class to learn how to do it and we were given patterned paper that transferred the pattern onto the porcelain before firing in the kiln. I love them to bits, but even though they were small, they’re quite heavy.
I don’t make ornaments but I have quite a few that the children made when they were in school. Some of them have held up surprisingly well even though they are very old. It wouldn’t be the same without them. Also over the years we bought a new tree ornament every year. They each got there turn to pick one until we had to stop as we had no more room on the tree 🙂
I love seeing them all every year when they come out of their packages.
Your homemade ornaments are really lovely Anne!
Thanks, Teresa. I do enjoy making things, and even though I have plenty, some of the descriptions in the comments are making me itchy to make more.
I think one of the pleasures of Christmas is that ritual of unpacking the old, familiar, beloved ornaments and hanging them up — a bit like old friends visiting, and sparking all kinds of memories. And then the bittersweet ritual of packing them away for another year.