Day three of my advent calendar! See day two here

Most of us have our Christmas tree up now ... but where do baubles come from? We're so used to them we don't even double take at how strange they really are...

Here's a history of the bauble (And other general decorations) 

Baubles were believed to have been used in some form since the 16th century in Germany, where small evergreen trees would be decorated with fruit, nuts, candles and berries. Known as paradise trees and set up in churches, devout German Christians would eventually bring these trees in to their homes which would then spread across Europe and eventually the Americas due to migration. 

Baubles like we know today were first invented by Hans Greiner in Lauscha in Germany in the late 1840's (I'm coming to the conclusion that Germans love Christmas!) Originally they were fruit or nut shaped but as they grew in popularity they began to take their spherical shape - although now you can get baubles in all shapes and characters... I have some pineapple baubles this year! Baubles were only for the rich to begin with as baubles were hand crafted glass ornaments which were expensive to produce. Eventually a plastic version was produced so baubles could appeal to the masses. Apparently American retailer FW Woolworth was making $25 million a year producing baubles from the 1880's. 

Baubles really took off when an illustrated picture of Queen Victorias Christmas tree was published in a London newspaper. The handcrafted baubles looked beautiful and the tradition of Christmas trees and decorations really took off. Victoria's husband was a German Prince Albert who bought these traditions over with him but with the German family links, Victoria was used to Christmas trees before meeting him. This wasn't their first Christmas tree with beautiful ornaments but this illustration drew attention to their traditions. 

By the mid 1930's over 250,000 ornaments were being imported in to the United States! 

As well as baubles, tinsel and Christmas lights were also developed around this time. 

Tinsel was originally just shredded silver pieces on the tree so the candles would reflect it's light. This was first done in Germany in 1610.  But over time people realised the smoke from the candles turned the silver black which didn't look great. So of course they tried to make it out of tin and led ... which ended up being too heavy. Eventually they worked out how to make it out of plastic to make it a bit easier to use (and less of a hazard!) 

Christmas lights were originally just candles placed around the tree which these days seems like the biggest fire hazard ever! Edward Johnson, an American and friend of Thomas Edison created the first electric Christmas tree lights in 1882. It was seen as publicity stunt by the Edison company but by 1900 lots of shops put up electric Christmas lights. By the 1930's electric Christmas lights began to over take the candles on trees as they began to come down in price. 

Did you know these decoration facts? 

Is your Christmas tree up and do you have any interesting baubles? 

Comment below!

Rosie