The 1920-1930’s are a time when tremendous volumes and varieties of glass Christmas ornaments were produced and imported to the USA, primarily from Germany. This period is considered by some as “the Golden Age” of Christmas ornament manufacturing. This large variety of ornaments has allowed antique Christmas collectors to focus on certain shapes or colors of ornaments to create “theme” trees. Some examples of these themes include:
- Patriotic – decorated in red, white and blue
- Fruit and vegetable – decorated with ornaments such as peaches, tomatoes, pears, apples, melons, etc.
- People – representing historical figures, cartoon characters, and occupations (such as policemen)
- Flower – decorated with different types of flower shapes, with clip-ons being common
- Santa – containing a variety of Santa figures
Other decorating possibilities include animals, musical instruments, miniature ornaments, butterflies and transportation vehicles (cars, planes, zeppelins). In addition to the variety of shapes and colors, there are choices of silvered ornaments which reflected light, ones that are unsilvered and ones with shiny, matte, glittered or flocked (fuzzy) finish. By decorating a “theme” tree, it shows the wide diversity of ornaments available within that theme as well as making a visual feast for the eye!