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Christmas ornaments are decorations (usually made of glass, metal, wood or ceramics) that are used to festoon a Christmas tree.
Ornaments take many different forms, from a simple round ball to highly artistic designs. Ornaments are almost always reused year after year, rather than purchased annually, and family collections often contain a combination of commercially produced ornaments and decorations created by family members.
Santa Claus is a commonly used figure. Candy canes, fruit, animals and snowflake imagery are also popular choices
Lucretia P. Hale's story "The Peterkins' Christmas-Tree" offers a short catalog of the sorts of ornaments used in the 1870s:
- There was every kind of gilt hanging-thing, from gilt pea-pods to butterflies on springs. There were shining flags and lanterns, and bird-cages, and nests with birds sitting on them, baskets of fruit, gilt apples, and bunches of grapes."
The modern-day Christmas ornament was descended from the 18th century witch ball used to ward off evil spirits.
Notes
- Lucretia P. Hale, The Peterkin Papers. 1960; Houghton Mifflin
See also
"Christmas ornament"