A guest column reflecting on the history and personal meaning behind holiday ornaments and the memories they carry across generation.

Gabriella Brillante

If you’re like me, you’ve already pulled out your ornaments and are getting ready to decorate — maybe you even have your tree up.

When I was young, there were two ways I knew it was Christmastime. First, we had to finish off the Thanksgiving leftovers. Second, it was time to take out the ornaments.

We have so many ornaments that we need several boxes to store them. And somehow, we always seem to end up with more.

It might surprise you to know that tree ornaments have been around for a very long time.

To understand how far back they go, let’s travel to medieval Germany, roughly the 1400s and 1500s.

Before Christmas trees as we know them became the centerpiece of every household, they were used as props in “mystery plays,” usually performed in churches. One popular play was the Paradise Play, which told the story of Adam and Eve. We all know how that one goes.

At the time, apples symbolized the forbidden fruit. Apples were hung on evergreen trees to represent the Tree of Knowledge. Dec. 24 was also the feast day of Adam and Eve, which added another layer of meaning.

Over the years, families began bringing evergreen branches or small trees into their homes and decorating them not only with apples, but also with nuts and other edible ornaments such as wafers and gingerbread figures. By the 1600s, people were also making paper roses, colored scraps, hand-carved figurines, straw stars and foil-wrapped sweets. To add ambiance, they began using candles — a precursor to modern Christmas lights.

In 1847, the first glass-blown ornaments were created in Lauscha, Germany, by Hans Greiner. These early ornaments were simple glass baubles.

When German immigrants made their way to the United States, they brought these traditions with them. Woolworth’s later helped popularize ornaments by importing Lauscha glass ornaments to American households.

By the 20th century, ornaments expanded beyond glass. Materials such as plastic, resin and aluminum became common, and pop culture and character ornaments started to take over. The first officially licensed character ornaments featured Mickey and Minnie Mouse and were created by the Kugel Company in 1933.

Ornaments are especially meaningful to me.

I’ve made handmade ornaments many times over — so many, in fact, that we now need two Christmas trees to display them all.

My mom still has ornaments she made as a child, including a red felt silhouette of a cat with googly eyes. That one still goes on the tree every year.

She also has vintage wooden ornaments she hand-painted from a kit in 1968 — Santa, Mrs. Claus, the three Wise Men, a drum and a wooden soldier. They’re a little faded now, but every time we hang them, the smile on my mom’s face makes it worth it.

When my twin and I were born in 1988, we received plenty of “baby’s first Christmas” ornaments, including our first pair of baby booties. Unfortunately, many of those didn’t survive years of moving and storage.

Then there are the ornaments you make in elementary school right before winter break. One still holds a photo of me. It isn’t the best picture, but I remember how proud I felt gluing it onto a paper chile pepper and hanging it on the tree.

Some ornaments carry deeper meaning. One I received after my grandmother passed away shows a small angel sitting on a rock in a forest. On the back, I wrote “For Grandma.” She loved Christmas, and every time I see it, I think of her.

Another special ornament is an ornate capital letter “B.” It stands for Brooklyn, where my Aunt Pat was born and raised, and she was endlessly proud of it. She died unexpectedly in 2017, and I bought the “B” on impulse. I wrote her name on the back, and it now hangs proudly on my tree.

Why do we love ornaments so much?

I think it’s because they remind us of moments in our lives. Some of those memories can be sad, but they also remind us how we felt when we received them.

To me, that is the loveliest part of the holidays.

Gabriella Brillante is a freelance writer and owner of Ggunsailor Productions. Read more of her work at https://www.gabriellabrillante.wordpress.comor contact her at gabybrillante@outlook.com.