Christmas tree decorations: The Christmas cucumber – German custom or American fantasy? | EUROtoday

It hardly ever hangs on German Christmas bushes, and but it’s mentioned to return from right here: There are extra myths surrounding the historical past of the Christmas cucumber than there are concerning the Amber Room.

One of the final German glassblowers for Christmas decorations, Michael Haberland from Lauscha in Thuringia, finds a narrative from the US Civil War (1861 to 1865) credible: “It’s about a German emigrant, seriously wounded, eating a German pickle as his last meal wanted. Somehow his comrades managed to find an entire jar. And when the soldier had eaten all the cucumbers, he became healthy again. That’s why Americans hung a cucumber in their Christmas tree as a good luck charm.”

Another story goes like this: The American division retailer founder Frank Winfield Woolworth imported glass Christmas tree decorations from Lauscha within the Eighteen Eighties. In order to get the products to the folks within the USA, he invented the story that the Germans grasp a cucumber on their Christmas tree. Whoever discovers the cucumber first will get an additional present.

The Americans have been blissful to repeat the customized, and in the present day the “Christmas pickle” is a practice in lots of US households. Haberland heard this story within the USA. “Every American knows that the Germans hang a cucumber in a tree. Only here hardly anyone knows.”

Klaus Müller-Blech, fifteenth era head of the Inge Glas manufacturing facility from Neustadt close to Coburg in Upper Franconia, additionally has an anecdote about this: He discovered from prospects that as kids they’d seen a cucumber like this within the tree at their grandmother’s in Silesia. “There is a lot to suggest that the glass cucumber was invented in Lauscha. There were also nuts and pine cones there,” says Müller-Blech. Glassblower Haberland confirms this. His great-grandfather made a glass pickle 90 years in the past. “I still have the shape of him.”

Whether cucumber or ball: Lauscha is taken into account the cradle of glass Christmas decorations. The yr 1848 is documented as the primary time an order for six dozen Christmas balls in numerous sizes was recorded within the order e-book of an area glassblower.

According to the Lauscha Museum of Glass Art, a thriving economic system developed across the shiny tree decorations by the flip of the century. In March, the manufacturing of mouth-blown glass Lauscha Christmas tree decorations was even included within the nationwide register of intangible cultural heritage.

Today our Christmas decorations are predominantly made in China, says Stephan Ryll, head of group on the Kaiser Lacke firm in Nuremberg. The firm produces particular paints for balls and figures. “Around 20 years ago, large quantities of Christmas tree baubles began to be manufactured in China. Before that, Thuringia in particular was very well known for its glass art.”

Due to mass manufacturing in China, German and European producers have needed to reorient themselves and at the moment are more and more providing hand-painted craftsmanship. The Netherlands comes second within the statistics. But the nation doesn’t produce the tree decorations itself, says Inge Glas boss Müller-Blech, but additionally imports them from China and sells them on.

Müller-Blech and his spouse run an organization that may look again on 15 generations of glassblowers. After the struggle, Upper Franconia established itself as a glassblowing location as a result of many glassblowers from Lauscha or Jena left the GDR and settled there. It is round 55 kilometers from Neustadt in Bavaria to Lauscha within the Thuringian Forest.

Inge Glas has two product strains: the hand-blown and painted by hand manufactory balls in Neustadt. And the imported ones. This line known as Magic. “A Magic ball is about three times as heavy as a manufactured one,” says Müller-Blech. Because handmade ones are rather more delicate. This is a bonus for skinny branches as a result of then they do not sag so rapidly. However, a manufactured ball additionally prices thrice as a lot as one from China.

The colour of the balls virtually at all times comes from Kaiser. “This year the best-selling paint was matt white, closely followed by glossy red,” says Ryll. Otherwise there may be a variety of colours – largely within the space of ​​earth tones. “Ten years ago most balls were rather simple, or more precisely, once dipped without any further decoration, but there is a change in trend here. Many balls are currently being decorated by hand again. There are a variety of options such as varnishes for painting, glue for subsequently applying glitter.”

The collections are already prepared for Christmas. He would not wish to reveal what they appear like. But one factor will in all probability stay in demand internationally within the coming yr: the Christmas cucumber. At Inge Glas they’re accessible in three sizes. “We can come up with whatever we want,” says Müller-Blech. “The best seller is always the Christmas cucumber.”

This article was first revealed in December 2021.