DECORATIONS : Embellishing Family Tree Hangs on Tradition--and Consumerism

Sentiment rules when decorating the family Christmas tree, a tradition German immigrants brought with them to America in the mid-18th century.

Even the artificial tree had its origins in the 18th century, when small wooden pyramids were wrapped in evergreen boughs and decorated with candles and cookies as table centerpieces.

Early Christmas trees probably were not so large or colorful as those in the second half of the 19th century. They usually were put up on Christmas Eve, adorned with homemade ornaments and illuminated with small candles. Electric tree lights came in around the 1920s, along with wider use of electricity in the home.

Lights and ornaments--handblown, homemade or mass-marketed and collected over a lifetime--are all a part of the patchwork that is today’s family tree. But don’t pity the newlyweds who have nothing between the tree stand and the angel on top. There are plenty of ornaments to buy to start their own traditions and build on them a season at a time.

They’re sold in dime stores and department stores, card shops and crafts shops, in tasteful museum gift shops and cutesy seasonal stores. Prices range from less than $1 for some imports to about $100 for a lead crystal ornament from Lalique. There also are the annual ornaments with the date, from $5 for Hallmark; $65 for a 1995 lead crystal cherub from Baccarat, $25 for a white jasper wreath from Wedgwood and $26.50 for a Lenox porcelain.

Painted glass ornaments, such as those from DiCarlini and Christopher Radko, are not only colorful but real conversation pieces. Radko, of Polish, Austrian and French heritage, grew up in New York City enjoying his family’s collection of 2,000 antique ornaments. For the past 10 years, he has been reproducing the old and making the new.

“We have lots of Santas, snowmen and angels among the 750 ornaments that we are marketing this year, but we also have flying saucers and Martians,” Radko says.

This year, he expects to sell about 1 million ornaments, at $18 to $40 each. They are sold by mail and 3,000 retailers nationwide.

The designs are drawn at Radko’s studio in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., then executed in Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic and Italy. Each country has its specialty.

In Germany, there are still molds from the turn of the century. In Italy, glassblowers in the Como district excel at creating free-blown ornaments. The Czech Republic provides glass garlands, and in Poland, where about half of Radko’s ornaments originate, new wood molds are carved.

Each year Radko retires about half of the ornaments from the previous year, making room for new designs and creating limited editions which feeds the collecting frenzy.

“America is a nation of collectors,” Radko says. “When people find out they can’t have something, they want it even more.”

Robert Merck, a collector of antique ornaments, would probably agree. When he started collecting ornaments in 1980, almost any yard sale or thrift shop would yield treasures for a trifle. Now, when you can find them, they’re expensive, fetching as much as $100 apiece.

Merck, of Wilton, Conn., owns several thousand antique ornaments and is the author of “Deck the Halls,” (Abbeville, $21.95). The 1992 book offers a photographic tour of the many types of antiques, drawn primarily from his collection.

Merck says mouth-blown glass ornaments are the most desirable, especially those from Germany. Less colorful but no less fragile are figures made of cotton batting wrapped around wire; pressed cardboard, also known as Dresden ornaments; and paper-scrap ornaments that were made at home from sheets of paper cutouts pasted onto cardboard.

Early in this century, there were made-in-America glass ornaments sold by mass merchants such as Woolworth and Sears. But Merck says few remain.

Today, most tree decorations come from the Far East and Europe. There always has been, however, a great American tradition of homemade ornaments, starting with cookies, ribbon and paper cutouts.

Merck displays some of his favorite ornaments in small showcases year-round, but he prefers to keep most under wraps until the holidays. Then, just before Thanksgiving, he assembles a 10-foot artificial tree and begins unpacking and hanging the ornaments for their annual airing, which lasts six weeks.

“It is that much more fun to get them out each year and get reacquainted with them,” Merck says.