<Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (December 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> Christmas ornaments are decorations (usually made of glass, metal, wood, or ceramics) that are used to decorate a Christmas tree . The first decorated trees were adorned with apples, white candy canes and pastries in the shapes of stars, hearts and flowers . Glass baubles were first made in Lauscha, Germany, and also garlands of glass beads and tin figures that could be hung on trees . The popularity of these decorations grew into the production of glass figures made by highly skilled artisans with clay molds . </P> <P> Tinsel and several types of garland or ribbon are commonly used to decorate a Christmas tree . Silvered saran - based tinsel was introduced later . Delicate mold - blown and painted colored glass Christmas ornaments were a specialty of the glass factories in the Thuringian Forest, especially in Lauscha in the late 19th century, and have since become a large industry, complete with famous - name designers . Baubles are another common decoration, consisting of small hollow glass or plastic spheres coated with a thin metallic layer to make them reflective, with a further coating of a thin pigmented polymer in order to provide coloration . Lighting with electric lights (Christmas lights or, in the United Kingdom, fairy lights) is commonly done . A tree - topper, sometimes an angel but more frequently a star, completes the decoration . </P> <P> In the late 1800s, home - made white Christmas trees were made by wrapping strips of cotton batting around leafless branches creating the appearance of a snow - laden tree . In the 1940s and 1950s, popularized by Hollywood films in the late 1930s, flocking was very popular on the West Coast of the United States . There were home flocking kits that could be used with vacuum cleaners . In the 1980s some trees were sprayed with fluffy white flocking to simulate snow . </P>

Where did the tradition of christmas trees come from