Putting Christmas Away

Just as quickly as it arrived—despite the hype and tremendous countdown effort—Christmas is over. We work through our post-holiday blues with the last of the eggnog and a couple more classic Christmas movies. But, when the last of the Christmas cookies have been eaten, and the pine needles start to fall, we know it’s time to start thinking about packing up Christmas. It hurts every year, we don’t like putting the decorations and ornaments away, but with a fresh, new year comes a new countdown to next Christmas. 

Part of what makes Old World Christmas ornaments spectacular are the timely designs and sparkling effects. It’s sad taking them off the tree each year, but packing them up properly now ensures they will glitter on the tree for years to come. Old World Christmas ornaments are beautiful, but also delicate. They are made from glass, and can break if dropped. As a tree dries out, and the branches become more brittle, and ornaments held on by a loop or ribbon have a higher chance of slipping off. We’d hate for your ornaments to slip off your tree as it dries out, and we always recommend affixing Old World Christmas ornaments with the wire ornament hangers, and tightly closing the loop around the branch for extra security. 

When the ornaments come off the tree, they need to be stored with thought and care. Tossing ornaments in a box and shoving the box back into the attic or basement won’t keep your ornaments in pristine condition. There’s nothing more heartbreaking than the ceremonial tree trimming, and opening a box of ornaments only to find them as shards of glass. The extra effort and time it takes now to pack them away with care, pays off each year. 

We take great pride in how little breakage occurs with our ornaments in transit. In relation to how many ornaments we ship each year, only a very tiny percentage of ornaments break in transit. We credit these statistics to the thorough packing and small boxes keeping each ornament safe. Our best tip in packing away ornaments each year is to wrap each ornament individually, and ideally store it in its original box. We recommend using bubble wrap or tissue paper to pad the small, individual boxes adding layers of soft space for the delicate glass ornaments. Many ornaments, packed this way, can be stored together in a larger box, and stored safely until next Christmas.

If you received an Old World Christmas ornament as a gift, or purchased it at one of our local retailers, and it didn’t come with a box, you can still keep your ornaments safe and in tact with careful planning. Without small boxes, we recommend wrapping each ornament individually with a generous amount of bubble wrap or tissue paper, and storing them in dedicated ornament boxes with dividers. The dividers keep each ornament separated from the others, preventing ornaments touching, rubbing, and hitting each other. Ideally, these dividers are stored in a hard-sided storage box with a lid. Many ornament boxes are made with soft sides, but hard-sided boxes allow stacking with no risk of ornaments breaking. 

We’re always sad packing Christmas away until next year, but we know it’s even more sad unpacking broken ornaments. We always encourage our customers to take time putting their ornaments away each year to ensure sparkling, glittering Christmas trees for year to come.