Glass baubles & Christmas decorations

Shape, finish and how they are sold. Our round glass baubles are spheres in two sizes: the larger about 10cm across and sold in threes, the smaller about 8cm across and sold in threes or sixes depending on the colour. The drop is a teardrop that narrows to a point at its base, close in size to the smaller round and sold in sixes. Both are mouthblown with a fine ripple and hang from velvet ribbon. The glass bells are different: made from fluted glass, about 8cm tall and sold singly, with the colour carried by the ribbon rather than the glass. Use rounds to set the colour, drops to soften the outline and bells as accents.

For a tree you dress every year, yes, provided you are happy to handle them with a little care. Glass has a depth of colour and a clarity that moulded plastic struggles to match, and ours add a rippled surface and the small variations of being mouthblown. They are sold in sets of three or six rather than in boxes of dozens, so a scheme can be built gradually, one colour at a time. The trade-off is fragility. Every one of our glass Christmas decorations is marked to be handled with care, and glass will not survive a fall onto a hard floor. If part of the tree needs to be knock-proof, our felt Christmas decorations hang happily alongside glass.

Yes, and the contrast in surface is what makes it work. Glass is glossy and rippled, felt is soft and matt, and our ceramic Christmas decorations have a glazed, earthy finish, so each material stays distinct on the branch. The simplest approach is to let the glass set the colour and use felt or ceramic pieces as accents, in a shade that echoes the glass rather than competes with it. A deep red glass round, for example, sits well beside a felt robin. Keep the number of materials to two or three on one tree, so the tree still hangs together rather than showing a little of everything.

Yes. Some of our pre-lit Christmas tree sets arrive with a coordinated collection of decorations that includes our glass baubles and fluted glass bells. Each of those sets is built around one colour of bauble and supplied with the tree and a tree skirt. It is the simplest route if you want the whole tree decided in one go, because the mix of shapes and the number of decorations have already been worked out for the tree's height. The same glass baubles are sold on this page too, so a tree set can be topped up later in a matching colour, or the scheme carried onto a garland or a second, smaller tree.