So many books, so little time

The Winter Solstice blew in on the north wind last night – frigid temperatures and frozen crystals falling.

Last night I watched my favorite Christmas movie, A Child’s Christmas in Wales.  Grandfather and Thomas are prolonging Christmas Eve by talking in front of the Christmas tree, as it rains outside.  Grandfather has just given Thomas a gift he received as a child:  a beautiful snow globe.  When Thomas shakes the globe, we enter the scene of Christmas’s past – in Grandfather’s memory.

Snow globes are magical.  They can take you to places long ago or far away.

The History of the Snow Globe

“Snow globes first appeared in the late 1800’s in France and are believed to be derived from the concept of paperweights. The first water globe was a palm-sized glass globe featuring the Eiffel Tower as the center piece with a ceramic base and fake snow. It was introduced to the public in the 1889 Paris Exposition and became a great souvenir item.

The fad did not start in the United States until the 1920s. The early snow globes were souvenirs of local towns and were inscribed with the town’s name but they were produced by German companies. A turning point in the history of snow globes was in 1927 when Joseph Garaja of Pittsburgh filed a patent for the mass production of glass waterglobes of “artistic attractiveness and novel ornamentation.” The patent was granted on December 31, 1929.

The most famous snow globe is in the movie “Citizen Kane” in the opening scene where a snow globe fills the screen, then diminishes and breaks when it rolls out of the hand of Charles Foster Kane as he whispers Rosebud.”

The Anatomy of the Snow Globe

“The snow: The floaty stuff — whether it looks like white snow or glitter — is referred to as “flitter.” In the early snow globes, manufacturers tried everything but the kitchen sink: bone or porcelain chips, ground rice, sand, sawdust and wax bound with camphor. Now it’s mostly plastic.

The liquid: The cheap plastic ones are usually just filled with water, but the higher-end globe makers mix their water with glycol, an antifreeze, which helps slow down the snowfall. (The antifreeze also helps when manufacturers need to ship their globes in the winter).

The figurines: They used to be made of bisque (unglazed porcelain), bone, metals, minerals, molded plastic, rubber or wax.

The base: Bases have been made of clay, marble, metal, plastic, porcelain, pottery and wood. If a snow globe plays music, as many fancy ones do, the globe may have three or four ball feet attached to the base.”

How To Make a Snow Globe