You can tell a good bauble from a sad one before you even get close to the tree. The good ones catch the light from across the room and hold a color that looks deep, not thin. The sad ones are the ones you can see straight through, a sheet of plastic with glitter shook on top, already looking tired by December 10th. I had a box of those for three years before I let myself admit it. They looked fine on the shelf at the store and dead on the tree.
The glass ones get better with age, honestly, the way a good cast iron pan does. A few seasons in and the color settles, the paint on hand finished ones gets a softness to it that nothing new quite has. Mine have gone through a move, a dropped box on a staircase, and one memorable incident with a cat who decided the bottom third of the tree was hers, and most of them are still here. What kills them is rough handling when they're packed away, not the year they spend hanging. Wrap each one on its own, don't let glass touch glass in a bin, and store them somewhere that doesn't swing between hot and freezing, an attic in Vermont will finish off a box of ornaments faster than any toddler will. If you're starting from nothing, buy plain glass in two or three sizes and one color family before you buy anything shaped like a pinecone or a cardinal. The shapes are fun later. The plain glass is what makes the tree look pulled together instead of like a yard sale, and you can build onto it for years without anything clashing. Check the cap where the hook goes in, that's the part that fails first, give it a gentle wiggle in the shop, if it's loose already it'll be in pieces by the second Christmas. Check the weight too, glass should feel like glass, light enough to be glass but with a little heft, not feather light plastic trying to pass.
These suit almost any home that puts up a real tree, apartment or farmhouse, though in a small space I'd lean toward fewer, better ones rather than covering every branch. A rental with low ceilings and a four foot tree doesn't need forty ornaments, it needs twelve good ones and some ribbon. In a bigger house with a tree that touches the ceiling, that's where you can let the collection get a little out of hand, the way mine has.
I'd rather hang six glass ornaments that have survived four winters than forty new ones that will crack by New Year's.
Aisha's pickGlass Christmas Baubles We Dig Out Every Year
Aisha's pickRed Christmas Baubles We’d Buy Again
Aisha's pickGlitter Christmas Baubles for the Tree, the Mantel and Beyond
Aisha's pickRed Christmas Baubles for Tree That Come Out Every December
Aisha's pickGlitter Christmas Baubles With Some Character
Aisha's pickSilver Christmas Baubles That Come Out Every December
Aisha's pickGold Christmas Baubles Without the Silly Price Tag
Aisha's pickSmall Christmas Baubles That Survive Being Packed Away
Aisha's pickGold Christmas Baubles That Survive Being Packed AwayAlso worth a lookChristmas OrnamentsOrnaments used to mean one box of mismatched glass balls passed down until half of them were bald…See the collections →
Aisha's pickSimple Small Christmas Baubles Done Well
Aisha's pickGold Christmas Baubles for Tree That Come Out Every December
Aisha's pickTraditional Christmas Baubles That Come Out Every December
Aisha's pickGreen Christmas Baubles for the Tree, the Mantel and Beyond
Aisha's pickTraditional Christmas Baubles for the Tree, the Mantel and Beyond
Aisha's pickSimple Hanging Christmas Baubles Done Well
Aisha's pickWhite Christmas Baubles That Survive Being Packed Away
Aisha's pickHanging Christmas Baubles for the Tree, the Mantel and Beyond
Aisha's pickWhite Christmas Baubles for the Tree, the Mantel and BeyondAlso worth a lookChristmas WreathsThe afternoon it gets dark by five and someone finally turns the porch light on, that's when a…See the collections →
Aisha's pickBlue Christmas Baubles That Visitors Always Ask About
Aisha's pickMini Christmas Baubles That Make the House Feel Festive
Aisha's pickWooden Christmas Baubles That Survive Being Packed Away
Aisha's pickChristmas Baubles That Survive Being Packed Away
Aisha's pickMini Christmas Baubles That Come Out Every December
Aisha's pickChristmas Baubles for Tree We Dig Out Every Year
Aisha's pickModern Christmas Baubles for the Tree, the Mantel and Beyond
Aisha's pickChristmas Baubles with Lights That Visitors Always Ask About
Aisha's pickModern Christmas Baubles That Survive Being Packed AwayAlso worth a lookHanging Christmas DecorationsMy first set of hanging decorations came on a wire hook that bent out of shape the second…See the collections →
Aisha's pickChristmas Baubles Without the Silly Price Tag
Aisha's pickGood Plastic Christmas Baubles That Don’t Cost a Fortune
Aisha's pickChristmas Baubles for Tree That Make the House Feel Festive
Aisha's pickPlastic Christmas Baubles for the Tree, the Mantel and Beyond
Aisha's pickChristmas Baubles with Lights That Come Out Every December
