Though Perzy—who patented his globe in 1900—didn’t invent the snow globe, he and his brother are responsible for catapulting the souvenir into the position of tchotchke primacy it holds today. Seizing on the invention, the pair opened a shop, Original Wiener Schneekugel Manufaktur, in Vienna. Today, that shop is still run by an Erwin Perzy—his grandson, Erwin Perzy III—and they still make snow globes, containing Austrian tourist attractions, animals, and Christmas themes, in the same Vienna workshop where the original Perzy practiced his craft. But it’s easy to forget that Perzy was also an artisan. His items were painstakingly hand-crafted. So while his snow globes (also called “snow domes” or “snow weights”) were exquisite and popular, they were neither cheap nor widespread. For the snow globe to go global, it needed to be mass-produced—and that’s how America got into the business.
Tired of all the happy ballerinas and princesses in snow globes? Then give them the finger with this terrible, but hilariously wrong, prank snow globe. It’s something we’ve all asked at one time or another, just never in snow globe form. I’m not sure if this is meant as a gift or as bathroom décor, but either way, it’s sure to be a conversation starter. Additional details at personalized snow globe.
A few years later, a Viennese man Edwin Perzy developed the same idea when researching a way to improve operating room lights. A glass globe filled with water creates a magnifying lens by increasing refraction. To enhance the reflected light, Perzy put ground glass in the water. When it quickly sank, he tried semolina which floated slowly to the bottom of the globe. It did nothing to improve the light quality, but the snowfall inspired him to make his first snow globe: a reproduction of a Viennese shrine in a glass bulb with water, magnesium powder and rock. The snow domes were exquisitely and painstakingly produced and are still in production today where they make around 200,000 a year outside of Vienna.
Poinsettias have a mythic past. Poinsettias are a truly magical plant, according to one Christmas legend. A Mexican myth tells the tale of a poor young girl who gathered some weeds to give as a gift to Jesus on Christmas Eve at her church. When she laid the weeds down at the nativity scene, they suddenly transformed into a beautiful bouquet of bright red flowers, which are known as Flores de Noche Buena, or Flowers of the Holy Night, in Mexico. Some believe that the plant represents the star of Bethlehem. And others remember Dr. Joel Roberts Poinsett, the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico who introduced Americans to the plant in 1828. Source: https://www.qstomize.com/collections/custom-snow-globe.