Glass Bead Christmas Star

A traditional Czech Christmas decoration in the shape of a star, handmade from glass beads in the village of Poniklá in the Krkonoše Mountains. The delicate silver and gold star is made using a traditional bead-making technique. Each glass bead is blown from a glass tube and silvered on the inside with real silver.

• Material: blown glass beads
• Dimensions: 6 × 6 × 0.5 cm
• Colour: silver and gold
• Manufacturer: Rautis, Poniklá, Krkonoše Mountains
• Production: traditionally handmade
• Country of origin: Czech Republic

Glass bead Christmas decorations from Poniklá – a UNESCO tradition

The making of Christmas decorations from blown glass beads has a tradition spanning more than a century in Poniklá in the Krkonoše Mountains. Glass beads were originally made here primarily for costume jewellery. Over time, they also began to be assembled into Christmas decorations of various shapes, particularly stars, figures and geometric decorations.

Production involves several separate craft processes. Glass tubes are heated and blown into moulds, and the resulting beads are silvered on the inside, then coloured, cut and assembled into finished decorations. In 2020, the traditional making of Christmas decorations from blown glass beads was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The glass Christmas star from Poniklá is an example of traditional Czech Christmas craftsmanship that has survived in the Krkonoše Mountains to this day. It is suitable for hanging on a Christmas tree or in a window, or as a small traditional Czech Christmas gift.