Glass vs Shatterproof Ornaments: An Honest Comparison

Every December someone stands in our ornament aisles holding a glass ball in one hand and a plastic one in the other, asking which is better. The honest answer is that shatterproof ornaments and glass ornaments are good at different jobs, and most of the trees we admire use both. Glass gives a tree its depth and sparkle. Shatterproof gives you a tree that survives a toddler, a cat and a January closet. Here is the comparison we give across the counter, without the sales pitch.

What Shatterproof Ornaments Actually Are

Shatterproof usually means molded plastic with a painted or glittered finish, shaped and colored to look like the glass pieces it stands in for. Our shaped shatterproof ornament set is a good example: twelve miniature shaped ornaments, about two inches each, plastic with a paint and mica finish, sold for people who want the little figural shapes without worrying about breakage. The oversized glitter balls on the same shelves are the same idea at the other end of the scale, shatterproof plastic in four-inch bags of six or six-inch singles, with a drilled and wired cap so the hanger cannot pull out. Drop one on a hardwood floor and it bounces. That is the whole appeal, and it is a real one.

What Glass Ornaments Actually Are

Glass covers more ground than people expect. At one end are plain glass balls, the kind our Christmas balls collection is built on: the Krebs red balls, for instance, are glass silvered on the inside, formed from molten glass rather than a mold so the ball is seamless, made in the USA, with a gold crown cap, boxed in eights at a little over two and a half inches or in fours at three and a quarter. At the other end are the figural pieces. Old World Christmas has made mouth-blown glass ornaments since 1979: molten glass blown into a carved mold, liquid silver poured inside for the shine, then hand painted and glittered, across more than 1,400 designs. Christopher Radko, founded in 1985, has produced more than eighteen million European blown glass ornaments using techniques the company traces to the Renaissance. The thing they share is that glass holds and throws light in a way nothing else does, which is why a glass ball looks lit from inside and a plastic one looks lit from outside.

Glass vs Shatterproof Ornaments, Point by Point

Looks

Glass wins, and it is not close. The silvered interior of a glass ball reflects the tree lights back with depth; a reflector indent on a glass ball looks like a tiny mirror. A good shatterproof ball reads as shiny from across the room and as plastic from arm’s length. Up high, in the back, or on a tree seen mostly at night, that difference stops mattering. At eye level on the front of the tree, it matters.

Weight

Glass is heavier, which is both a problem and a virtue. Heavy ornaments pull thin branch tips down, so glass belongs on the firmer branches closer to the trunk. The weight also keeps a glass ball hanging still and straight, while light plastic balls swing when the furnace kicks on and ride up when a branch brushes them. On a tree with soft branch tips, shatterproof pieces are often the only thing that will stay put out at the ends.

Kids, Pets and Floors

This is where shatterproof earns its name. Our ornament collection runs, in the words of our own category page, from delicate glass to robust unbreakable options for homes with young children, and that split is exactly how to think about the bottom third of the tree. A glass ball that falls on carpet usually survives; one that falls on tile does not, and the pieces are sharp and small. The ASPCA’s holiday safety tips warn that shards of breakable ornaments can damage a pet’s mouth and digestive tract, which is a polite way of describing a bad night. Cats do not care about any of this, so the low branches are plastic in a house with a cat, full stop.

Outdoors and Garages

Glass does not like freeze and thaw, and the painted finishes on glass do not like direct weather. Shatterproof ornaments are the reasonable choice for a porch tree, a wreath on the door or garland along a railing, where a dropped or wind-knocked ornament would otherwise be a broken one. Keep in mind that plastic finishes can fade and scuff in sun and sleet over a few seasons, so treat outdoor shatterproof ornaments as a few years of service rather than an heirloom.

Storage

Plastic forgives a crowded bin. Glass needs its own compartment, which is why dedicated ornament boxes exist: the Old World Christmas storage box we carry has four trays with adjustable dividers and holds sixty-four three-inch ornaments, sixteen to a tray, and collapses flat when empty. Our storage guide covers the rest, but the short version is that glass stored loose in a tote has a short life, and a tray costs less than one broken heirloom.

Longevity and Meaning

A glass ornament, kept properly, outlives the person who bought it. There are ornaments on trees in Littleton that were blown in Germany a hundred years ago; the tradition started in Lauscha, where glass baubles were first made in the 1800s, and it has not stopped. Nobody inherits a bag of plastic balls. That is not a knock on plastic, which is doing a different job; it is the reason the ornament you buy to mark a year, a baby, a trip or a person should be glass, and the ornaments you buy by the dozen to fill the tree can be whatever survives your household.

How to Mix Both on One Tree

The trees that look best in our store are layered, and the layering follows the comparison above.

Plastic Where It Will Be Touched

The bottom third of the tree, the branch tips, the porch and anything a dog’s tail can reach: shatterproof. Use the same two or three colors as your glass so the eye reads one tree, not two.

Glass Where It Will Be Seen

Eye level and above on the front of the tree, and the firm branches near the trunk where a heavy piece hangs straight: glass. Our Christmas balls page gives the rule we repeat most, that a professional-looking tree runs two or three ball styles repeated throughout, with the keepsake ornaments placed in front of them. Those repeated balls can be glass up top and plastic down low in the same colors, and nobody will ever notice.

Hang Glass Like You Mean It

Most broken glass ornaments did not fall; they were hung on a flimsy hook. Our swirl wire ornament hooks, twenty-four to a box at an inch and five-eighths, gold or silver, are made of wire for exactly this reason: the swirl grips the branch and the cap loop so a blown glass ornament stays where you put it. Push the hook well onto the branch, past the needles, and give the ornament a gentle tap to make sure it does not swing into its neighbor.

Which Should You Buy?

If you are starting from nothing with small children, buy shatterproof fillers in your two or three colors this year and add one glass ornament that means something. If your household is past the toddler and puppy years, build on glass balls, since they are the ones you will still be hanging in thirty years, and keep a few shatterproof pieces for the low branches and the porch. If you are a collector, you already know the answer and you are here for the Old World Christmas guide. Either way, the two are not rivals. They are a front row and a back row, and the tree needs both.

The Short Version

Glass looks better, hangs straighter on firm branches, lasts for generations and breaks. Shatterproof ornaments bounce, weigh almost nothing, go outdoors and belong wherever small hands, paws and tails can reach. Use plastic low and out at the tips, glass high and near the trunk, repeat the same colors through both, hang the glass on wire hooks, and store it in trays. That is the whole comparison.