Over 500 Christmas decorations are on display at the Christmas tree ornament exhibition at the Sagadi Forest Museum 21.11

On display at the exhibition are more than 500 ornaments from the private collection of collector Marika Ploomann, offering the excitement of discovery and the joy of recognition to visitors both young and old.

“One can see a cross section of 20th century Christmas tree ornaments at the Sagadi exhibition, made from glass, beads, and papier-mâché. On display are a number of uniquely shaped ornaments: fruits-vegetables, pine cones, animals-birds, fairy tale characters, etc. The oldest decorations in the exhibit date back to the Tsarist period in Russia,” said Head of the Sagadi Forest Centre of RMK Krista Keedus.

“The Christmas tree tradition reached Estonia in the 15th century, which is also about the same time that the first information about Sagadi Manor dates from,” said Krista Keedus. “At the time, decorations consisted of roses folded from paper; afterwards, Christmas trees were decorated with sweets, apples and homemade ornaments.” Today’s Christmas tree ornaments date from the 19th century, and they reached Estonia at the beginning of the 20th century from Germany and Russia. Apples and beautiful glass ornaments were manufactured by a number of local glassworks during the first incarnation of the Republic of Estonia, with mass industrial production not beginning until the 1970s. These mass produced items were New Year’s decorations, with figures of cosmonauts, five-pointed stars, and tools hung on the tree.

Marika Ploomann is probably the biggest collector of Christmas and New Year’s ornaments in Estonia. She began collecting when she was 15 years old, and new additions are made to her collection each year. Marika was inspired to begin collecting fragile glass ornaments by an incident in her childhood, when a grand and proud Christmas tree that had been standing on her veranda fell over, smashing Christmas ornaments that had been handed down in her family from generation to generation to pieces. Shimmering fragments were all that was left of bears, squirrels, birds... It was something that has remained with me for my entire life,” said Marika.

Marika’s collection of beautiful and fragile ornaments can be seen in the RMK Sagadi Forest Museum every day from 10.00 to 16.00, from 18 November until 15 January.

Further information:
Krista Keedus
Head of the Sagadi Forest Centre of RMK
Tel.: 507 9077
E-mail:krista.keedus@rmk.ee
www.sagadi.ee