Videos: Centuries-old Christmas tree ornaments village in Mexico

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It’s peak season for those who make a living from Christmas like most people in Tlalpujahua, the town in Mexico famous for its glass Christmas tree decorations. Fifty million are produced here every year, half are exported.

The Marin family members are the godfathers of the glassblowing trade in the Mexican village of Tlalpujahua, which makes tens of millions of ornaments each year to decorate Christmas trees in American and Canadian homes. Even mid-winter, the sun shines strong in this village in the western state of Michoacan. But it might as well be the North Poll. Stores with names like “Santa’s Workshop” and “The Christmas House” line the colonial village’s cobblestone streets.

Village in southern Mexico flourishes on handmade Christmas ornaments

In Tlalpujahua, its arguable reputation of “the World Capital of Christmas Spheres” has awarded the local craftspeople with a decent living for decades. (Soundbite) Gustavo Flores, Visitor “It’s a very nice tradition here in Tlalpujahua, which must be preserved. So the only way to keep it is by visiting and buying what they produce here.” The glass balls produced at family workshops always surprise visitors and wholesalers with unique forms and peculiar designs.

They may need a whole day to look through the bazaar to find all they want.

What the buyers want in Tlalpujahua is originality and tradition, especially as most markets elsewhere are crowded more and more with industrialized products. Handmade and unique, this tells why the small village can keep flourishing in the ornament trade since it was founded in 16th century.

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The Mazatlan Post