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History of Radko Ornaments
Christopher Radko took an unlikely path toward creating a multimillion dollar business. In fact,
Christopher's success in Christmas and home furnishings was literally an accident. At age 40,
Christopher is celebrating sixteen years in business, designs and produces a brilliant line of
fine glass Christmas ornaments, garlands and figures depicting everything from the very
traditional to the very whimsical. His designs inspire joy and awaken the spiritual significance
of the holiday, and, best of all, serve as special momentos of a family's holiday celebrations.
In 1983, Christopher's family put up there Christmas tree and, in the spirit of tradition, adorned
it with their heirloom collection of over 2000 hand made, glass blown ornaments. Then, one week
before Christmas, a terrible and like changing event occurred for christopher. The family's
Christmas tree crashed, smashing the beautiffully decorated ornaments. ``With sudden and resounding
finality, it seemed that the door that linked me and my family to the memories of Christmases
past had slammed shut. We were devastated."
In an attept to make ammends for the broken ornaments, Christopher made it his personal quest to
restore the heirloom collection. The next summer, while visiting distant cousins in Poland, he
began to look for glass ornaments but found nothing. He decided instead to find a glass blower
who could make the ornaments, but that was difficult as well. After finally locating and working
with a craftsman, Christopher used his knowledge of traditional ornament shapes and had several
dozen ornaments produced that he intended to bring home to his family. The ornaments never made
it. His friends eagerly purchased all of them. On the next trip overseas, he brought back more
ornaments and those sold out as well.
At that point, Christopher realized that he his ornaments were truely one of a kind. Most
ornaments sold in the United States in the early `80's were made out of synthetic materials.
They were mass produced in countries that didn't celebrate Christmas and were not very appealing.
Nothing approached the quality and craftsmanship that his ornaments demonstrated. Christopher
decided to open his business and by his second year, he had $75,000 in sales. The company grew
from there.
Sixteen years later, Christopher Radko's 2001 collection includes more than 1,200 designs.
Instead of selling his ornaments during his lunch hour, Christopher today has 3,000 accounts,
including the many large, high quality retailers like Bloomingdale's, Neiman Marcus, Marshall Fields
and Roger's Gardens. Christopher's artistry is now world renowned. Eager collectors and fans
await the release of his sparkling collection year after year.
To view a complete listing of Radko ornaments, click here.
Seasonal Collections:
Spring Collection
Summer Collection
Fall Collection
Winter Collection
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