Hundreds of glass ornaments are blown at Hudson Beach Glass each holiday season. But as our Curtis Schick shows us, not by experts, but by you.

  To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

BEACON, N.Y. - One by one, they step up to the oven.

"It’s not like there’s a hundred people in line and you go and you blow it. It’s just you," said David Pollack of Monroe.

It’s some thing the Pollacks have been meaning to do.

"I had heard about it a couple of year ago and had forgotten about it. This time of year things get crazy. So, this year we remembered," said Gretchen Pollack, David's mom.

And remembering this day will probably be easy, seeing each member of the Monroe family is taking home the glass ornament they just blew at Hudson Beach Glass in Beacon.

"It creates sort of an heirloom," said John Gilvey, Hudson Beach Glass owner.

Shop owner John Gilvey says it starts with getting glass from inside this kiln where temperatures inside are little more than 2000 degrees. Gilvey helps people gather the glass – it is the consistency of honey — onto the end of a long blow rod. Together, they pull it out and roll it into broken colored glass. It’s then back into the kiln. It is then time to shape the ornament while it is fired. To give it even more shape, Gilvey will dip it into what is called an optic mold. After one more trip into the kiln, while Gilvey holds the rod, it’s up to you to blow.

"You know when you blow a Christmas ornament your breath is trapped in that ornament forever. So it becomes a very personal thing," said Gilvey.

Once the ornament is the right size, Gilvey snips the end and creates a loop on the top for the hook. It is put into a different oven – only about 900 degrees – to cool for a day. He said the whole process takes about 15 to 20 minutes. But for the Pollacks, it’s memory that will last a lifetime.

"It was fantastic. It was so cool to actually be doing it. It will look nice on the tree," said Gretchen.