Albacore Tuna Glass Ornament by Cody Foster

An albacore tuna tin, in glass, in orange. Novelty Christmas ornaments usually trade on a one-line joke, and this one does something better: it takes an object people genuinely love, the tinned fish shelf, and gives it the same glass treatment a European bauble gets. Cody Foster makes it as a proper glass ornament rather than a printed cutout, which is why it reads as a small still life instead of a gimmick. It belongs with the tinned anchovies and the chilled caviar if you are grouping food ornaments, and on its own it is a very good gift for the person who brings the good tin to the party. We would hang it at eye level, since the whole appeal is the label, and label detail disappears the second you bury a piece in the branches. It is also a quiet, funny addition to a gift basket built around good pantry things, which is a harder present to get right than it sounds.

What are Christmas ornaments made of? Christmas ornaments are most commonly made from blown or molded glass, wood, resin, metal, fabric, or papier-mache, with glass remaining the traditional material for European-style tree ornaments. The material drives both weight and fragility, which is why glass and papier-mache pieces are handled and stored more carefully than resin or wood.