Holmegaard Christmas 2025: Jette Frölich's Paper Cuttings on Glass

Every year Holmegaard Christmas gives the same handful of glass shapes a new set of motifs, and every year the question is the same: what do this year's pieces show, and are they worth starting or continuing a collection with? The 2025 edition carries extra weight, because it marks the glassworks' 200th anniversary. Here is what Jette Frölich drew, where the imagery comes from, and how the four pieces work on a December table.

Four paper cuttings, one romantic Christmas

The 2025 decoration is built from four scenes, each taken from Jette Frölich's paper cuttings. There is a wreath of lush greenery set with Christmas roses and holly berries. There is a traditional, generous bouquet of Christmas flowers. There are red ribbons. And there is a young couple holding hands under the mistletoe, the most narrative of the four and the one that gives the series its storybook quality this year.

Frölich is a Danish artist whose paper cuttings are closely tied to the Holmegaard Christmas series. What makes her work suit glass is the nature of the cut line itself. A paper cutting is a silhouette: flat, crisp at the edges, with the meaning carried by outline rather than shading. Transferred to a clear glass surface, those silhouettes read from across a room and still reward a close look, because the light behind the glass becomes the paper's negative space.

Why 2025 looks back to the Golden Age

Holmegaard was founded in 1825 on Zealand, in the middle of what Danes call the Golden Age, the first half of the nineteenth century when painting, literature and the decorative arts flourished in Copenhagen despite hard economic times. For its bicentenary, the brand has chosen a theme that points straight back to that period: Romanticism and the romantic Christmas.

The choice fits the medium. Paper cutting has deep roots in Danish domestic culture, and Hans Christian Andersen, a central figure of the Golden Age, was a keen cutter of paper figures that he often made while telling stories. The motifs Frölich chose for 2025 (evergreen wreaths, hothouse-style bouquets, ribbons, a courting couple) belong to the visual vocabulary of a nineteenth century Christmas, when the festival moved into the family parlour and the decorated tree, the gifts and the candlelit evening became the centre of it.

The theme also refers to the series' own history. The decorative elements that collectors know from earlier Holmegaard Christmas years are drawn back in, so the 2025 pieces sit comfortably beside older ones rather than breaking with them.

The four 2025 pieces in detail

All four are machine blown glass, and two add metal and a seal to make them practical for storage. The measurements below are taken directly from the product specifications.

The Holmegaard Christmas Bottle 2025 73 cl multi is the piece most people associate with the series. At 73 cl it holds a full bottle's worth, and the brass and cork stopper makes it a natural home for a batch of homemade Christmas snaps, the spiced aquavit many Danish households flavour themselves in the weeks before the holidays. It is equally good as a water carafe through a long lunch.

The Holmegaard Christmas Biscuit jar 2025 H16 multi is the most decorative of the four. At 16 cm tall it has enough surface for the motifs to read as a full scene, and the brass lid with a silicone seal keeps biscuits crisp. It is the piece that works as a decoration in its own right, even when it is empty.

The Holmegaard Christmas Water glass 2025 28 cl multi holds 28 cl and stands 12 cm high, a comfortable everyday tumbler size. Buying one for each place setting is where the series starts to look intentional rather than incidental. The Holmegaard Christmas Tea light holder 2025 H7.5 multi 2 pcs. come as a pair, each 7.5 cm high and 7 cm across, and the motifs come alive once a tealight is burning inside, the decoration glowing against the flame much as a paper cutting does when held up to a window.

Setting a December table with the 2025 series

Because the decoration is busy by design, the rest of the table should be quiet. A plain white or natural linen cloth, simple white plates and clear wine glasses let the motifs carry the colour. Add one more strong pattern and the paper cuttings start to compete.

• Centre line: place the bottle at the middle of the table and the two tealight holders either side of it, roughly a place setting apart. The heights step down from 19.5 cm to 7.5 cm, which keeps sight lines across the table open.
• Place settings: one water glass per guest, set at the top right of each plate. Repeating the same motif at every seat ties the table together more than any centrepiece can.
• Sideboard: the biscuit jar belongs within reach but off the dining surface, on a sideboard or kitchen counter where it can be opened through the evening.
• Window ledge: outside of meals, the tealight holders do their best work on a window ledge, where the motifs show both to the room and to the street.

All four pieces are not dishwasher safe, and hand washing is recommended. Warm water, a mild detergent and a soft cloth are enough; dry the glass straight away to avoid water marks on the decoration, and keep the brass fittings dry so they age evenly.

Collecting one piece each year

Holmegaard Christmas is designed to be collected over time. The shapes stay the same from year to year, while the motifs change, so a row of bottles or a stack of water glasses becomes a record of Christmases past.

A sensible way to build a collection is to choose one shape and buy it every year. The bottle is the obvious choice for a shelf display, because its height and flat sides give the motifs the most room. Water glasses suit people who would rather use their collection than look at it: after a few years, the table is set with a different edition at every seat, and guests tend to compare years. The 2025 edition is a strong starting point for either route, since the bicentenary theme ties it to the founding of the glassworks itself.

For more on the shapes Holmegaard has kept in production over the decades, read Regina and Klukflaske: Holmegaard Glass Shapes That Stayed. To see the 2025 series alongside ornaments, advent calendars and festive pieces from Kähler, Rosendahl and ferm LIVING, browse the full Christmas collection.