Christopher Radko might be the Kris Kringle of high-end Christmas ornaments, and after a 10-year absence, his exquisitely hand-crafted glass decorations have returned.
His HeARTfully Yours catalog has 250 pieces: sea horses and nesting birds, gilded butterflies and ornate frogs and nativities in a globe, among others.
The Christmas decorations from HeARTfully Yours include December 24, a classic, elegant Santa Claus holding a golden Teddy bear and a shiny green bag of toys and gifts and a slender nutcracker standing on top of a ball.
For Radko, who identifies as gay, the Christmas ornaments are his favorites.
“I live and breathe Christmas,” Radko told the Westchester, New York Journal News. “It’s my passion. I’m dialed in. I’m the guy who gets the direct channel to the North Pole.”
The Christopher Radko ornament company was originally his business. In 2007, two years after the company was sold, Radko left.
His severance package included a 10-year noncompete clause, meaning that Radko had to stay out of the Christmas ornament business.
That clause expired in August 2021, when Radko began planning his glass-decorations return with HeARTfully Yours ornaments.
In 1984, Radko decorated his family’s 14-foot Christmas tree with his family’s heirloom of 2,000 exquisite, mouth-blown European glass ornaments; however, the weight of tree caused it to crash to the ground.
Unable to find replacements ornaments, Radko started his own ornaments business and sourced the ornaments from Polish craftsmen that he met on a trip.
Radko launched his eponymous business in 1986.
Katharine Hepburn, Whoopi Goldberg, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Andy Warhol, Elton John, and Bruce Springsteen were some of his earliest clients of his hand-blown glass ornaments.
Radko was invited to decorate the Vice President Al Gore’s residence.
By 1997, Radko’s company sales totaled $50 million.
