Keeping To A Slightly Christmasy Theme,

snow domes,

although they can be used for other occasions, but because of the snow they are mainly thought of as Christmas decorations, 

and some times feature in films, above The Avengers and of course Citizen Kane, but where did the come from? some one must have invented them, but why? their early years are rather fuzzy, but  but it is clear that the snow globe traces back to Europe near the end of the 19th century, Kim Hart writes about the brief history of the snow globe on Artsy, a interesting mug of coffee read, if you are into snow domes.