Radko: Built from Necessity

It Began with a Crash...

In much the same way my father, Bill Snyder, and his business partner, Glen Forbes, built their business, Christopher Radko started his vision for a company that offered the festive holiday heirlooms his family lost. My father and Glen both saw, with a cunning eye, holes and opportunity in the marketplace. So did Christopher Radko when the unthinkable happened one night.

Once upon a Holiday Night, a Christmas tree fell and startled the Radko family household. With more than 1,000 vintage mouth-blown glass ornaments broken to bits, Christopher was distraught. Searching endlessly to replace them, he found nothing quite good enough to replace his treasured memories. He soon realized that the only option was to start from scratch. Thus began the creation of Christopher Radko Ornaments.

With nothing but his Christmas memories to build upon, Christopher enlisted a Polish glassblower and went to work recreating his family’s lost heirlooms. The project went so well that by 1985 sixty unique designs were debuted and a respected business was created. Today, after thirty years of designing and creating, the Christopher Radko Company has produced more than eighteen million fine European glass ornaments that have become a part of family traditions across the United States.