If you don’t want to use a Christmas figurine inside your snowglobe you can also use plastic toys (like dinosaurs, cars, or animals) or even Lego minifigures. Bottle brush trees and laminated photos also look great inside these snow globes. A festive feast of Christmas events are being laid on in Sutton Coldfield in the run-up to the big day. A chance to meet real reindeer, step into a giant snow globe, banter with the Grinch and visit a Christmas market are among the events being held by the Visit Royal Sutton Coldfield Business Improvement District (BID), funded by businesses in the town. Whether they contain replicas of snow or sparkling glitter, and when gently shaken these water balls change for calm scenes to swirly blizzards. Kids are especially mesmerized by them. Thankfully, lots of snow globes are automatically activated by a switch on the base in case you're worried about tiny hands letting them crash to the floor while shaking. How Were Snow Globes Invented? It's hard not to be enamored with snow globes. They simply bring out our love of fantasy in so many ways. From the idyllic tiny scenes inside to the magic of snow you can enjoy, but not shovel is pretty darned appealing.

BID Manager Michelle Baker said: “Everyone in the town centre is so excited for the festive season this year, and our message to Sutton people is ‘all we want for Christmas is you!’ All throughout the year residents have supported town centre traders and businesses by coming along to the events we have organised, from an amazing Coronation celebration to our regular Farmers’ Markets. We bought our plastic snow globes at the dollar store. You can also buy them at craft stores, or online. Try searching “DIY snow globe” or “snow globe kit” online. Adults especially love illuminated snow globes. Often the scene inside involves snowy villages and Christmas homes. Thanks to incredibly small but efficient LED lights, a flip of the switch is enough to make the tiny towns and homes glitter with realistic warmth. If you don’t have glycerin, you can also fill the globe with baby oil or a mixture of clear glue and water (1 part glue to 4 parts water). You can also substitute the glycerin with 1 Tablespoon of clear dish soap.Believe it or not, there's plenty of evidence to say that if Thomas Edison had invented a better lightbulb, we might never have gotten to indulge in our passion for snow globes. You can use tap water, but there is a chance the water might go cloudy in the snow globe as time passes. Do I have to add glycerin to my DIY snow globe? So, we wanted to thank them by putting together a really fantastic programme of attractions for Christmas that will really bring the town centre alive and get everyone in the festive spirit. It all starts this weekend, when the Grinch will make the first of two visits – we just hope he doesn’t spoil everything!”

Visitors to Sutton Coldfield will be given the chance to step inside a snow globe - among a host of activities and attractions in the run-up to Christmas We've found that those by Thomas Kinkade are the most elegant and realistic, but also the most expensive of all. Four fabulous weekends of festive fun’ are planned with the seasonal events starting this Sunday (November 26). It starts with a Christmas Farmers and Craft market – the last if the year. And Dr Seuss characters The Grinch and Cindy Lou in town in the Parade. We used iridescent glitter as the fake snow in our DIY snow globe. Iridescent glitter is clear glitter that shimmers in many colours. We tried silver glitter at first, but it didn’t look enough like snow. White glitter would also work if you can find it. Where to get a snow globe? The elegant glass snow globe lights up with multi coloured LEDs in the base which flash in time to the Jingle Bells music and 8 other Christmas songs to create an eye-catching Christmas display. The snow globe has two settings - music and lighting effect or just light show.

According to this article by Linda Rodriquez McRobbie for MentalFloss, there's a bit of a comical and quite interesting story about how they came into being. Where Can You Find Illuminated Snow Globes?

If you don’t want to buy a special snow globe you can also use a mason jar or any clean jar from your recycling, like a jam jar. Large Christmas snow globe measuring 14cm high, by 10cm wide and 10cm deep. The Multi-coloured, changing LED lighting and music is powered by 3 x AAA batteries (not included). You can glue the snow globe lid shut with hot glue or super glue, if you like, to reduce the risk of spills. The liquids used to make a DIY snowglobe are water and a little bit of glycerin. We recommend using distilled water, since it doesn’t have any impurities or minerals that regular water has.