Custom Snow Globes

How it Works

A popular pop culture souvenir, snowglobes are a fun way to recreate a location, scene or event. Each snow globe is a magical miniature world encased in a see-through glass or plastic dome. When you shake the globe, you create a swirling white blizzard that sweeps over the figurines and landscapes inside. Many traditional snow domes feature scale model cityscapes with famous landmarks or Christmas themes. Our custom snowglobes often create enchanted worlds with a playful element.

History of Snow Globes and Water Globes

Where do snow globes (aka snowdomes) come from? They were inspired by the idea of a glass paperweight, and originated in France during the late 1880s. The first snow globes featured the newly- completed Eiffel Tower, and appeared at the World’s Fair in Paris in 1889. They became a favorite souvenir at the Fair and soon spread across Europe. In 1920s snow globes appeared in the US as collectable items and in 1927, Joseph Garaja from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania filed the first patent for snowglobes. Two years later he began producing the first water globes – snow globes without snow flakes that presented sea scenes. With increasing popularity, snow globes begin appearing in advertising in the 1940s. As consumers became more sophisticated in the 1970s, snowglobes became more upscale, with new intricate details like moving figurines and revolving bases. Nowadays, you can see snow globes with lights, music boxes, and even a slot to slide in your favorite picture.

Custom Snow Globes

Together we can create your own unique version of this classic pop culture souvenir, for corporate merchandise, trade show keepsakes, or highly targeted marketing mementos. We can bring to life an idea you already have or we can help design new, strategically brainstormed concepts. It's up to you!

Custom snowglobes are a perfect canvas to showcase the benefits of your company’s products and services in a miniature “real world” setting. They’re also great office brainstorming tools and stress relievers. Just pick up a snowglobe, shake it, and give it a try!

Concept and Design

We often design custom snowglobes to celebrate a profession, industry, market, client-base, staff or community. We'll make the most out of your marketing investment by designing snowdomes that your recipients will display proudly and share with their friends and colleagues.

Beginning with the shape and size, we can create any style of snowglobe from scratch, integrating different types of materials. It’s a completely blank marketing canvas. We can also start with the classic snowglobe design, and create a specific scene or figurine, while decorating with paint, screen printing, laser engraving, decals, engraving, and many other ways.

If you’re still working on which characters or scenes to create as original snow globes, we have some themes to help spark brainstorming:

Company landmarks – include your different facilities, your entire corporate campus, or position your building in a larger cityscape
Products & services - showcase your company’s products and services, along with their benefits, in a miniature “real world” setting
Mascots / CEOs – place your spokesman on the desks of your staff and clients
Miniature games – create a game in a snowglobe or water globe, where recipients can swirl different items into specific locations; your clients or staff will spend hours playing with their snowglobe, and with your brand
Water themes – for businesses with an aqua, sea or water related focus, custom water globes are a perfect medium
Advertising pieces – uniquely designed snow globes that incorporate your corporate logos, slogans, and brand elements in surprising, memorable ways
Winter themes & classic Christmas gifts – if your business has a wintery focus, or you want to connect your marketing with Santa Claus, snowmen, angels, or the holiday season, custom snowglobes are an ideal fit

Whether you’re fresh out of ideas, or have ideas galore, we’d love for you to Contact us and we’ll help guide the snow dome design to work best for your project.

Sizing up your Snowglobes

We can create any size you like – big or small. Three popular sizes are:

Small souvenir: 2.6” wide snow globe
Desktop size: 3” wide snow globe
Larger display piece: 4”+ wide snow globe

Materials & Engineering

While together we can customize every aspect of a snow globe, the most commonly customized features are:

Domes and Globes: modern snow domes are made from strong glass or clear plastic.
Snow: the “snow” in snowglobes is made from small pieces of white plastic. Historically, gold foil particles, sand, and even pieces of porcelain were used. With larger snow globe orders we can create “snow” from almost any item or shape, as long as it performs well with the “air” material.
Figures and Landscapes: commonly, the scenes inside snowglobes are made from various forms of plastic. We can also use metal, glass, ceramic, or even items that you provide.
“Liquid air”: Ever wonder how the liquid slows down the speed of the flowing snow? This is created by a mixture of glycerin and water to create a more viscous “air” so that snowflakes can gently swirl around. We can also fill the globe with other types of liquids, as long as they’re safe and play well with the other materials.
Base: the snow domes’ base can be made from plastic, wood, metal, glass… and almost anything else.

Common Snowglobe Shapes

The two most common snow globe and snow dome shapes are, unsurprisingly, spherical round globes and round oval domes. But that’s not to say you shouldn’t mix this up and go with a cylinder, pyramid or cube shaped snowglobe… or even an entirely abstract shaped dome. Ask us about other ideas for upping the originality of your snow globes.

Air Travel with Snowglobes

While snow globes are great for many applications they’re not perfect for all uses. Events where many attendees are arriving by plane are one of these. The TSA requires that snow globes and water domes be included in checked baggage - snowdomes aren’t allowed as carry on items. To prevent challenges for trade show air travelers we don’t recommend snowglobes for national conferences or international conventions.

Snow Globe Packaging

Popular custom snow globe packaging options are retail quality boxes, clamshells, blister cards and collectors displays. Learn more about custom packaging for items of all kinds or Contact us with your ideas.

Custom Snow Globe Process

We’ll design your custom snowglobes in an iterative, interactive process where you’ll review and provide feedback on each step.

Project Timelines

It takes between 2 and 5 months to design, prototype, produce and deliver your original snow globes. In some situations we're able to deliver items under tighter time lines. Please Contact us and let us know your ideal delivery date.

Snow Globe Order Quantity and Pricing

We'll always tailor your custom snow globes to fit your budget and order quantity. We're able to produce as few as 500 snow globes for your order, while orders of 2,500 snowglobes and 5,000 snowglobes and up offer increased design flexibility. Contact us with your ideal budget and together we'll decide the best options and packaging for your needs.