The Kosta Boda Snowball

How A Lumpy Ball Of Swedish Crystal Lit Up The Winter Season In America.

- Robert Klara

As the wintry weather sets in, it’s the season for Americans to revive the cherished annual institution of the snowball fight. As it happens, making snowballs is popular in Sweden, too—but the Nordic country has a decidedly less aggressive use for them. It’s called the snölykta, and it’s essentially a hollow pyramid made of snowballs with a light source on the inside. When lit up at night, it creates the unlikely and entrancing effect of ice that glows. In this way, the Swedes comfort their loved ones rather than pelting them.

But this is America, so why espouse the nonviolent virtues of the snölykta? Because the Swedish snow lantern is, among other things, the inspiration for the Kosta Boda Snowball—one of America’s most enduring (if little publicized) home accents of the last two generations. Made at the Kosta glassworks in southern Sweden, the snowball is a hefty (3.75-pound) chunk of lead crystal that resembles its namesake and holds a tealight in the center.