What's True Erwin Perzy, an Austrian surgical instruments mechanic, created one of the first snow globes in 1900 while attempting to fashion a brighter light bulb. What's False Origin In December 2020, with the holiday season just around the corner, an interesting tidbit about the ubiquitous snow globe ornament was circulated on social media: [Today I Learned] that snow globes were accidentally invented by a medical tool repair man. He was trying to make a brighter light bulb for operating rooms, so he tried using a water filled glass with reflective particles to do this. The effect looked like snow to him which is how he got the idea for snow globes.