Last year, I shared a few of my family’s favorite Christmas Traditions. So in the spirit of creating a blog tradition, I thought I’d share another.
Every year since I can remember, my Grandma gave all of her children, grandchildren, and later, her great-grandchildren a new Christmas ornament. Since we were all given the same one, it’s really fun to recognize the ornaments that we love on our own Christmas trees in the homes of our family members. Every ornament tells a story.
This is the first ornament that I remember getting from Grandma. That year, she made a counted cross-stitch holly bell for everyone in the family, with our names embroidered on the back. The felt backing is slightly worn, with a few holes showing its age. I grin every time I see this bell, because due to the holes, I can see that Gram stuffed them with her favorite stuffing material–old plastic bread bags. Hows that for recycling? To this day, I have no idea how she found the time to make such a time consuming gift for each family member.
Being that Gram grew up in Denmark, she often gravitated to hues of blue & white on porcelain; a nod to Royal Copenhagen and her Danish heritage.
Gram was just tickled to buy Millennium ornaments for Christmas 2000. In her words, “…it is literally a once in a lifetime opportunity. Unless you live to be really, really old.” Now that she is gone, I love seeing a lifetime of ornaments from her adorning our tree.
Now that my parents are grandparents, they have taken to giving our entire family a new ornament each year. This one is Alice, of Wonderland fame, sitting in a tea pot. I love it not only because I love tea, but because the print on the teapot is the classic Royal Copenhagen china pattern–which of course, reminds me of Grandma.
Being a tea drinker, tea cups are becoming a common theme.
If you’ve hung around here for any length of time, this one should come as no surprise.
Growing up with a name like Kirsten, personalized items were hard to come by. So whenever anyone in my family finds something with my name on it, they snap it up for me. Aren’t they sweet?
Thank goodness that the folks that invented the American Girl Doll had the sense to create a Kirsten. That dolls popularity made Kirsten a popular girls name, and wildly increased the chances of finding personalized merchandise. We’ll just pretend that particular Kirsten was not from the wrong Scandinavian country–the doll Kirsten is Swedish, and not Danish. 😉
Ornaments from friends always make me smile. My friend Janis gave me this sweet, vintage looking girl knitting. Since Janis was the one that taught me how to decipher knitting patterns, it’s appropriate.
Pooh With Stars was the first ornament that I bought for my first “grown-up” Christmas tree. Consider the irony. I’ve always loved Classic Pooh, so the bear has quite a presence on our tree.
The Classic Pooh invasion gained much steam at the Macy’s in San Francisco. I literally stopped in my tracks when we happened by a huge tree in the window that was positively dripping in Silly Old Bear.
Bacon Slayer’s entire family are rabid fans of the Peanuts comics, so it’s only fair that Snoopy has some representation on our tree, too. Dare I say that the Beagle Army is slowly gaining in numbers on the Classic Pooh Brigade.
Of course, my new favorite ornaments are the ones made by my boys little hands. The lower half of our tree is peppered with sequins, painted noodles, and anything else that can be glued onto something and hung with a ribbon.
What are some of your favorite Christmas or other holiday traditions?
Do you prefer eclectic Christmas tree decor, or the fancy themed variety?
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