This tree is only a couple of years old. Even artificial ones start to look bedraggled and need to be replaced. The white lights are already attached, then I added the colored lights. I prefer a tree with multitudes of colors. Which sort of person are you: white lights only, one-color only, multiple-colored lights only, or as one news anchor recently announced: colored lights are for outside and white-only lights are for inside?
The decorations we hang on the tree are the most fun part, because there are so many memories associated with them. Way back when we were first married, we had a potted tree (I can't think of its type). It was tiny and weak so could only hold very light-weight ornaments. Some of those we still use are from that shopping trip where I bought the lightest weight ornaments I could find. A few ornaments are from different trips I took to Indian reservations and once to an Alaskan Federation of Natives conference. So I have some "Eskimo boots made by a Tlingit woman" as they were described to me. Tlingit is the tribe from which my husband is descended. The woman who made these married an Eskimo man, so she is familiar with the boots/moccasins of both traditions. I also have a baby wrapped up in a cradle (bought from a Minnesota Ojibwe woman) that could hang in a tree branch.. again, I can't remember the real name for this thing. I must be getting old.
Some are made in Russia. Some are made in Laos. I have some from Czech Republic, but they aren't on my tree this year. I love having ornaments from around the world. Last March when daughter and I visited the UK, I bought an ornament that says "Mind the Gap" but now I can't find it! Frustrating. But I do have a little plaid reindeer that I bought in Scotland.
I have a few ornaments that are sewing and quilting related - some were gifts from my daughter. One is a knitted hat and mittens that our neighbor from way back (about 35 years ago) made. Daughter and I went to visit, and she let us pick any ornament we wanted off her tree. Wasn't that nice of her? We picked the hat and mittens.
Anyway, the memories are fun, and I'm getting old enough now that I feel nostalgic about these old things. I now have a few decorations that I inherited from my mother, so those have even older memories associated with them. At Christmas time I miss my mom.
I hope, if you celebrate Christmas, you will have fun remembering old times and cherishing the new memories you will make this week.
Little Hummel pieces that I inherited from my mom. These are probably older than I am.
5 comments:
I used to be a colorful lights person but after our son was hospitalized in ICU for an entire December, I became an all-white lights lover (simplicity, serenity, peacefulness). Inside and out. And we gave up our large trees and now have four 4-foot table top trees throughout the house instead. Easier to handle and store but still filled with family ornaments dating back 3 generations. Merry Christmas to you and your family!!
Well I am old too. When my man was diagnosed with ALS, I knew I could no longer put up a real tree...I had my three small grandchildren with me then...I am still raising them...so into Walmart I went to buy a $30 white fake tree. The children loved it. Now, my man is long gone, the children are still with me...and we still have that white tree. This year my daughter came from Portland...we too were in Walmart last week...All the real trees were on sale from $40 to $7. This year we have both trees. Lucky us.
the four small trees are a great idea. Merry Christmas xo from North Carolina
I love trees filled with sentimental ornaments like yours! We still have all our ornaments in a box, but don't put a tree up on the boat. We'll save them for when we move back into a fixed dwelling someday.
As for lights, I love them all! All white, all colors, one color, or any mix. This year we bought one of those laser light projectors that throws swirling patterns of red and green onto the walls. Fun and easy :)
My daughter and I have decorated our tree together for years. This year, I forgot- about half way through, I remembered. So, I undecorated the tree. Emmy and she came over the next day, and we did it all. Emmy has been added to the tradition. And someday, it will be the two of them, while I watch- although I hope that is many years from now.
I,too, especially miss my mother at Christmas- it was her favorite holiday.
What fun memories for you! I too am older now and also have a box of ornaments somewhere, filled with memories. But since we moved, we don't do the big (fake) tree with all the ornaments. We too bought a small 3 foot tree, (again, space restrictions plus I HATE putting it all away!) and have had white lights, paper snowflakes and a white paper chain that the Grands made on it for the last 10 years. Until this year. And now we've gone back to multi-colored lights and gold tinsel with the paper snowflakes. We fell in love with the white lights when we lived in Germany 40+ years ago. That was how they decorated. I loved the simplicity of the white. But change is good sometimes! Who knows what we'll do next year?
Happy New Year!
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