deck the halls!

[notmyown]

i've had an advent wreath for decades. it was just an inexpensive item i got when the kids were little, but we've used it so many years, read so much Scripture with the candles lit on Sunday nights, i can't imagine replacing it. the memories!

one year, one of the girls asked permission to blow out the candles. i was on my way out of the room to put the baby to bed, and suddenly turned in time to see her long, unbound hair go up in flames as she leaned over the candles. classic Lizzie. lol

my aunt sent me a pricey Lenox snowman one year. i liked it so much the children began buying me snowmen from the dollar store as Christmas gifts. they sit on a shelf all winter, and i don't want to part with them. though they're not Lenox, the sacrifice the kids made with their birthday money from grandparents makes them more precious to me than gold.

do you have favorite decorating things for Christmas? is there a special memory attached to them?
maybe a brand new tree ornament, or something passed down through the generations? i'd like to hear about it.

 

[Lynx]

I am going to say something that some of my friends may consider black heresy. I never have been big on decorations of any kind, Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Easter, whatever. I even begrudge the effort of putting up and decorating the tree every year, not because I hate a Christmas tree but because I don't really care much for it either.

Of course if somebody else puts decorations up, takes them down and packs them that is fine with me. I don't care at all if other people like to put up decorations. Just don't bother me with it.

 

[dalconn]

I am going to say something that some of my friends may consider black heresy. I never have been big on decorations of any kind, Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Easter, whatever. I even begrudge the effort of putting up and decorating the tree every year, not because I hate a Christmas tree but because I don't really care much for it either.

Of course if somebody else puts decorations up, takes them down and packs them that is fine with me. I don't care at all if other people like to put up decorations. Just don't bother me with it.

Lynx, is this just another way of saying that you are cheap?

LOL....I couldn't resist, sorry bro

 

[Depleted]

Wait! There is another kind of Christmas decoration?

The first year John and I were married, we got the tree, and I bought a small box of bulbs. (Maybe 4-6.) And then I strung popcorn, (after discovering John hates stringing it, but liked eating it), and made construction-paper chains and big bows to add to the tree. It was pretty, but very simple, because I grew up knowing the history of every Christmas ornament. And, I knew we'd do the same.

Our second-parents gave us our first ornament. It's a couple dressed for winter encircled by a rattan heart-shaped wreath. Second-Mom told me the couple was John and me. It's on the right side of the tree this year, so John can see it when he lies down on the sofa.

Cardinals toward the top of the tree, because Gram once got a pear tree for Christmas, but she liked cardinals, so instead of adding the partridge, she made it a cardinal. The china-head angel on top is for Gram's china-head dolls from her childhood.

Carousel horse as a decoration, because I made a large carousal horse in stained glass that hung in the window behind the tree, until the frame broke.

Each year John and I went on vacation there was a Christmas decoration store in our travels. (Funny, since we vacationed in summer.) And once I got back into stuffed animals, then came Star-bear from the Poconos, Lantern-bear from Route 6 in PA, Floppy-Bear, who came from Kindies (they used to be Star-Brite, if you remember the days of lead, and then plastic, tinsel, since they manufactured tinsel for the whole east coast), because they moved on to the base John used to work on before it was closed, and I can name the rest too.

Cats! A few cat ornaments from friends and family from long ago when we had a cat. No idea if my SIL knows that's the lit ceramic Christmas tree she made 30+ years ago. No idea if my other SIL knows her sled she made hangs on the wall each year. An old friend, who probably doesn't even remember me, made a butterfly out of sequences, from back in the days I was collecting butterflies. And, I am sad that the donkey she made for the clothespin nativity set broke. Mophead Angel from my niece, who is a bit upset that she can't watch TV from her angle. (The angel. Not my niece. lol)

37 years later, and I have to pick and choose which comes out each year, because of all the memories, and now less space.

But, John's yard-long stocking that a crocheted him two years ago when he slept through the entire holiday season, (literally, since he was sedated until the heart operation), hangs on the banister to be filled. I brought it to him on Christmas full of the teddy bears he had nightmares of someone stealing them, but he wasn't really awake enough to remember. I brought it on his birthday a month later with the same teddy bears, except he was quarantined with an intestinal bug, so it couldn't come into his room. So, I brought it, yet again, for the 2016 Super Bowl, and he was delighted, because he really thought two out of three had been stolen again. (Only person I know who can get that excited over the same thing three times in six weeks. lol) Last year it finally was filled with new presents.

The first year we had one personal decoration for Christmas. Now all of them are personal.

 

[AuntieAnt]

Awwww!!! That’s so precious notmyown that your children brought you gifts of snowmen because you liked the Lennox one so much. Sooo sweet! ❤

I love shiny things. And oh how God knows it! LOL! All the luminous Christmas decorations on the houses… the sparkling store displays enhanced with green holly, red bows and gold bells… the glittering silver tinsel, twinkling lights and glistening ornaments on the trees… they THRILL me! I get as excited as a child seeing all the cheerful glow, don’t you?

The bright metallic colors often remind me of my childhood when my mother taught my siblings and me to make beautiful Christmas wreaths to sell door to door so we could buy food. But most of all, light reflection itself causes me to be in awe how God not only allows us to see so many amazing colors with our temporal eyes, but takes pleasure when we behold His much brighter, more brilliant, more awesome and life-quickening Light with eternal spirit eyes. Wow!!! \/

“I didn’t see a temple in the city because the Lord God All-Mighty and the Lamb are its Temple. The city didn’t have need for the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the Glory of God gave it light; the Lamb is the Light.”

​

 

[zeroturbulence]

In 1980, we saw this engraver's kiosk in the local mall and he was engraving these shiny gold christmas ornaments. My mom got one each for me and my sisters with our names engraved on them. We hung them up on the tree every year.. but they got lost and haven't been seen for years. My sister thinks they were inadvertently thrown away when we were trying to reduce the amount of decorations we had (and we still have too many!!)

 

[notmyown]

In 1980, we saw this engraver's kiosk in the local mall and he was engraving these shiny gold christmas ornaments. My mom got one each for me and my sisters with our names engraved on them. We hung them up on the tree every year.. but they got lost and haven't been seen for years. My sister thinks they were inadvertently thrown away when we were trying to reduce the amount of decorations we had (and we still have too many!!)

oh, sad!

my folks did the same thing for us back in the 60s when there were (gasp!) no malls. lol
so i don't know how they did it? but when mom died and we went through the house, we found them.
i hope yours turn up, zt.