I love Christmas. Aside from all of the religious significance, the season just makes me happy. It is impossible to stay in a bad mood while you are staring down the nose of a snowman stocking or looking in the eyes of a stuffed gingerbread man.
One of my most favorite things is my tree. It isn't fancy by any means, but it is full of very special memories. From tree skirt to angel topper, I can tell you every detail of each ornament's existence. Our tree has not one single decorative piece....every item is "us."
I was having a discussion with my sister the other day about trees. She has been blessed to always live in large houses, that have room to afford several trees with several themes. I know others follow this same suit, and I have wished in the past that I had a larger home, in which each room had its own personal tree. But, because we are so cramped for space, we just have one tree, and we haphazardly cram all our ornaments on it -- matching theme or not.
Last night, while we were putting up the tree, I was thinking how glad I am that we have our one very crammed tree. That our manger scenes hang next to Scooby Doo, and our snowmen mingle with the angels. I love it. We have reds and golds and blues. We have cartoon characters with elegant figures. But, this is just how I like it.....it is so "us."
Here is a sample of our hodge-podge, but perfect, tree....
One of our family traditions is that every one gets a new ornament in their stocking each year. It all started with this....the ornament that I received from Kirk on our very first Christmas together.
You may recognize this ornament, if you ever received a package that was gift-wrapped at JC Penneys in the '90s. Kirk worked there all through high school and college, and was one of the star gift-wrappers (he still wraps the prettiest packages!). When we were first married, we needed ornaments for our tree, and he brought home all the ornaments that they would decorate their packages with.....I still have them all, and I smile every time I see them. They remind me of that very special time in our newlywed lives.
We have lots of snowmen and Santas....each labeled with names and dates.
Here are some of Kirk's ornaments....every tree should pay homage to the Cards and Simpsons!
We have a whole collection of Chrismons....handmade in Thailand. (I have other ornaments made overseas, too....love that!)
We also have lots of ornaments that came from many a-game of Dirty Santa and ornament exhanges. This one is my favorite.....I fought hard for this one in a rowdy Sunday School party Dirty Santa game a few years ago! I think there are probably still some Adult 6-ers still holding a grudge over it!
We even have Elmo tucked in our tree.
I'm typing this while sitting in the dark just staring at the twinkly lights of my tree. Love it so so much! Even if it is all hodge-podgy and mis-matched. It is so perfect. Couldn't imagine anything better!!
Some of my bloggy friends have posted pictures of their pretty trees....just because Christmas trees make me happy, I wanted to share them with you....check them out here, here, here, and here.
*Another bloggy tree....this one is really fun!*
10 comments:
I love your tree! Reminds me of all the trees we ever put up at Mom and Dad's when we were kids. She always put everything on it, right down the to little pipe cleaner ornaments and such that we all made in school. She used all that stuff even after we were all out of the house, until some of them started to fall apart. What memories!
Luvya!
Aunt Jo
p.s. I am now using Mom's little white fiber-optic tree...you remember the one? (Takes up less space in my small living room.)
Our tree has no theme either. I agree...those are the best. They're made up of good memories of our families!
OH! I just noticed your new title! I love it!
I love your tree! It looks great. My favorites are hodge podge trees and I love ornaments w/meaning.
I have ornaments from a mother/daughter banquet my senior year of high school and one from each of our last 3 vacations. We also have a year dated ornament w/family member names from each year we've been married. Our tree only has lights and ornamnets...thinking about stringing popcorn w/E for it. Definitely, a Charlie Brown tree but we love it!
Some of my favorite holiday memories are sitting w/nothing but the tree lights on...just makes the season seem magical and simple.
I love your tree. Thanks for sharing some of your special ornaments. My tree is a hodge-podge too. Is it weird that I have a spreadsheet that lists each ornament, the family member it belongs to, the year we got it and who gave it?
I thought I was anal but I think Lisa just took it to a whole new level...spreadsheets with ornaments...who would have thought...Love ya Lisa!
Your tree looks beautiful. Mine are definitely hodge podge too....We wouldn't have 3 if it wasn't for E and if you look at mine they are really all hodge podge too....It just happens that I have a ton of snowmen ornmanents. :) Wait til you see the ornaments that V is doing at Ribbons and Bows!
The tree looks great. I'm glad the "ribbon" worked out...it looks good!
For the record... one of my "many" trees is "hodg-podgy" too!!!:) they are the best kind!
I don't think you should be broadcasting my supernatural ability to wrap presents (not sure you said "supernatural" exactly). We wouldn't want that kind of info falling into the wrong hands ... Wes. Oh and by the way, Lisa, that spreadsheet thing is freaky.
Thanks for sharing. Love the family ornaments (looking forward to that one day). I like the new blog layout.
I think your tree is just perfect! My favorite part of a Christmas tree is the memories from each object. It's so fun to just sit and look at it! Beautiful tree!
Can Kirk come and do our wrapping?!
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