Every year I'd use the same treasured handmade ornaments and those picked up in tiny Christmas shops on vacations. I'd change the color of inexpensive shiny colored glass balls one year and ribbon garlands or lights another. I liked an all-over color effect I'd admired on commercial trees.
We don’t have a tree and haven’t had one for many years. The last year I had one it took a day to put it up and another day to take it down, and because of my life as a railroad wife at the time I was the only one to see it and it was just too much work.
My Christmas trees were always a living scrapbook for me. As I hung the oldest ornaments, the salt dough hearts, I would always remember making them & going to Fabric Row in Philadelphia to buy the finest wholesale ribbons I could afford to hang them, and pinning more ribbons around styrofoam balls for more varied ornaments. They were heavy with those pearl-headed pins.
Now the ornaments I get to enjoy are mostly those on my terabyte micro SD F: drive. They’re not like the ones I had, to touch and feel and see sparkling in varied light, but I can look at and think about lots of them from all over the world and imagine them on my virtual reality Christmas tree or wreath in this, my downsizing stage of life.
How nice to have those memories. I really love those ornaments. Agree there's a lot of work involved and you always need some help for those bigger trees. I've downsized to a small artificial tree that I place on a small table but one year when I wasn't expecting anybody I spray painted a branch I found in the forest surrounding our small block and graced it with some silver ornaments including birds. I will probably do this again one day if I'm ever on my own for Christmas but meantime the artificial tree is manageable and lights up the entrance to our home.
I love your thoughtful journaling. We still mostly put up a live tree because I'm really attached to my ornament collection--like yours, it's full of memories accumulated over the years. We also put up a tabletop metal ornament tree for our special travel ornaments. In 2019 we skipped the live tree and just put up our metal ornament tree and that was good too. I keep thinking I want to document my ornament collection...and then never do. Maybe this year....
Beautifully expressive! I love the smell of a live tree, but opt for an artificial one. I have a tendency to put it up early and it lingers. I love the lights! Ornaments are easy to add one or two a year. I like to pick them up on my travels, too.
Beautiful journaling, love your collection of ornaments. Since the grandkids have stopped staying over for Christmas we only put up a very small artificial tree. I decorate it with pine cones and gold "bird" ornaments. Sometimes it stays up until April.
We, too have given up on the big tree as we now go to the children's homes for Christmas and Christmas Eve. I have a small tree here in Florida and when we get home to Ohio I have one that is already decorated and only needs to be carried up from the lower level. I do miss all the ornaments we have collected over the years that denote events or travels. Some the girls have taken and some remained stored away. Time marches on, I guess.
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