Last week RxBambi posted about her favorite Christmas Tree ornaments. I thought it was a great idea, so I’m following suit. For years my tree has always been eclectic – ornaments my mom gave me when I moved into my own place to make my tree look festive. Also for years I always went out and got a live tree – even during the many years I was single, in spite of not having ‘anyone else’ to decorate for, I’d still do it anyway – for me – because I love Christmas.
I used to load the tree down with multicolored lights, then add the eclectic mix of ornaments. When the prices of live trees started escalating, I decided it was time to invest in a faux tree that looked real, and the one I got had all white lights on it, so I switched out my ornaments and ended up with all silver and gold. My original ornaments were unfortunately lost in one of my many moves – I wish I still had them, as Princess Nagger would most likely get a kick out of them.
As Princess Nagger has gotten older, my strictly silver and gold tree started to morph into something much more interesting. We added green for my favorite color, cobalt blue for Hovering Hubby’s favorite color, and purple for Princess Nagger’s favorite color. Then last year in Kindergarten, Princess Nagger made two very cool Christmas tree ornaments to add:
A closer look:
And this cute deer ornament made out of a Popsicle stick:
My mom sent myself and Princess Nagger each a cute angel ornament with our names on them:
Yes, you’re reading that right – my ornament says ‘Shelly’ – which is the name my parents, siblings, relatives and anyone who knew me from birth until 6th grade calls me still. But that’s a whole blog post on its own. Princess Nagger’s of course has her real name, but PhotoShop works wonders.
A couple of years ago, when we were able to visit my family in Seattle for my birthday in December, we joined my brother and sister-in-law’s annual trek downtown to have a picture of their twins taken with Santa, and pick out a new ornament for their tree. We had Princess Nagger join in the fun pictures with Santa, and she picked out this cool mitten ornament for our tree:
A few years ago my hubby gave me this beautiful silver and Swarovski Crystal Heart ornament:
In 2005 hubby made this adorable red Christmas ball ornament for Princess Nagger:
It’s the only red Christmas ball on the tree to keep it ‘special’, and indicating Princess Nagger as the ‘heart’ of our family. Over the last couple of years I’ve also picked up and added a slew of Swedish ornaments to add to the mix, which had made the tree a nice reminder of my Swedish Great-Grandparents and Grandfather.
This year Princess Nagger and I are keeping on with the annual tradition of picking out a new ornament for the tree. We both picked out two ornaments each, my choices are of course deer, since that’s what I’ve been collecting for years:
Princess Nagger’s first choice was a dove, since she has a pet dove:
And she was excited when she saw this dinosaur ornament:
If you have a Christmas Tree, how do you decorate it? Is it a theme tree, a color scheme tree, or an eclectic mix?
That Popsicle stick deer is sooo cute! I'm Jewish so no tree here..but we always have fun menorahs!
Sadly I have a Charlie Brown Christmas tree.
Our family tradition for the last 33 years has been for each one of us to get a new ornament every year. It has to be something that is meaningful to the person. The search can take all year for the right one. This tradition has meant a tree overloaded with pretty crazy stuff year after year. Then, when our kids marry, they get their box full of ornaments for their first tree.
I love the dinasaur ornament.
I have an eclectic tree.. My auntie sends me an ornament every year which is fun.. 30 of them this year omg…
We are going to try a snowman tree this year since I love snowmen and have lots of bulbs. we will fill in with colored balls..
I may post some favorites..great idea for a blog.
xx
The deer is absolutely fantastic. I'll have to tell my wife about that one, she'll make some with the bubba!
Basically, I put whatever I have that still works and is not broken on the tree.
I love how that one ornament has Princess Nagger written on it! LOL
We have no theme. We have a few basics that we use year after year. Not too much in the way of homemade yet. No dinosaurs.
I love your tree ornaments, and the stories that follow. I have my livingroom rearranged now for the tree, so slowly things are getting started.
where to begin: the red ball; such a simple little ornament with such a commanding presence. awesome. i was cracking up when i read that "of course princess nagger's has her real name on it" and then was slightly disappointed that you qualified that by saying that photoshop works wonders. must read post about your "real name". your tree and the stories are gifts in themselves. do you know about that silly little german pickle ornament? i grew up with a jewish/catholic agnostic mother and a moslem father, IN THE BIBLE BELT. i still don't get why didn't have a tree or why i am so agitated, especially during the holiday season…but not this year:)
We have a mix. Our family has ornament exchanging traditions, so we can't even fit them all on our tree anymore. I'm looking for a dino for Oscar this year…I'm not sure what to get Miles.
I love the popsicle reindeer! Adorable!
We have nothing but Disney in our house & Christmas tree… I need to take some pics of my fav ornaments too!
I love going over our ornaments each year and remembering their origins. Reading your post today makes me want to run out and buy a tree right now! We normally do it next week, we get a farmed tree so because of the needle shedding wait until just before Christmas to put it up.
I got the bright idea to use all red lights on our tree. We found a tree topper angel dressed in red, and turned on the tree lights… It looks like we worship Satan! We call her "The Devil's Mistress"…
I really enjoyed this post! Your ornaments are so beautiful! I like the new ones that you've both picked out this year and the ones she made in school are fantastic!
This was fun!
I have an eclectic mix but it's a mess!
how cool is that first angel! i love home made ornaments…and the dinosaur is too cute! ours is ladened with superheroes…some are my boys…most are mine. smiles.
The one that Princess Nagger made is my favorite (angel).
Thanks so much for sharing this with us. The photos and commentary are charming.
Happy Holidays. xo
I love all of the ornaments, especially the ones PN made. Shelly threw me off though, I did a double take and was all "wha???". I haven't been around the blogosphere in awhile, sorry. But I did just notice that it's snowing on your blog. Very cool!
My girls get at least one new ornament each year so we have no theme. Also, we have so many hand made ornaments that a them is impossible.
We have two trees: a "formal" themed tree that is decorated exclusively in white, crystal and silver. I posted pics of it last year, and will again this year, because it's unique in that it hangs upside-down from the ceiling of our formal dining room (which, coincidentally, is the only room with a large window facing the street). Yes, it was made that way.
Our "family" tree resides (or will after tonight or tomorrow – it's a long story) in our family room and has a very eclectic assortment of ornaments, many of which were handmade in the days I couldn't afford to buy ornaments, many of which were handmade by the children either in school or with me because it's fun to do, and many of which we've simply collected over the years (including the Hallmark keepsake ornaments we purchase every year).
So fun! Mine is not eclectic at all. I'm sure that will change when I have children.
Unfortunately, our tree this year is bare. John decided he wanted new ornaments, but we now can't find them since everyone else got them first. So, we have ONE ornament on the tree, a Princess ornament that I placed on it to keep it out of the way while we were decorating. Sprite now thinks it's her tree.
Growing up we had very few store-bought ornaments on our tree, and the ones that were purchased were usually just colored balls. My mom called our tree "German Kitsch". Now with my own family, we do have more purchased ornaments, but usually each has a story. My favorites, though are still the handmade ones, like the toilet paper roll angel with Sweet Son #1's face or the little styrofoam snowbird that my great-aunt made for me when I was 7. It is eyeless, beakless and precious.
I have a mix of stuff- my mom bought each of us an ornament every year- I still have many of those, as well as some of my great-grandmothers ornaments, stuff made by the kids, and things I pick up at second hand shops and such.
I have TONS of favorite ornaments!One of my favs has been missing for a few years- it's a cardboard ornament of Santa putting a screaming kid into his sack.
Missed you for VGNO- have a nice Monday!
Ive had a christmas party for yrs, one of the things we do is alwauys make an ornament for my tree, so I have tons of hand made ones with the yr they were madse and signed by the "artist" I love my tree;)
Beautiful, love the dinosaur!
I am working on pictures, I just don't have enough time in my day when I am trying to blog too!
Thanks so much for the shout-out!
I love those ornaments, but of course my favorite has to be the DEER cuz that's what Otie always calls me 🙂
Like you, we try to have a story behind most of our ornaments…to me, that's part of the fun of decorating the tree is reliving the memories of the different ornaments.
Ours doesn't match, but like everything else in our family, it's a messy kind of beautiful.
I love the red ornament significance.
Your decorations are gorgeous! So many fun ones for your daughter! I can't wait until my son gets older and we can make & pick out some together 🙂
Beautiful! I love that almost every ornament on our tree has a story that goes with it…. even if that story is that it was a gift from my mother that year. Tara and I are pretty "thoughtful" when we buy something for the tree, unless we see something that is just too beautiful to pass up! Sometimes I wish we had a theme or color coordinated tree, but in the end this is so much more special to us!
What is in the "head" of the angels that PN made? They are really cute and look easy to make!
I have a popsicle deer that my daughter made a long time ago (she is 20 now) I love it!!
My has all our ornaments for obvious reasons. They rep so many years of our life together. It's sad to see them, I admit
Ooh, our tree is a mish-mash of all kinds of stuff. Homemade from the kids, homemade from me, regular balls, Lennox, you name it, we've got it. I can't believe PN found a dinosaur ornament!
Girl, I will never understand why you only call her PN on the blog, yet you have her picture on the sidebar with Savannah Haven, and you've posted other stuff (the wine?) with her name on it. Doofus!
Justine 😮 )
Oh my gosh, I love the reindeer popscicle stick! I just went and bought all new tree decorations yesterday! I decided on a maroon and gold theme, I need to post some pics!
Love your tree! It's so sentimental.
Our family usually decorates by motif. So it's like this Christmas, let's decorate the tree with gold or silver. So every year, different color.
We do an informal tree with all the ornaments that we have collected over the course of 26 years. No themed trees for me.
So pretty! I would love to do a themed tree and a fun, traditional mishmash of ornaments, but I don't have the funding for that so it's a fun tree all around.
Loved seeing all of your ornaments. I started out with coordinated colour theme years ago and then gradually it disappeared. Now I like the eclectic mix of shiny, wood, metal, glass ornaments on our tree. Now that our renovations are done, I need to get my ornaments onto the tree.
I love the Popsicle one!!!
Our tree is pretty similar to yours. I did a post on it last year, if you are interested:
http://mrsfligs.blogspot.com/2008/12/photo-story-friday-story-of-our.html
We are completely eclectic. It's fun!