Thursday, December 22, 2011

Christmas Decorations

It is fun to let the girls decorate the tree. They are so nostalgic and get so excited calling out "Do you remember when..."


My Mom crocheted these angels by the hundreds for craft fairs when I was a child. I have two of the small ones on my tree.


This ornament is a golden khokhloma ornament. I wish I had bought more. I can't find this kind anymore.


This was the ornament I bought for our first Christmas. It is K's favorite ornament on the tree right now.


A friend gave this to me the second year after we got married for Christmas.


Every year since C was a newborn, I've made photo ornaments for our tree and the grandparents' trees. The ornament for our tree is a family picture or a picture of the girls together. The ornament for the grandparents is individual shots of each of the girls. Someday, the girls will have loads and loads of photo ornaments to remember past Christmas's by.

I love listening to the girls examining the photos and talking about them as they hang them up.


I don't buy special 'ornament' frames. I just buy small wallet size frames (occasionally, I get bigger frames if they are light) remove the kick stand and add a ribbon.


K is in the above photo - just not visible yet.



One year, the girls went on a spree of making beaded ornaments with pipe cleaners. I've only kept the best examples.


When I was only slightly older than C, a great-aunt gave me a kit for four plastic canvas ornaments. I still have them. The girls both love them. For several Christmases after the first four I would design my own but they are not nearly as impressive as the ornaments from the kit. The angel and the tree are both from the kit.


The plastic canvas ornament below is one of several I made during the first years of our marriage. Variegated yarn and squares of canvas make something fun and easy to work-up. K wants me to teach her how.




The girls have both made some of these ornaments. They are from those kits where you fill in the areas with plastic beads and then melt them. Somewhere (it didn't show up this year) I have one I made when I was a kid.


C made these with my Mom one year from a JoAnn's kit that we decided to change-up and use buttons on instead.

4 comments:

  1. Homemade ornaments are so precious! Our tree is mostly filled with ones I've made or our daughter made. I like the photo frame idea. Every year since my daughter was born, I made her an ornament & put it in a box. Someday she will receive this as a gift that I hope she will treasure.

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  2. Your photo ornaments are so precious and you are so smart to remove the kick stand. If I do not talk to you again have a Joyful and Merry Christmas.

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  3. I love your ornaments especially your mum's crocheted angels.
    Your photo ornaments are lovely, it is nice to keep up this tradition - so readily accessible to see how your girls have changed from year to year.
    I have never seen one of those painters!!

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  4. So pretty. It's fun to see some sneak peeks of you, Melissa, as well as when the girls were wee things. Merry Christmas to you and your family!

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