My Christmas tree holds the history of my family, and I am sure that is true of many family Christmas trees. I gained boxes of my early history after my mother died. My two brothers and I went to her house or organize and clear out and found a surprise. Although she did not tell any of us, my mother actually knew that her health was failing and had done a lot of clearing out and organizing herself before she collapsed and died on the golf course, after getting off a good shot down the fairway.
We worked our way through the house and into the garage which included a large storage closet. In the back of that closet we found boxes and boxes of Christmas ornaments dating back to my childhood in the 1940s. We split up the ornaments and now an array appear on our tree every year. I am particularly fond of the two patriotic ornaments above. One is more clearly patriotic but the second is red, white and blue as well. You just can’t see all the colors at once. The gold ball in the background is also from her collection with a worn white design of candy canes and ribbon.
The ceramic hand and heart ornament was made by a local potter, and I think it is a good symbol of loving helpfulness, perfect for display next to my mother’s ornaments.
Our tree has been that for many years too. This season, I changed up the decorations though. My older daughter is at college, and the other two at home are teens. It just seemed the year to try something else. Thank you for sharing the story of your mother. Inspiring that she organized and was later golfing when she passed. Merry Christmas. ~~Dee
Dee – New decorations are always being added. Many ornaments are on a rotation schedule.
that’s a lovely tree, Pat. I wish I could get up the energy to decorate our home this season, but can’t seem to do it. We’re between trips, so it seems kind of senseless. I do enjoy seeing other people’s decorations, however, like yours. Simple but meaningful, that’s the way it should be.
What a sweet post — and a pretty tree.
What a beautiful tree; the ornaments are so beautiful, and different.
Paula – We don’t do a lot of decorating, but I really enjoy having a tree- which is sometimes small – like this year.
Mary – I wish I could share the tree with you.
Diane – We have many different chapters in our life, and the different ornaments reflect that.
What a clever idea Pat . . . to share your ornaments this way. Lovely! You are inspiring me to get mine out after all. My son is not coming home this year and I was planing to skip a year here too. I love the golden ball and the handmade hand with a heart. ;>) Joyeux Noel!
Carol – I thought of you when I put up my ‘bird garland. Keep watching.