It’s an 8-foot Douglas fir, decorated with colored lights that look like baby pinecones; red, yellow and green paper chains that my daughter and I made three years ago; and scores of ornaments of all shapes, colors and sizes.
The tangerine-size red, green, gold and powder-blue glass balls accented with silver glitter were our first family heirloom, passed down from my mother-in-law and father-in-law to help bring some color and tradition to a sparsely decorated tree in our first apartment 20 years ago.
The set of four white ornaments with scenes of Santa Claus and a snowman were a wedding gift from my husband’s grandparents.
The crystal angel, brass drum and tiny coffee cup were gifts from my mom; she likes to add ornaments on our gift tags every year.
We have about a dozen unbreakable ornaments. Some are wooden and hand painted, others were sewn with yarn on plastic canvas that we bought at holiday bazaars. These are from the era of Boudreaux, a cat we inherited who seemed to think the tree was his personal playground. During those years – while we were in college and spending the holidays at our parents’ homes, anyway – we kept all of the glass and fragile ornaments packed away and kept a simple, pet-friendly tree up during the holidays.
We’ve accumulated several ornaments as souvenirs, such as the snowman bell that we bought during the tree lighting festival in Leavenworth in 1993, and the newest addition, a “You’re never too old to peek” sign that my mom and I picked up at Christmas Forest in Olympia over Thanksgiving weekend.
Some of the decorations mark important moments of life, such as a clay gingerbread house with the words “First Home 1998.” Confession: I received the ornament for free because I hosted a home décor party, and I wrote the words and date with a black marker because we couldn’t afford a fancy first home ornament from Hallmark. But even without a name brand, I still love unwrapping it, hanging it on the tree and thinking about the years when we made garlands from popcorn and cranberries because our Christmas trees never seemed to have enough ornaments.
We have three pink “Baby’s First Christmas” ornaments from the year 2000, when our daughter was born. That’s what happens when you wait nearly a decade for Baby No. 1.
Judging by the number of disappointed-sounding “Oh, you already have a Baby’s First ornament” comments we heard from friends and family members who came during the newborn days, we probably could have filled a separate tree with tiny pink storks, rocking horses and glass baby rattles.
For 2005, there’s a baby boy ornament with a teddy bear hugging the numeral one for the birth of our oldest son.
For 2007, there’s a tiny music box that plays “Brahm’s Lullaby.”
Over the past six years or so, our tree has taken on an entirely new look, with kid-made ornaments hanging from numerous branches.
We have a reindeer head made out of our youngest son’s foot print and two tiny handprints; a clay gingerbread girl with our daughter’s school picture; glittery wooden stars made by both boys in preschool; and numerous candy canes made from beads and pipe cleaners.
With so many homemade ornaments, our tree has an old-fashioned feel. It’s whimsical, colorful and similar to the ones that we both grew up with, too.
I’ll admit, there are times I wonder what it would be like to have one of those perfect-looking Christmas trees that you see in magazines or retail stores, with color coordinated ornaments, lights and garlands.
What would it be like to have a theme tree? Am I cool enough to pull off a tree that only had zebra and cheetah prints? (Probably not. Just switching from white twinkling lights to oversize color lights was a pretty big step for me.)
What would it be like to have breakable ornaments all over the tree? (Right now, glass ornaments stay on the top half of the tree, to save them from small children’s curious hands and black Labrador dogs’ wagging tales.)
What would it be like to have a tree that wasn’t decorated by kids who come up with all sorts of rules, like having the gingerbread people on the same branches because they’re a family?
I’m pretty sure I don’t ever want to find out.
Last year, I picked up a package of bright red and green oversized glittery glass balls that were on the clearance rack. Not only do they add a punch of color to the tree, they’re also a little trendy and fun.
And since the new ornaments don’t pack a ton of sentimental value, I figure I’ll be able to give some of them to our kids, to help brighten up their first grownup Christmas trees.
