This week’s challenge is “What represents this Christmas season to you?”.  The thing that always puts me in the holiday spirit is decorating the tree.  I can remember as a child making garland out of popcorn and paper and hanging candy canes on the tree.  In grad school, the first tree my roommate and I purchased for our apartment was a plastic tree from the corner drug store.  Yes it really was plastic.  🙂  Some years I have had huge trees.  The first year after my husband and I got married, we bought a gigantic real tree for our apartment.  It was so big it wouldn’t fit up the stairwell.  We finally tied a rope to it and hoisted it up over the balcony (we lived on the second floor). 😆

A Past Christmas With Gordie

Over the years I have acquired quite a collection of ornaments including some very old glass ornaments from my Mom.  The ones from my Mom are the most special to me because they are from my Mom and because they are old.  Some are from the late 50’s/early 60’s.  Each year I carefully unwrap them and put them on the tree.

Special Ornaments

I also collect ornaments from the different places that I visit.  This White House ornament is from 1986, (when Ronald Regan was the president).  I guess this is the 25th year this ornament has been on my tree.

White House 1986

After my husband and I were married, my collection expanded to include ornaments from the places we visited together.

Whitefish Point

Some years I don’t put all of the ornaments out.  This year because the tree must be put away before puppy comes, I used mostly the glass ornaments.

Christmas 2011

I also make sure I put up a little tree at the cabin.  No surprise, it has a hunting theme.  🙂

Rustic Tree

Each year as I decorate the tree, so many memories come flooding back.  Decorating the tree with my parents as a child, the various places I have visited which are represented by an ornament (or two), and all of the friends and family who have gifted me with special ornaments over the years.  It is the remembering that represents Christmas to me.

38 thoughts on “Sunday Stills–‘Tis The Season”

  1. Love your blog post. I too have so many ornaments to which special memories are attatched. Your trees are absolutely beautiful! and I love the picture with Goldie.

  2. That’s awesome! My parents cannot have Christmas trees because I will tear them apart…:P This is my first Christmas and all that we can have are lights and some stockings… basically things that remain out of my pug-reach at all times. Merry Christmas! Enjoy nomming at the tree!:)

  3. What a wonderful blog post! I love the different trees throughout the years and all the special ornaments (they’re the best part of the tree to me!). The first picture with Gordie is beautiful 🙂

  4. Your trees are beautiful. You sound very much like me in that I put my grandmother’s ornaments on the tree every year and handle them like…well, like they are – very fine glass! They’re very special to me. I, too, get new ornaments that mean something to me, and somehow they all manage to fit on every tree we get. Maybe we’re just getting wider and wider trees every year! 🙂

    1. I have had to keep some ornaments wrapped as we have sort of down sized our tree. But there are some I always get out, every single year.

  6. What beautiful Christmas trees. A very nice post. There are a lot of memories with our ornaments too…some bring joy and some a bit of sadness but wouldn’t want to not have any of them. Hugs

  8. That is a beautiful tree, I have some of my Grammas ornaments that look very similar to yours and I too just love them and handle them very carefully

  9. What a wonderful post; I loved reading your reasons of what represents this Christmas season, because if included your mother and past memories of her. Beautiful.
    Now you and the hub are making your own memories!
    I love that first photo of Gordie with the tree, how gorgeous.

    1. Thanks that was a pretty tree. Not as big as usual because I had surgery that year and wasn’t supposed to do too much. 🙂

  12. Your trees and ornaments are so beautiful, almost makes me want to put up a tree……almost!! 🙂

  13. Love your trees, beautiful!!

    I have special oranaments I decorate with too, almost all of mine were made by Robin Z for me over the years. Each year she gives me new ones so now I have enough to decorate a big tree, I will miss the tree this year as I decided with 2 pups it would be to much to deal with trying to keep them out of it.

  16. All the ornaments are moments and memories. So cool to be able to revisit them each time you hang them on the tree. Great post. Have an amazing day today. : )

  17. I have the same experience as I decorate my tree – the memories and when I look at the ornaments I smile! I love the tree in the cabin – totally cute! Merry Christmas!

  18. This is a lovely post. I love hearing about people’s ornaments and how they choose them. It is a lot of fun.

    My husband would relate to your feelings about your Mom’s ornaments. He had her ornaments as well on our 11 foot tree one year. At around 3:00 a.m. we heard a huge “whoosh” and the sound of our tinkling, glass chandelier.

    The tree had fallen and broke nearly all his family’s ornaments. That was nearly 15 years ago and he still regrets not tying the tree off to a wall.

    I hope you have many years to enjoy all your ornaments–even if they won’t be around again until after puppy grows up a bit.

    1. Oh no. What a shame! We used to do those super tall trees and we never tied them off. I am glad that we never had the same experience. I did loose a fairly old nativity set that the golden in the first picture ate one year.

      Next year the tree will probably be in another room or unbreakable ornaments.

  19. I have to agree with you. Opening up the Christmas box to decorate the tree is like getting a bunch of presents all at once!

    When the tree gets put away, the ornaments are forgotten about, so opening them each year is about, “Oh I forgot about that” or “I love this ornament.”

    Some years the tree has ‘themes’ of sorts, like just bows and crystal and other years I put as many ornaments as I can fit tastefully on the tree.

    Your tree is very beautiful. Let me know when you are ready to add a CT ornament. 🙂

    1. I put different ornaments or bows on the tree too, depending on my mood. Oh I would would love to come get a CT ornament. That is one place I have not been. 🙂

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