Tales From My Tree

It all started innocently enough with my admiring Amanda and Matt's first Christmas tree.  It’s so lovely in its simplicity and lovely colour scheme.   In passing I looked at my tree, and in comparison it looked rather…..loud and full and a bit garish.   And then I looked closer and saw 20 years’ worth of love on that tree; sweet memories, good times, and good friends. 

There is a white porcelain angel with a filigree gown that lights up from the bulb inside; received from one of my daycare kids,who still calls me Mrs. Tetcy, even though he’s almost 13!

There is a little pudgy hand painted angel made with dough and sparkles that I received from my neighbour Monika, who has moved away and we’ve lost contact because of multiple moves and addresses.  

There is a sparkly and mirrored blue star that I fell in love with when it was on the front of a Canadian Tire Christmas flyer…and I bought one for myself, my sister and my friend in Holland.  

There is an entire collection of stars!  Stars are my absolute favourite!!  There is a collection of sparkly white and blue stars that were purchased on an annual trek to IKEA.  A couple of brass ones scooped at the annual school bazaar when I helped organize the seasonal gift room with some friends.   There are even some stars from Dollarama, surprisingly stunning.

There’s the funky little snowman from the East Coast made from 3 sea urchin shells and glued together, painted and sprayed with sparkles, a souvenir from a friend who visited my neck of the woods.

There is a collection of homely green and red ornaments purchased on our first Boxing Day sale as newlyweds…because our tree was sparse at best.  Our tree was kind of ugly.  I affectionately described its branches as having the consistency of a toilet brush, you know the one!  But it was ours…. 

And then about ten years I received some ornaments that decorated our family tree when I grew up: the frosted golden pinecone, a rainbow coloured cone, a small green globe with embossed curlicues and a red and yellow globe with a little chick on it.  There are lovely “one of a kinds” that my mom had purchased at craft fairs over the years and a few of those are on our tree now; A bittersweet addition because my mom had passed away.  Maybe someday my boys will go through my things and pick their favourites.

There is a little ceramic polar bear with a green felt scarf that I bought when I was in university because my sister was selling them to raise money for her class trip to Quebec City.

Then there’s the collection of merry-go-round and hobby horses that I collect.   The collection stands at 4, they’re not as common as you might think.  Not like the stars!

There’s a white globe with red paw prints on it from Bronner’s that we received for dog sitting over the holidays one year.  

There is an acrylic reindeer and a hobby horse set that was purchased from kids down the street who were fundraising for their school.  That was in the old house, and they have since moved away, and I have forgotten their names, but every year we think and talk about them when we open the little red and white box to hang these things on the tree. 

There is a set that used to have 12 shiny golden globes, and only 9 survive.  They are identical.  You can tell when they’re missing from the tree.   There is also a set of blue globes in a matte finish that we bought at the GEMS Spring Fling for a dollar, still a complete set of 6.  I love ANYTHING blue.  

There is also a set of clear acrylic drops found at IKEA on another annual late November pilgrimage.  I love how they reflect the light.  I think of the good friends and road trips.  It’s the trip on which I stock up on wrapping paper.   We head out first thing in the morning, take a break for lunch (I always have the salmon)  and then we resume.

There are some homemade cookie cutter ornaments made by one of the boys.  One of them is a “club”…in honour of having just acquired the life skill of “penny poker”.    There’s a matching little cookie cutter person painted with black and gold….not sure the significance of the colour choice.  These two never stay in the box.   

There are two Coffee Break and Story Hour craft ornaments.   One is a juice lid with a picture of Joe (on the floor of the camera store where we had to take a pic to see if the flash would fire).  It has festive lace on it.   He made it in story hour…finished by the teacher with hot glue!  Priceless.

There’s a blue flocked pendant that I bought at Linens and Things just because I thought it was beautiful.  It was a little treat to me, and it reminds me that it’s okay to treat myself occasionally and appreciate lovely things.   I suppose I could justify just about anything with that kind of reasoning!

There’s a little lime green star with French knots made from silver thread, a product of some cottage industry from Haiti.  

There are two baby’s first Christmas ornaments.  Thoughtfully purchased on Boxing Day when they were on sale.  The neat thing is that those are only meaningful to us; they have a random quality to anyone else who sees our tree.

There is the homemade cinnamon scented gingerbread boy that was made at school during a pioneer life workshop that has long since lost its scent.

There are collections of snowmen, angels and Santas.

There is a beautiful colourful glass pendant from Taiwan, purchased by my sister in law in her native land at a local market there.  

The newest little ornament is a metal tag with a cut out snowflake.  It has been on the tree for two days.  We received it at the Teen Challenge Farm this week.   They held their first annual Festival of Lights and we were able to tour the grounds, speak to some students and life coaches, and hear the choir sing some traditional and not so traditional Christmas selections. (They rapped the First Noel).  We met the student we sponsor and spoke to him for a while, gave him a little something…and headed on our way home to exchange gifts with our own little family.   

In passing…I see my cluttered tree. We still have coloured lights.   We still have tacky green tinsel garland.  But for all who are putting up their trees for the first time, I can’t wait until you have 20 years of stories and love on your tree.  Our tree contains little glimpses of where life has taken us over the past twenty years.  Little bits of time and memories that come out at Christmas time.   Each of us has their favourite ornament and memory.   Ray’s favourite ornament is his Boston Bruins globe.   He’s just about ready to give up on them…but not quite.  He always hangs it on the highest branch.    Everyone knows at least some of the stories and we retell them every year: our very own oral tradition.   If we only hung up some of the ornaments something would be missing.   I’ve tried the Martha Stewart tree.  But it’s just not us.    Sorry Martha.