Merry Christmas!

Dear Blogging Friends,

For the past couple of years, I've been collecting antique glass ornaments that are all silver or gold pine cones. Here's a close-up of this year's tree — wouldn't it be interesting to know the stories these old ornaments could tell!?

I wish you a Merry Christmas!

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Souvenirs As Christmas Tree Ornaments

My parents were avid travelers and explorers, and they always bought Christmas ornaments in countries where they were stationed. Their tree held glass ornaments from Czechoslovakia, wooden turnip-domed churches from Germany and strings of bells from the Far East.

As the years progressed, they started to see Christmas ornaments in the every-day life of places they visited. This colorful icon, for example, is identical to one that hung from the rear-view mirror of their Athens cab driver.

I believe this is a Japanese baby's ball — when it rolls, it rattles. It's also about five inches in diameter, so it was always hung from the bottom of the tree.

 

This is also a toy, made in Vietnam.

This is a lovely Japanese ornament, though it wasn't intended as a Christmas tree decoration.

I followed my parents example and through the years have added items to my tree that were just as much about remembering life experiences as they were about finding a decoration. This is a little angel from Mexico, only about three inches tall. It's clay that was fired black, and I painted it gold.

I found this coral while walking on an airstrip on Wake Island, in 1965. It would look interesting on an end table, but it's always lived on my Christmas tree. And at Christmastime, I remember a particular day in 1965 . . .

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An Evolving Taste in Christmas Ornaments

When I was growing up, my family had a fun Christmas tradition. Every year the five of us would go into town a day or so before we got our tree, and we'd each pick out one new Christmas ornament. Then each year as we decorated the tree, ornaments would call to mind the different places we had lived, and the different choices each family member had made.

Here's my choice for the year 1956 (I have of course catalogued all the ornaments). The next year I chose a snowman in similar style, but alas, he has not survived.

Here's my choice in 1959. It's a paper-maché ball made in West Germany. I find it rather alarming these days to see the same exact thing in antique stores!

1962 was a little different. I may have found a store-bought ornament, but I also made this one from a real egg. The gold florals are authentic die-cut scraps that came from a mail order place called the Brandon Company. It was a business that grew out of the discovery of a whole inventory of Victorian scraps in a barn! (I spent a lot of allowance money ordering from the Brandon Company.)

My ornament for 1976 was this replica of an antique grape cluster (or is it a pine cone?). It's more than 25 years old by now, so it might be an antique in its own right.

In 1979, I bought this delightful glass gyroscope at a favorite antique store in Pittsburgh. I'll be sharing more ornaments later in upcoming posts.
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