A Christmas Tree Hung with Memories
After several decades of collecting Christmas tree ornaments, I could easily decorate four or five trees, though we never put up more than one. Fetching the boxes from the basement and choosing which ornaments will go on the tree in any given year is a meditative process, a trip into the past rather like reading old journal entries.
We still have the box of old mercury glass balls we bought shortly after we moved into the house we still live in. They were old even then, worn clear in spots, but we were delighted to find them cheap at a garage sale. The down payment on our house had sorely taxed our finances and our monthly mortgage ate up a large part of our take-home pay.
Other ornaments are reminders of our travels—a shiny pretzel ornament from Milwaukee, a tiny Mardi Gras mask from New Orleans, a Russian doll from a trip to Russia back when that was a place people wanted to visit. Still others are gifts from family members acknowledging hobbies—miniature guitars for me and an elaborate wire bicycle sculpture, all of three inches long, for my husband, as well as shiny ornaments in the shape of cameras.
We still have two hand-sewn ornaments, mice wearing dresses, made by my youngest sister when she was in high school. One Christmas we happened to be cat-sitting and, of all the ornaments to bat off the tree to play with, the cat chose one of those mice.
I’m unable to resist rummage sales, estate sales, garage sales, and thrift shops—all of which are fertile hunting grounds for vintage ornaments. Sometimes I feel that I’m rescuing lovely hand work, like the festive constructions made of felt and decorated with sequins and beads I once found.
Other times I just can’t resist an ornament that’s old or charming, even if it’s scarcely one of a kind. I might already have several gilt birds that clip onto branches as if they’ve just alighted, but I love them.
One of my favorite thrift shop finds was two boxes of very old glass ornaments shaped like fruits: strawberries, plums, pears, apples—sixteen ornaments in all. I found them at a thrift shop near where my parents lived while they were still alive. I carried them back to my parents’ house, so happy and amazed that the whole two sets were intact after all this time, though so old and so fragile.
And as I was showing my wonderful find to my mother, I picked up one of the strawberries and it hopped right out of my hand onto the kitchen floor, which was made of ceramic tile. Needless to say, it did not survive, and I still look at that one empty compartment in the box with sadness.
If the ornaments in my collection carry my own memories, I sometimes reflect that the vintage ornaments I find at an estate sale or thrift shop carried memories for their original owners. If that Santa head, angel, or Rudolph could talk, what stories would it tell about long-gone Christmases in other houses?
CHRISTMAS SCARF MURDER, Kensington’s 2022 Christmas-themed novella collection, is now out: https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Scar.... It includes my Knit & Nibble novella, DEATH BY CHRISTMAS SCARF.
And I put up a Christmas-themed Yarn Mania post the other day. It’s at https://peggyehrhart.com/a-very-merry...
Happy Holidays to all!
We still have the box of old mercury glass balls we bought shortly after we moved into the house we still live in. They were old even then, worn clear in spots, but we were delighted to find them cheap at a garage sale. The down payment on our house had sorely taxed our finances and our monthly mortgage ate up a large part of our take-home pay.
Other ornaments are reminders of our travels—a shiny pretzel ornament from Milwaukee, a tiny Mardi Gras mask from New Orleans, a Russian doll from a trip to Russia back when that was a place people wanted to visit. Still others are gifts from family members acknowledging hobbies—miniature guitars for me and an elaborate wire bicycle sculpture, all of three inches long, for my husband, as well as shiny ornaments in the shape of cameras.
We still have two hand-sewn ornaments, mice wearing dresses, made by my youngest sister when she was in high school. One Christmas we happened to be cat-sitting and, of all the ornaments to bat off the tree to play with, the cat chose one of those mice.
I’m unable to resist rummage sales, estate sales, garage sales, and thrift shops—all of which are fertile hunting grounds for vintage ornaments. Sometimes I feel that I’m rescuing lovely hand work, like the festive constructions made of felt and decorated with sequins and beads I once found.
Other times I just can’t resist an ornament that’s old or charming, even if it’s scarcely one of a kind. I might already have several gilt birds that clip onto branches as if they’ve just alighted, but I love them.
One of my favorite thrift shop finds was two boxes of very old glass ornaments shaped like fruits: strawberries, plums, pears, apples—sixteen ornaments in all. I found them at a thrift shop near where my parents lived while they were still alive. I carried them back to my parents’ house, so happy and amazed that the whole two sets were intact after all this time, though so old and so fragile.
And as I was showing my wonderful find to my mother, I picked up one of the strawberries and it hopped right out of my hand onto the kitchen floor, which was made of ceramic tile. Needless to say, it did not survive, and I still look at that one empty compartment in the box with sadness.
If the ornaments in my collection carry my own memories, I sometimes reflect that the vintage ornaments I find at an estate sale or thrift shop carried memories for their original owners. If that Santa head, angel, or Rudolph could talk, what stories would it tell about long-gone Christmases in other houses?
CHRISTMAS SCARF MURDER, Kensington’s 2022 Christmas-themed novella collection, is now out: https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Scar.... It includes my Knit & Nibble novella, DEATH BY CHRISTMAS SCARF.
And I put up a Christmas-themed Yarn Mania post the other day. It’s at https://peggyehrhart.com/a-very-merry...
Happy Holidays to all!
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