Our Ornament Tradition

Having taken a little overnight getaway last week, I’ve been behind this year in getting my Christmas decorations packed up this year. But I’m almost done–woohoo! As always, I take a little walk down memory lane as I wrap and tuck away each item. This year I’d like to share our ornament tradition.

Each year of our children’s growing up years, starting with their birthyear, they get a new Christmas ornament for the tree– something that represents their age, a special interest, or a trip we may have taken that year. After 22 years with our oldest, 18 years with our middle, and 11 years with our youngest, we have a very FULL tree! Plus, my husband and I will get a new ornament some years–not every year–maybe just if we go on a vacation or have a special milestone.

We don’t do multiple decorated trees, although I think that’s so neat that people do those! So, all the kids’ ornaments go on the Christmas tree, therefore I don’t really have a theme to my tree but will add a few extra pieces to give it a certain “flavor”. For instance, the last few years, I’ve wanted a touch of woodsy nature feel in our Christmas decor, so I’ve added pinecones, dried oranges, and wooden cutout hearts to the tree. This year I also found wooden beaded garlands at Walmart and loved the look! Adding these extra touches just kind of pulls everything together to give it some unity since the kid ornaments are quite the hodge-podge–a fun one, but a hodge-podge, no less.

See what I mean? You can still have that Storm Trooper on your tree, lol!

For our records, each year I’ve written on the back of the new ornament with a fine-tip Sharpie: the child’s name, age, and year.

Below is the lineup of my oldest daughter’s ornaments. I’ve told the kids that when they grow up and move out, the ornaments are theirs to do with what they wish. They can take them or leave them with us, but I make it clear that I don’t have expectations of what they should do with them. At Thanksgiving our oldest daughter said she’d like to take some to her new home and tree but leave some behind for our tree. I thought that was a very sweet idea!

Her Snoopy ornament was from 2001 when she absolutely adored Snoopy and jabbered about him everywhere she went to everyone she met! Same with Madeleine Doll in 2002, Bambi in 2007, etc….

My younger daughter’s collection is quite long now since she’s older but still at home. She’s always been my dreamy girl so hers are a mixture of Disney princesses, horses, and puppies. Sweet girl memories.

Since we adopted our son later, we missed his first couple of Christmases, and I didn’t want him to feel left out for not having those first ornaments. What to do? I bought him ornaments that I thought were appropriate for each of those first years (baby, toddler…) and he’s never even questioned it! I just say, “Aww, this is your 1-year-old ornament!” It works.

Two of his went missing this year. The cats wouldn’t leave them alone. We’re still looking.

Each child has a box with their ornaments for storing in the attic. When we pull them out the next year, they can grab their own box and put their ornaments on the tree!