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Christmas Ornament Show & Tell

Welcome to the first ever MOAH (Musings of a Housewife) Christmas Ornament Show & Tell!

I thought it would be fun to celebrate the season by sharing some of our most treasured Christmas ornaments and holiday decorations. If you celebrate a different holiday, you are certainly welcome to join us!

Let’s get this party started! I’ll go first.

Our tree is a mish-mosh of ornaments from both our childhoods, our kids school projects, and our own gifts and collectables from the past 18 years. It used to send my OCD into overdrive, but now I wouldn’t have it any other way. I attempt to tie it all together with white lights and red wooden “cranberry” garland.

When I got married and moved out, I brought with me quite a few sentimental childhood ornaments. We still use them all to this day. Growing up my mom often bought each of us an ornament for Christmas. This is the one she bought for my very first Christmas.

baby's first Christmas ornament circa 1972

My uncle also gave us ornaments from his frequent travels to Switzerland and Germany. I think my favorite is this little skier girl.

My husband brought with him his own collection of childhood ornaments. For years, his dad made Christmas ornaments for every member of the family, which was such a special tradition to all of us. You can definitely see the progression of his dad’s skills from the first ones to the last ones. For example, this is an early one, from 1980.

And here are are a few from the later years.

homemade noah's ark ornament

I’ve received quite a few ornaments as gifts over the years. I even have one from one of my students when I was a teacher. My aunt gave us this church for our first Christmas together.

We also try to pick up an ornament as a momento of every vacation. I love this one from our trip to Colonial Williamsburg.

And I bought this Lenox ornament when we had a cat. It’s still a reminder of that dear little orange tabby named Peanut that we loved so much.

Most years I have bought each of our children an ornament so they will each have a collection when they leave home. This is the one I bought for my son’s first Christmas.

And this one I bought for my daughter the Christmas she was one. She was into everything that year, so when I saw this at the Hallmark store, I had to have it.

I’m particularly partial to these traditional German Steinbach ornaments because my uncle sent me a few of them when I was growing up. One year I bought one for each of my kids in the Germany Christmas shoppe at Epcot.

My friend Nina made me a few of these crocheted ornaments one year. Aren’t handmade ornaments the best!? Maybe it’s because I’m so not crafty, or maybe it’s because I appreciate the thought and time and effort that goes into anything homemade, but I love the ones that people have made for me best.

crocheted snowflake ornament

And speaking of handmade . . . what would a family tree be without school photo ornaments!? This is one of my favorites.

school photo wreath Christmas tree ornament

As you can see, our tree is very full . . . full of ornaments, and also full of family memories. I’m sure yours is too, and I can’t wait to see them!



Join The Conversation

17 Responses

  1. Cute ornaments. The little person skiing is my favorite.

    This is a great idea for a linky party, because when people just show their entire tree, you don’t often get to see the details of what is making it gorgeous. Thanks for hosting!

    ~FringeGirl

  2. Sadly, I don’t have time to play along. I’d love to show you my tree because it is GORGEOUS–completely covered in Lenox ornaments similar to yours. Every year since my girls were born, my mom has given each of them a Lenox ornament. We now have enough to cover the entire tree, and it’s beautiful. We also string cranberries and popcorn and put a wide, shimmery white ribbon all around the tree. I love it!

    P.S. Are you doing the year in pictures this year?

  3. Great post! I love all our ornaments from so many different times and places and definitely wouldn’t have it any other way. Thanks for sharing your tree!

  4. Thank you. I have had a great time already visiting everyone’s Christmas Trees. This is the most awesome tour ever!!!

  5. A gorgeous tree Jo-Lynne! Family vacation ornaments are some of my favorites. When we put them out every Christmas, we find ourselves telling stories of these times and everyone is smiling. I have the classic “school picture” ornament from when I was in 3rd grade. My kids love looking at it on our tree. I can’t wait to have them start bringing theirs home!

  6. I love a mish-mosh collection of ornaments! Just my style. Reading this reminded me that I bought an ornament on our visit to Mount Vernon earlier this year. Wonder what I did with it!

  7. Very nice. My tree is a memory tree too. I give each of my kids an ornament each year too and you can imagine with my “kids” being 22, 20 and 18 that my tree is getting quite full! I’ll try to join in this weekend.

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