Thursday, December 3, 2009

Advent Calendar, Christmas Tree Ornaments

GeneaBloggers has a Advent Calendar event this year, 24 days of family history related subjects to challenge the researcher. The prompt/challenge for December 3rd is:

Did your family have heirloom or cherished ornaments? Did you ever string popcorn and cranberries? Did your family or ancestors make Christmas ornaments?

Have you every tried to string popcorn and cranberries?? I do not remember this as something my mother did, and, it is not something that I have done. So, why do I vaguely remember trying this?? The popcorn was brittle and broke, and the cranberries were hard as rocks, and hard to penetrate with a needle?? Maybe in another life I did this popcorn/cranberry thing and I remember trying this then?? Or maybe many moons ago as a young mother I tried this and one time was enough?? Not sure, but, nope, that is not something we do, nor do I care to ever do.

I don’t remember any specific heirloom or cherished ornaments from my childhood. My mother had a nice looking tree, but it is all a foggy memory. I do not personally own any heirloom ornaments, but I do have a number of my own that I do cherish. Many of the ornaments found on the little tree from the post on November 1st, are cherished, they were made by our sons in Cub Scouts, nursery school, grade school. They were so cherished that years ago they were gathered together and decorated what became known as the “Kids Tree”. No grown up decorations were allowed on the tree.

I have, over the years made any number of ornaments, many of which I still own. When I went to see about photos for this post, I realized I have not taken good photos of them, (note to Moi, take actions to fix this oversight). I have made beaded ornaments, little baskets with flowers, and others, but, my two favorite types of ornaments are stitched. About 1988 I cross stitched a bunch of ornaments with simple but charming designs, rocking horses, angels, Santa faces, Snowmen, and more. The ornaments were framed with gold colored round frames, then hung. The second type of ornament are felt, with sequins and embroidery, they came in kits, which were theme based, so I have Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, a Santa/Mrs Santa/Snowman/Mrs Snowman set, a set that includes Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Daffey Duck and Donald Duck - - well you get the idea.

The only photo I could find is of one of the sets of felt and sequins, The Three Little Kittens That Lost Their Mittens. It is out of focus, but, I think you can get the idea. There are also two of the round cross stitched ornaments in this photo, but, they are fairly hard to see.


Our tree in Tana is one of the smallest trees I have. It is less than a foot tall and is decorated with tiny lights, stars, white birds, and cross stitch decorations. It also has a cross stitched tree skirt, which I also made. The decorations on this tree are less than ½ inch in diameter, the fabric was a 22 count, enough to cause early onset blindness. Goodness, WHAT was I thinking??


Sitting beside Tana’s Christmas tree are some yorkie ornaments. You just KNOW I had to have some!


* You can see felt/sequin kits at Bucilla's web site
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1 comment:

Nita said...

Carol, I love your little tree! It is just adorable and the angel topper is sweet!