For some families, decorating the Christmas tree is a trip down family history lane. While I do not yet have a tree for my home, and I am not sure whether my parents have theirs yet, I do have many memories of decorating Christmas trees with them. Some of the memories even involve the event of choosing a tree and bringing it home.
When I was growing up, we did not have a specific plan regarding where we got our Christmas tree. Sometimes, my dad would come home with one on top of the car. Other times, we would go and get it as a family at one of the many Christmas tree stands that appear near their home every year. Still other times we would visit a tree farm and hike through the snow in search of a nice tree. Those were my favorite times, because I enjoyed being outdoors in the snow.
Now that I have my own home, we have yet to purchase a Christmas tree. For Dylan’s first Christmas, we had a tree that my husband found in the woods near our home. The next two Christmases, I made “trees” out of evergreen branches in a vase on the dining room table in order to keep them out of Dylan’s reach. Even though Blake is crawling all over the house, I do think that we will get a tree from the woods this year because we have stairs with a baby gate, and we can put the tree on the landing of the stairs, behind the gate.
I remember many of the ornaments that my parents have. They have so many that not all of them go on the tree every year, but I still remember them. There are vintage glass ones from my mother’s mother, handmade ornaments from my sister and I during our school years, snowflakes that my mom crocheted herself, and many more. The ornament collection at my house is still small, as our family is young. There are special ornaments from my parents for their grandsons, and today I made some salt dough ornaments with Dylan. We will keep some and give them to others in the family, to add a new piece of family history to their trees.
What traditions does your family have regarding the Christmas tree? Do you get yours from a specific place every year, or are there ornaments that have a special meaning?