ornaments

Each day I will be writing about a simple way to celebrate the season.  To focus on family, joy, and memories, without the elaborate extras that can bring added stress. Simple can be more meaningful if it gives us more time to focus on the huge GIFT we are awaiting-Jesus Christ, our Savior.

Today I share with you, a very meaningful tradition…


A really special tradition in our family is one that was started when I was a little girl.  Each year my parents would take my sister and I to a local Christmas store and pick out an ornament.  My mother would label each ornament with the year we bought it and our initials. 

Over the years we each accumulated a beautiful assortment of ornaments and when we each were married, the ornaments went with us to our new homes.

I still have every ornament from every year, and it is truly a gift to pull them out each year and reminisce about them.  My very first ornament is a worn out Donald Duck wearing ice skates.  There is a Pebbles (from the Flintstones) holding a candy cane.  There is a ballerina from when I was middle school age and was enrolled in dancing school.  There is the disco ball shaped like a pear…just to bring some laughs as to what was I thinking when I picked that one out!?  There are quite a few angels, because I used to collect them.

It is a treasure to have all of those ornaments, and to show them to my children each year when we pull out the Christmas boxes.

Grace’s first ornament was a stork carrying a baby girl with a sign below that says,
“Snowflake from heaven.”

Every year we take the children to pick out an ornament, and label it with their initials and the year.  So far we have a collection of Star Wars characters, a sparkly violin, some birds, etc.  Each representing something special to the child that year, or just because that is what they liked at the time!

25 Days of Christmas: Home for the Holidays @ Graceful Abandon 

25 Days of Easy Christmas Crafts for Toddlers & Preschoolers @ Sidetracked Sarah 

25 Days of Christmas Traditions @ Sharing the Journey 

Visit Holy Spirit-Led Homeschooling today to link up as well!