When the hubby and I travel, we pick up cute (and often free) little knick knacks wherever we go. Souvenirs like beads when we went to New Orleans, poker chips from Vegas, a clay Tiare flower from Tahiti. No, we’re not filling our house with this stuff (the dusting alone would drive me mad). Instead we use them as tree ornaments.
Sure we could buy ornaments that are all matchy-matchy (and cost a lot like those Hallmark ornaments) but these items hold more meaning, more memories (than even those packaged Hallmark memories). I touch the beads and remember that first taste of gumbo or the music on Bourbon Street. I flip the poker chip between fingers and remember strolling hand and hand down the faux streets in the Paris Hotel. I can almost feel the sun on my face when I spot that Tahitian flower.
We smile whenever we put up the tree (which is NOT every year, I’m a very lazy person unfortunately) and we smile when we take it back down again. Plus we are often asked about our interesting tree and have a story for every ornament.
What if you don’t travel?
A friend of mine saves one special item each year from her kids’ activities and makes that into an ornament. Maybe it is running a festive ribbon through an eyelet of outgrown baby bootie or attaching a hook to the wheel of a forgotten favorite matchbox car. It gives her extra pleasure knowing that when her children set up their own trees (years from now), they’ll be starting out with a piece of home.