Earlier this month, we put up our little Christmas tree that we've had for over 20 years. Over the years, I've collected various Christmas wrappings, tags, stickers, ornaments and other decorations from city pickup piles, yard sales, friends and the like. The latest acquisition was Christmas goodies from a yard sale we helped with a couple months prior.
We now have enough stuff to choose from to put up a "theme" for the tree for the past couple years. I asked Rod what he wanted this year, and he didn't really know. I pulled out a tree skirt we acquired a couple years ago that had Santa and "Ho Ho Ho" all over. We'd never done a Santa themed tree before, so I thought, "Why not?" We'd always been a little reticent to have Santa prominently displayed as opposed to Jesus or angels or something else, but we're at a different place in our lives now and are more willing to have some fun with things.
I didn't have quite enough Santa-themed ornaments, but then remembered some large "Father Christmas" gift tags I'd gotten in my last yard sale "haul". I attached some tree hangers on them and--voilá!--tree finished! I'm pleased with how it turned out.
My favorite ornaments on the tree are the "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" ceramic paired ones we've had for several years. One has a picture of Virginia O'Hanlon writing a letter and on the back a mock-up of her letter to the Sun newspaper in 1897. The other is a picture of Santa Claus and an excerpt of Francis Church's unsigned editorial response on the back. I'm not one who gets too sentimental about stuff, but those two ornaments are just so sweet!
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| Choosing the ornaments out of the bunch |
What did you do for Christmas decorating this year?
