Memory Monday: Our Christmas Tree

3 generations around the Christmas tree in 1982

OUR CHRISTMAS TREE

It is that time of the year!!! I love the last two months of the year. And this year is even better. First of all, by Thanksgiving weekend, I already had all my Christmas shopping done. Then the day after Thanksgiving, my husband and I got out the tree and the decorations. I spent the afternoon putting on the ornaments. Now, this is my favorite part of my favorite time of the year. I have never been one to want a themed tree—like snowflakes or teddy bears—or one that was color-coordinated—like silver and blue or gold and red. No, my trees have always been memory ones.

I didn’t really plan it that way. It’s just the way it happened and I liked it, so I continued doing it. Both sets of our parents always had lights and tinsel garlands on their tree. I can’t remember if they gave us any of those, but I do know that we couldn’t afford to buy ornaments—I was a college student and my husband had only a part-time job. We didn’t have the internet at that time, so I tried to figure out what we could do to decorate a tree. Months before Christmas, I figured out that we could save the shells from the eggs we used for breakfast and use them for ornaments. I would poke holes in the end of each egg and blow the egg yolks and whites out into a bowl. I almost blew my eardrums out doing this because I didn’t know until much later that I should have inserted a skewer and broken up the yolk before I tried to blow it out that little hole at the end. Still, I saved about four dozen intact shells. My husband and I dyed the shells with Easter egg dye the night of the only night launch by NASA. We used those egg ornaments for several years, then slowly started to replace them. Still, they were special, and for the last 44 years, we have had at least one eggshell ornament on our Christmas tree each year.

Later as my husband’s grandmother and parents passed down some of their ornaments, our trees became memory Christmas tree with each of those ornaments hanging on our tree. Then, our children made ornaments in school that we just had to add to our tree. A great-aunt and her daughter sent our children some very special ornaments that still hang on our tree. I made some ceramic ornaments, among several other homemade ones, when I was in my “crafty stage.” When our daughter married and moved out, she took a few of her ornaments and a couple of our egg ones, as well.

When our son was in grade school, he saw one of those Hallmark ads about getting a special ornament each year. He asked if we could do that, too. For those, we tried to select things that were important to him each year—like Boy Scouts, computers, and cats. A couple of years ago, he moved into a new apartment and I passed on his special ornaments, but I also gave him a couple of our egg ornaments.

This year, we are starting a new group of memory ornaments on our tree. As I have said before, our daughter and her husband are adopting a two-year-old girl. I have already started her ornament collection, dating the back of each one. This year’s ornament is a see-through snowman because she loves “nowmen.” And Grandmommy has to get her little darling what she wants.