I never really thought of myself as a holiday kind of person, in fact, I’m pretty grouchy around holidays. But this year I am welcoming the cheer from our Christmasy bits & bobs . . .
Everything out of boxes, queuing up for a little decorative cheer in our house in the coming week. Our tree ornaments are integrated, his & mine together, in a sentimental sort of chaos. Such a perplexing emotion these objects evoke, these bright colorful new & old baubles shuffled together, our childhoods super-imposed upon each other’s, representing Christmases Past, separately & shared. Two snowy white sheep from the late 80’s given to me when I first learned to spin wool . . . an airplane wth lost propeller and a merry skier on its ski lift of Jeff’s from the 70’s . . . a bicycle from my bike shop days in the mid 90’s . . .
Our dog Emma is familiar with these strange and intriguing Christmas things too, she makes our little family a trinity, she even has a stocking put out for Santa which gets filled with doggy goodies, and she loves unwrapping presents, is quite the ace at it ! Emma recognises all these seasonal sparkling & feathery oddities spread about our the table, and perhaps she anticipates a succesful heist from all the tempting things to steal from on and under the tree . . .
Strands upon strands of shiny golden stars get ready to be flounced about the evergreen branches . . . shiny red painted paper mache’ apples , a dozen of them, will hang on the tree as if ready to pick and bite into. A few antique toys will sit beneath the tree, inviting anybody’s child-like bewilderment to bubble up , bidding good-bye the imposed sense of stodgy ‘grown-up-ness’ ~ at least for a while.
A doll’s doll which was my mothers as a child, and which I decided to put a hook on and hang on a branch, an old painted cast metal toys hang on the tree . . . and many feathery birds ready to perch on the branches. . . many miniature mandolins & guitars too, given in encouragement of my learning to play … and little painted nutcrackers. Most of all I think I love the jewelled tones of the really old glass balls in varying sizes of crimson, ultramarine blue, spruce & moss greens, burnt orange, indigo & violet purple. The colors just tickle a place inside of me which only gets tickled for a couple of weeks a year, when I bring them all out, it almost seems as if I’m bringing my past to life.
I am glad to say hello to the holiday boxes for another Christmas, and glad to very soon bring in a fragrant tree who’s fresh needles perfume the house so sweetly. The magic begins when the forgotten boxes emerge from behind musky suitcases in the furthest recesses of the closet, and these little things find their place among the house, as every year they do. Let the lights sparkle on the holiday ornaments , it is soon to be a brand new winter season ! And you can bet I’m knitting in a frenzy for holiday gifts !
Jenjoyce Design 
Thank you for sharing photos of these wonderful ornaments.
You’re welcome to take a peek into our home anytime. Coffee???
I surely enjoyed reading and gazing at your collected decorations! Isn’t Christmas a magical time of year? I just love it. I love the trees, ornaments, people, friends, pets, especially dogs! And cats. I have NINE stockings hanging for six cats, one dog, and two people.
Martha , your adorable and loving depiction of your array of Christmas stockings just warms my heart to bursting ! Happy Holidays to you and yours !!! 🙂
What an amazing collection of memories, sista! I especially love the propeller, unicycle…vintage wooden toys are the best. Glad you put ’em out, dust ’em off, and maybe you’ll start playing with ’em piece by piece over the next few weeks. Let the magic begins…
Yes, bring on the childish magical moments ! Happiest to You Sarah xx
I have such mixed emotions at this time of year. I hate, with a passion,the commercialism and the amount of time given over to this mega spending spree. However, like you, the tree decorations came out at the weekend, with all the old favourites and the memories they evoke. We had a lovely afternoon on Sunday, decorating the tree and reliving old memories of past Christmases as yet another little tree bauble emerged from the box. Even the boxes are so old!!
Happy Christmas, my friend.
I’m with you one hundred percent ! Its the emotions themselves which can be exhausting… but the baubles are a cherished personal thing with every family, bringing alive those gone even (the hardest part for me). Happy Christmas to you too Lizzi .
Xmas is all about how you approach it. I rarely shop for store bought gifts any more and only give to both my nearest (which narrows the field here) and dearest. It takes away the stress.
This year I have actually found myself listen to xmas music on the metro as I go to work, and I have not done that in years. But how that music transforms the gloomy metro scene into something magical! Yesterday I was listening to “Walz of the Flowers” as I came up from the metro station and the company I work at had turned their interior garden into a lighted magical wonderland.
Kaystir, I’m looking forward to that same moment when suddenly the seasonal xmas music sounds listenable, and transforming. Usually for me it’s not until the Eve of Christmas do I start to enjoy it, and I’ll put on my favorite music, the ModernMandolinQuartet’s “Nutcracker Suite” cd, DavidGrismanQuintet’s Christmas cd, and a few others, but those get first played in this house. It would definitely be sweet to see Madrid’s xmas traditons, among other cultures’. Anyway, happiest of holiday cheer to you !