Christmas Decorations

How lovely! That is a special thing and the memories all contained with the ornaments! I have some ornaments that I’ve had for about 36 years now, but I have bought almost every one of them. I love your unpacking of your working life. That is a lot of treasure!

Thank you Karen. It turned out to be a far more meaningful exercise than I was expecting.

I think they are all lovely & what a good idea to buy teacher
tree ornaments. Good that you can still remember who gave which, so many memories bound up in those small gifts. Have a lovely Christmas Bb in your own home. I bet you have some nice sunshine!

what a lovely collection of ornaments. I love treasures like this.

I have decorations from the 1900-10 that were my grandmothers, then glass bells that were on my mum and dads wedding cake 1943.
Moving forward there are some from my childhood 1960's and then ones that my daughters chose 1995- present day.

They have an embroidered card that I have done for every Christmas except 2007 [don't know what happened there]. that started in 1992 when Elizabeth was born. They have added them to small frames that hang either on their trees or on the wall. Just finished the ones for this year, just need framing in cards.

My tree goes up tomorrow which would have been my mum's birthday. The tree was always put up for her birthday and I have continued the tradition. Even though it also commemorates her death. She died on her 79th birthday, within 10 mins of the time she was born.
Both daughters also put theirs up on the 17th.

Karen, I'm sure your collection brings you just as much joy and over 35 years the decorations would have changed considerably.

Feverfew, at the beginning of my teaching career parents and students would very often buy chocolates and mugs or wine, which I considered too expensive. I worked at schools in low socio-economic areas.

I then started mentioning how much I'd love Xmas tree ornaments or decorations, hoping they would take the hint and not spend so much money on a gift at the end of the school year.

Thankfully, the message spread and that's how the collection began.

Seaburngirl, you have some very special treasures amongst your collection. Having your grandmother's decorations and your parent's glass bells is truly lovely. They are priceless treasures.

I love the idea of embroidered cards that then become family keepsakes. The family tradition of putting up the Xmas tree on the 17th is a beautiful way to pay tribute to your mother.

It's nice to put some decorations up, especially ones that bring back fond memories.
I still have some from my childhood days ... most of them are rather tatty and worn now, and stay in the box, but I always put up a crib that was given to me on my very first Christmas, by a great aunt :)
I've also got some that Beryl (late partner) bought and I put them up too :)

I hope you'll enjoy your retirement :)

Merry Christmas 🎄 BB, you've a lovely collection there of decorations and their memories, thank you for sharing them..

Exactly Hywel. I love being surrounded by decorations that are tied to special memories.

How wonderful that you still have some from your childhood. Tatty or not, they are worth keeping.

When I was a child, decorations were very light on. We had a real tree, cut down from a cattle property outside our small town, but the only decorations for the tree were paper chains that we made ourselves.

The only other decoration in our small house was a nativity set and a Merry Christmas banner that went in the front window.

I'm very impressed that you still have your very first nativity set! I love the fact that your partner Beryl is still with you at Christmastime in the form of those treasured decorations. That's very special.

Thank you Janey. I'm overjoyed to be at home this Christmas and surrounded by these decorations.

Happy Christmas B.B. You have some lovely decorations there and must have some wonderful memories too.

Thank you Rose. These decorations do hold lots of wonderful memories.

Very nice collection of ornaments.
I just donated big box of Christmas "stuf" to local charity.
I did not have any connection with it .Just bought too much over the years. I am decreasing my decoration as I age. Still have a few I like around.
Merry Christmas.

That's such a great idea Klahanie. I'm sure those decorations will be greatly appreciated. Christmas can sometimes be very bleak for those in need.

This is a lovely blog, you have some real treasures there Bernie, I bet it took you ages to put them up, I love the telling of your memories flooding back as you were getting them out, each one a precious gift from all those children you taught, things like this are special to me as well, I have many decorations that we've had for years, too many really but I won't get rid of them, I try to add some of the very old ones amongst the modern newer ones so they sort of get changed around each year, there are really special ones that come out each and every year...I hope you have a really special Christmas Bernie , sounds to me as though you are excited and looking forward to being home for a change...xx

Sue, it did take me most of the day but it was such an enjoyable experience I didn't mind at all. I had the air-con on and Christmas music playing in the background!

I will only ever get rid of decorations when they completely disintegrate or break. They spent so much time in storage that they are all in pretty good shape for now.

I am super excited to be at home this year. Of course, I will miss being with my son and grandchildren down south but all of those grandchildren are now a lot older and don't get as excited being with their grandparents all the time!

Merry Christmas to you too BB. You've lovely decorations, enjoy the festive season.

Thanks so much Janey.