Growing up, traditions in my house included putting up a live Christmas tree every year—very few people had an artificial tree “back then”—and of course, setting up our little nativity set. Mom always made fudge and she’d make divinity for my dad, and wait with fingers crossed to see if it would “turn out” like it should.
One thing we always had on our tree were the silver tinsel icicles—and back then, they were made of real aluminum—not this cheap plastic stuff you buy now! So, we saved those icicles from year to year and carefully placed them back on the cardboard holder as we “de-decorated” the tree. I thought we must be the only people who did that, but it turns out, that is a not-so-fond memory that many people my age have.
Our tree was usually not the best—when I wanted a nice, full Scotch pine tree, Mom would shake her head and frown. “Cheryl, those things cost SEVEN DOLLARS!” she’d say. We always got a “regular tree” that cost between $4-$5. I remember one year we paid $5.50, and that was the most I ever can remember paying for a Christmas tree. That was a LOOOONNG time ago!
My “smaller” tree–I downsized. I have a ladder with an elf and Santa climbing up on the side that has been a tradition since my kids were tots.
But our tree, though not “top of the line”, was decorated with love—and our traditional ornaments that had meaning. I inherited many of those ornaments, and I still use them, some that I made in kindergarten. Through the years, we’ve added ornaments made by our children, Jessica and Casey, and ornaments that we bought for them for their own collections.
Jessica, age 3, ornament made in Mother’s Day Out, and Casey age 1.
I’ve never had a “theme” tree. My theme is the same every year. Just memories that are so precious, through the preservation of the ornaments I remember as a child, and those that have been added since, each one with a special story of its own. Handmade items from school years, “our first Christmas” from the year hubby and I were married, a set of little cheap plastic bells and lanterns that my dad bought when I was little and loved the tree a bit too much. Those are special because he wanted me to be able to enjoy Christmas, too, and those were indestructible!
Plastic pink bell and plastic silver lantern–Dad bought these for me when I was learning to walk and loving the tree! Talk about antiques!
Yes, I still use icicle tinsel. My kids roll their eyes, but to me, it wouldn’t be Christmas without it!
This is a small tree I bought a few years back when I was really sick with the flu before Christmas–it was all I could manage that year–the only year I didn’t have a regular tree with tinsel–and now I use it as a decoration on my old 78 record player top along with the ceramic train my mom made many years ago.
Another tradition that always is a must at our house is making fudge. Although we have to be careful about how much of it we eat, that’s the only time of year I make it. That always brings back great memories of home and growing up, for me, and I hope it will for my kids, too. There is no replacement for certain tastes and smells, is there?
Our first Christmas together–that was 42 years ago!
My third just “couldn’t, wouldn’t ever miss doing” tradition at Christmas is setting up our old nativity set. It’s the same one my parents bought before I was ever born. Oh, has it been through some rough times! But it’s so precious to me. I still remember how enthralled I was as a child with that cardboard stable and the figurines. The manger is cardboard too, with bits of straw glued to it. It’s not beautiful by any means. But it is to me, because of the memories.
This angel always goes near the top of my tree. My mom gave each of us girls one of these one Christmas–back in the ’70’s–and I always think of her when I put it on the tree. Another tradition I just couldn’t miss!
Sammy, directing the decorating and enjoying the Christmas ambience!
Do you have a tradition at your house that you just wouldn’t be able to do without at Christmas? Let’s hear about them!
Everyone have a wonderful Christmas and enjoy your holidays!
A native Oklahoman, I've been influenced by the west all my life. I love to write short stories and novels in the historical western and western romance genres, as well as contemporary romantic suspense! Check my Amazon author page to see my work: http://www.amazon.com/author/cherylpierson
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I love putting up the tree each year. And stockings. I like to bake cookies and make fudge. I have a little book, similar to a Little Golden Book, from childhood of A Visit from St. Nicholas that we try to remember to read on Christmas Eve.
denise
I had that very same book!! I wish I still had it. Those pictures were so cute. I bet I can order it from Amazon but…probably with a hefty price tag. LOL I always hang stockings, too. Even for the dogs. LOL! I hope you have a wonderful Christmas! Thanks so much for stopping by!
A lovely post as usual, Cheryl, and precious memories and pictures. One of my favorite traditions growing up was gathering by the tree and the lights low and singing Christmas carols. My mother and Grandmother sang harmony and I lead. I still did it with my boys while my mom was alive but now I just play Christmas music on the stereo while we open gifts. I don’t have any decorations from when I was a child, but I still have a few that have survived since my first Christmas with Doug. And there are the decorations my boys made and once we painted together when they enjoyed crafts. Merry Christmas, Cheryl, and all the best in the new year.
Elizabeth, I’m so glad you stopped by. You made me think of “days gone by” when we sang Christmas carols together too. That was when I was very very little, before my sisters grew up completely and left home. The two of them were much older than I was and sang together for church events and so on. My mom had a beautiful voice and a wonderful range. I miss hearing her sing! I hope you have a wonderful 2022, Elizabeth! We need to catch up! MERRY CHRISTMAS, my friend!
My mom always has a time Love. We put the bows from our packages on it and then after the gifts are unwrapped and the log is decorated, she puts it in the fireplace to burn for good luck.
I never heard of this tradition, Tonya, but it sounds like a good one! My mom always saved every single bow that came off the presents from year to year. She would take tissue paper and put it in the open space of the ribbon that formed the bow so it wouldn’t get smashed. (Well, back then, bows were not as cheap as they are now!) LOL I save the “good ones” but those ones that get smashed or start coming apart, I wouldn’t mind burning up. LOL I hope you have a wonderful Christmas, my friend. Take care!
We used to love icicles but the dog ate them and got very sick. We just love together ness for Christmas
Oh, Debra! How awful! Neither of my dogs have shown any interest in the icicles, thankfully. They really don’t care about the tree other than sometimes idly staring at the blinking lights. I’m glad. My cats I’ve always had in the past have been more of a problem than the dogs, with icicles, climbing, etc.
I agree–togetherness is the best tradition of all, and I am really looking forward to seeing my kids on Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas, Debra!
Merry Christmas! I enjoyed reading about your favorite traditions!
Merry Christmas, Becky! I hope you have a wonderful Christmas! So glad you stopped by!
Oh yes, I remember well the taking off of tinsel very carefully each year! I love seeing tinsel.
Susan, there are MANY of us out there that remember that! I didn’t realize it until I was grown up. Must have been something a LOT of families did. LOL I love tinsel, too. I use it every year. To me, the tree is just not decorated until that’s put on as the finishing touch. Have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!
The last time I put up a tree was 9 yrs ago. I just put up my small ceramic tree that belonged to my Nana. My table is always decorated with holiday center pieces as is my coffee table and I put out all my Christmas music boxes. Thats about it for me in decorating.
Oh, I envy you! Christmas music boxes! HOW WONDERFUL! I love music boxes and so did my mom–I think I got that from her. How fantastic to have a collection of Christmas music boxes. I have one of those ceramic trees too, but I didn’t put it out this year. I just ran out of time to do all the decorating I wanted to do. Those music boxes would be the first thing I’d put out every year, though. Sounds just lovely! Have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS, Kathleen, and thanks so much for stopping by!
Beautiful, Cheryl! Thanks for sharing the wonderful memories and photo’s.
Lynn, I’m so glad you stopped by! I hope you have a wonderful Christmas! Glad you enjoyed the post!
When I was growing up we never bought a tree. We went out to the woods and cut an old cedar tree and that was out Christmas tree and yes we used icicles on it. One traditions that I have is I make my mother’s pecan pies every year at Christmas time.
Quilt Lady, I love pecan pies so much –my hubby and I, alas, are the only ones in our family that like them, so I don’t make them, but if we ever eat out and they have pecan pie I always get a piece with ICE CREAM. LOL I remember my mom making pecan pies and how she and my dad just loved them. They were a special treat, and I suspect brought fond memories of growing up for both of them. I would have loved to live somewhere where we could have gone out and cut a tree. That would have been a great adventure! I hope you have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!
I remember those silver tinsel. And mom would wrap it around the cardboard for next year when done. Years later I realized that none of our cats or dogs went after the tinsel. And I wondered why. They were so pretty and shiny and moved when the tree shook at all. LOL Mom just smiled at me. When I was married, I put some on our first tree. When we got our first dog, she loved to sit and look at the tree. When we got our first kitten, well, LOL, lets just say, havent had tinsel back on the tree in 37 years now. Merry Christmas and hope that you and yours have a blessed season
That made me laugh, Lori! That was the same with our cats that we had, too. Although the last two were brothers and after they got out of the kitten stage they didn’t care about the tree other than to just go lay under it like a present (which my kids thought was hilarious and took endless pictures of!) LOL My dogs really do not care about the tree. They walk by and look at it sometimes, other times they ignore it completely. I imagine if I still had cats I would probably have abandoned the tinsel by now, too. LOL Have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Merry Christmas blessings, Cheryl! Thank you for sharing your lovely traditions.
Caryl, thanks so much for stopping by today! I’m glad you enjoyed my traditions–I have others but too many to write about. I used to think of them as something we just “did” for Christmas, but now I realize there is a special meaning behind most everything I do to prepare for Christmas and decorate–usually having to do with memories and things we did when I was growing up. Have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS, you and yours!
We still use tinsel (we call it rain) on our tree too! And of course have those special ornaments that go on the tree year after year. Great post, Cheryl!
KIT! I never heard it called rain, but that makes perfect sense! I love it! Oh, yes, so many special ornaments in most families, I’m sure, and since I downsized my tree I don’t even get all of them out because there wouldn’t be room to hang them. LOL Every year I say “this is the year” for sorting through them and giving some of them to the kids, but…sigh. It hasn’t happened yet. LOL MERRY CHRISTMAS, my friend! Hope you have a wonderful holiday!
When my 5 siblings and I were growing up , we also used tinsel , our dad had to have it hung just right, it would be hung even on both ends, it looked beautiful, but I never did hand and don’t hang tinsel on our tree, mostly because we have had mostly artificial tree s. We have ornaments that our 2 grown children with little families of their own made when they were in elementary school, and we also have some that our grandchildren have made. My mom always left the Christmas tree lights on since Christmas Eve morning all night long until the next day on Christmas Night when we turned them off, so I have always done that since I have had my own tree. When it’s that time of year for the ornaments to come out, there are Always such precious memories put on the tree. I have alot of photo ornaments. I had a photo ornament of my dad and of my mom made for each of my siblings and I so we put those up first. May you and your family have a Very Merry and Blessed Christmas. I enjoyed reading your post , Thank you so much.
We have an artificial tree too, Alicia, but I still hang it. I bet that did look lovely with it hung at both ends. My mom was always the critic for the tinsel hanging. LOL But we made the most of our poor little trees, I think. I have a confession to make–I would leave my tree lights on all year round, day and night, if I was single. Unfortunately, my hubby does not love Christmas as much as I do and he would not be happy. I do usually leave the tree up through January though. I just love looking at it, and it makes me happy, even after all the presents are gone. What a great idea about the photo ornaments of your dad and mom. That is a wonderful gift for your siblings to treasure forever! I’m going to look into that, too! I’m so glad you stopped by and glad you enjoyed the post. I hope you and yours have a wonderful Christmas!
Sadly, I don’t have any decorations from childhood or family. We lived in the country and one of the neighbors let us go in his woods and cut whatever tree we wanted. One year, my mother decided she wanted a Scotch Pine. We cut a nice full tree and set it up in the living room. There were lots of extra branches and we decorated around the trim in the kitchen. By the next day, she had broken out with a miserable allergic reaction. We had to undecorate the tree and take it out plus take don all the trim. We admired the Scotch Pine from afar since then. We hung tinsel the same way you did and wound it on cardboard for next year. I still do.
For our family tradition, my favorite decoration is our nativity set. We got it the first year we were married. It is a lovely little Hummel set. The figures are children and remind me of Disney’s It’s A Small World. I love it. A tradition of sorts that I started in our family when our children were young involved their stockings. I was usually up late wrapping presents every year. Of course, they would wake up early wanting to see what Santa brought. I would wrap a few small gifts and put them in the stockings with nuts and candy. The rule was when they woke up, they could get their stockings and have the treats in them and open those little gifts. This allowed us to get a little more sleep. It also kept them happy so we could fix and eat breakfast first, then relax with coffee or hot chocolate while opening gifts.
Thank you for sharing your Christmas memories and pictures. I hope you and yours have a joyous Christmas and a wonderful 2022.
Patricia, so good to see you here! I wish I had thought of that tradition you started about the stockings! LOL But I totally understood my kids wanting to get up at the crack of dawn. I remember those days so well, and I was the youngest (by a LOT) in my family, so was always the first one up, and I remember Mom saying, “It’ s not time yet. Lie down here beside me for a few minutes and we’ll get up in a little bit…” LOL I usually would go back to sleep if I did that, but not always. I must say, I never would have lasted through eating breakfast though. I was too excited and impatient. My dad was almost as bad–he would get the super 8 camera out and that light bar would be shining in our eyes and he’d be saying, “Look here! Look here!” LOLLOL Lots of great memories. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, too, and that 2022 will be one of the best years yet for all of us. We are DUE! LOL
We bake as a family. I am disabled so my husband does the little bit of decorating. We have a prelit tree that came with it’s own ornaments. I have a nativity set that my parents bought before I was born. It is set out every year. I would be happy if that is all that we put out. Merry Christmas. Thank you for sharing. God bless you.
Debbie, how fun. I remember growing up we baked together “some” but not a lot. I made Christmas cookies with my kids when they were little, but we didn’t keep up the tradition, sadly. You sound like me with the nativity set! I’m sure yours is probably well-worn, too, but oh, gosh, SOOOO loved. I will never part with this one. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas! I’m so glad you stopped by!
Yuuum fudge ONe of my faves esp at CHristamas.
IT doesn’t seem like Christmas to me unless I send out cards, ut up a tree of some kind or at least some greenery, and a nativity. THat’s CHristmas to me. Advent is a maybe i can do it maybe i can do without LOL
OH, YES! I always always send out cards. I try to get them there before Christmas, but sometimes…well, I get behind. LOL I still mail them, though. It’s the only time we communicate with many “old” friends and relatives in different places, so I try to be faithful about sending cards out no matter how much else there is to do. Glad you mentioned that, Sabrina!