Thank you for stopping by as I kick off our two-week long CHRISTMAS DECOR CRAWL!
Over the span of 48 years spending Christmas together, my husband and I have had relatively few Christmas trees in our marriage. As newlyweds, we bought live trees, but the cost (and finding needles in the carpet in July) compelled us to invest in a practical artificial tree. Later, once I decided I wanted something less ordinary, we splurged on a gorgeous flocked tree with wide branches that almost hugged the floor. It was so big, it would only fit in our bay window. And when THAT one got on in years and the flocking began to litter the floor, I went with something smaller that I love, love, love to this day.
I was strolling Hobby Lobby and found the tree on display. I was captivated by the slow revolving motion and decided to buy it right then and there. The store employee gave me a scare when he said they were out of stock of the revolving tree stand, but lo and behold, one final check in the back room yielded their very last one.
It was meant to be.
https://youtube.com/shorts/LRBSUUdACO0?si=-eJwYsagyarvBDjX
It is so meaningful to sit in our living room and watch the tree revolve. No putting ugly ornaments to the back. Each one is on full display as the tree quietly and slowly twirls around and around and around.
New this year – in my continuing quest to pare down on the things I’ve been storing for years, I was at a loss what to do with my grandmother’s wedding dress. I’ve been safely keeping it in an antique hat box in my storage room. She was married in 1927, and her dress was very simple. Bland, even. Maybe it was her taste, or the style, or her lack of finances, but I knew no one would ever wear the dress. Still, it broke my heart to throw it away or give it away.
And then I happened to catch a Facebook post from a crafty group of ladies where one of the members asked the same thing. What to do with her grandmother’s wedding dress. Someone suggested this idea, and I knew it was IT!
A string doll angel ornament. Here, the angel’s dress is made of the only lace on my grandmother’s dress, at the mid-calf hemline. The embellishment and pearls at the angel’s neckline came from my grandmother’s veil headpiece. The wings, halo, and ribbon trim are modern, of course, but this little angel is mostly 97 years old, and I will always treasure it.
The perfect 2023 addition to my revolving Christmas tree.
Is your tree a special part of your Christmas, too?
Or is there something else you hold dear during this time of year?
Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmases and a peaceful New Year!
Pam has written 30 romances, most of them historical westerns, but she's proud of her contemporary sweet romances featuring the Blackstone Ranch series published by Tule Publishing, too! Stay up on the latest at www.pamcrooks.com
Your guardian angel was looking out for you, Pam; way to go on snagging the last revolving tree!
And the angel made with fabric and accoutrements from your grandmother’s wedding gown is fabulous.
Your angel ornament is so beautiful and precious.
I won a tree from Balsam Hill that I treasure.
I love your grandmother Angel ornament. What a wonderful idea. So special!!
Hello Pam- What an amazing way to honor your grandmother. I hope you made several
More for you to give other family members.
I didn’t put up a Christmas tree this year, we are going to Texas, then we have our new puppy Sage, and figured it would be too much of an invitation for her to want to play with the ornaments.
Have a very Merry christmas.
My tree is special as I have special ornaments on it.
Your tree is beautiful and the angel is the perfect solution to your problem. I cherish the ornaments on our tree because they all hold special memories but my nativity set is what is dearest to me.
I love your idea. My treasures are a few ornaments. I have some ornaments of my aunt who died, an ornament (a small picture) of a dead nephew, treasures my children and grandchildren made, and treasures from the children I taught.
Howdy Pam! Love your tree and your angel ornament! What a wonderful idea. I wanted to wear my mother’s wedding dress that her older sister made her. However, it was ballerina style and had to be redone. So my mother’s youngest sister made it Victorian style. The bodice is the only part that was still mama’s. It is over 67 years old. It is in my bedroom on a headless mannequin. For real. I took it out of my Hope chest about 15 years ago. I hold it dear all year round! Along with many other items!
As far as a tree, I didn’t put one up this year. All my Christmas lights are in the front and backyard. But, I have always liked decorating with lights outside. I love sharing with our neighbors. At least it’s enjoyed by many, right?
Merry Christmas!
Love your angel ornament and the precious way to remember your grandmother. I have been making Shutterfly metal ornaments to put on our tree marking memories made with each grandchild during the year. They are so fun to put on the tree each year. The grands get to pick one to take home as a keepsake for their family’s tree. Merry Christmas Pam. Thank you for all you do to keep Petticoats and Pistols so fun and informative.
I love your angel ornament its beautiful. Also your tree is awesome and I have never seen one that turned like that. My tree is nothing special now. I just put up a small table top tree just to get me in the mood for Christmas.
Even though I don’t put up my big Christmas tree, I do put up a small ceramic tree that belonged to my grandmother. She loved Christmas and it always makes me feel closure to her at this time of the year. I create a little Christmas village around it with other holiday decorations in miniature I have collected over the years and I put out my Angels too, which I either buy a new one each year or have been given to me.
I have several Christmas decorations that belonged to my mom that I put out each year.
The tree is very special to me. We grew up with parents who made decorating the tree family fun. My mom would hand us children the ornament and we would carefully carry it to daddy who would put it on the tree. As we got older, we were allowed to put it on the tree.
It isn’t so much the tree as it is a short artificial green tree, which I am through putting up. However, the ornaments on it are various items I have been given over the years, hand crocheted and crystal beaded snow flakes, along with just a few things I bought to help show off said ornaments. In fact, if I were to include the ornaments I have received from St Jude’s over the as well, I do not have enough tree for all of them. Next year my plans are to buy a short string of decorative lights and brighten up my fireplace mantel in lieu of a tree. It sounds pretty good to me. Your ornament is absolutely beautiful.
that is an awesome angel – thanks for letting us see it!
your little angel is so special and lovely. a true keepsake. what a wonderful idea. I love our little tree. it has mostly home made ornaments over the last 40 years and some from my mom and dad (home made) under the tree we have my father in laws village. one of the good ones. he bought one building a year. and by the time all four of his kids were in school he had a wonderful alpine village.
LOVE the angel, and what a great keepsake!! My nativity is dearest to me, but this year I’ve decided not to even set it out. I finally would have time to decorate now, but moving everything around to where I can put the nativity out is NOT looking good, so I’ve decided to not decorate at all this year. I was so stressed earlier, was under doctor orders not to reach high, that now I’m ready to just de-stress and relax. So, I’ll enjoy other people’s decorations!
What a wonderful keepsake! My most meaningful Christmas decoration is a fabric Angel that my grandmother sewed for me for our first Christmas as a newlywed couple. It’s as large as a wreath, so I hang it in our front window and put little white lights all around the edge of the window to light it up at night. She is now in heaven, so I treasure this precious gift even more now! Along with this gift my grandparents sent a cassette tape with some wonderful stories from their personal history… in their own words and told by them! I later had this treasure transferred to a CD, and then to a family history website for all of my siblings and cousins to be able to hear! I love going to the website and listening to their voices and learning from their wise and loving messages!
That first year we had no tree, no gifts except what our family sent us (we were both in college), and no fancy holiday decor. We did have lots of love and the knowledge of the true meaning of Christmas!
I do LOVE the angel. I have a punch bowl set from my great grandmother’s wedding. I’m 72 years old now so I’m not sure how old the set is. My grandmother passed it on to me. But as for Christmas trees; I was in my late 30’s when I saw my forever tree (it still stands {though it leans a bit} today) adorned with mine and my sister’s forever and a day Christmas ornaments (we live together). I came across the tree in a Christmas store one year sitting in the front window decorated with only white lights, ornaments telling the story of Noah and the ark with wooden animals handing from the branches. I bought it just as it was straight out of the window, and I still will not part with it. It looks just like a pine tree with pinecones and all.
Pam, I am sooooo envious of that tree! I love that more than I can even express! I am in the market for a new tree and when I saw that, I thought…I’ve got to find one that turns like that! LOL Everything is beautiful–and I do love that angel. I have some old, old, OLD precious material like that I’m thinking of doing something like that with now that I’ve seen your angel! I hope you and yours have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS! Thanks for sharing all your beautiful decorations with us!
Your ornament is beautiful. Aren’t memories wonderful. Have a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year.
What a treasure, Pam! I adore angels anyway, but to have so much family history wrapped up in such a beautiful ornament is so special. Lovely!
Merry Christmas. We are not decorating this year. It is the first year without my Mom. God bless you.
Beautiful tree, and I love that idea for making an ornament out of her wedding dress! Merry Christmas!
Your little angel is lovely. I would hope there is enough lace, etc to make her some companions, even if not as ornate. Our most important Christmas item is our nativity set. We were married during the Vietnam war, and my husband was shipped out 5 weeks after we married. He had only gotten back from his first tour a couple of weeks before the wedding. He was a B-52 crew member and was flying out of Guam. I flew over to spend Thanksgiving with him. We found the perfect nativity set just before I was leaving to go home. It is a Hummel set and the figurines remind me of those in Disney’s It’s A Small World. I have since started picking up other little nativity sets or ornaments when I find something I like.