Hi Everyone!

Christmas is probably my very favorite time of year–every single year. My husband says I’m still “a big ol’ fifth grader” when it comes to Christmas, and he’s probably right about that.

Today I thought I would just share a few of my decorations–I don’t ever do ‘trendy’ things because my decorations and ornaments are ones that I’ve had since I was a child, going up through my early years of marriage, ornaments my own children made in school, and those we used to buy for them each year and hang on the tree. I couldn’t bear to get rid of any of these and opt for something more modern!  These two pictures are last year’s tree since I have none of my presents wrapped this year yet, and I had to show you all the very best present of all that keeps on giving every day–Sammy, the dog!

Every year, I always include the little ladder with Santa and his elf climbing up to the middle of the tree. I got this when my kids were very young, and my son Casey was fascinated with my earrings. He took a little Christmas sticker and drew a picture of an earring, attached the sticker to the edge and put it on the elf’s ear. That elf wore that earring for YEARS until the glue finally let go and the earring was lost. You can see the ladder, Santa and elf in the first picture on the left side of the tree.

This is the first ornament I bought when Gary and I got married, waaaaaay back in 1979. It’s hard to see, but it’s two lovebirds with a red heart between them, surrounded by a clear heart. This is all blown glass and very fragile.

 

 

 

 

Here’s the poor little mismatched, loved-through-decades nativity set. Mom and Dad had this nativity set before I was born in 1957! Oh, how I loved this, from the time I was able to crawl over to it! Some of the figures are plaster and have not stood the test of time (and three kids) all that well. I cut up a piece of green velvet fabric I wasn’t supposed to use to make Baby Jesus a beautiful blanket about 2 inches square for His cardboard manger. One of the wise men has disappeared, along with the donkey who didn’t make it, and a sheep. But, there are two camels, a cow and a sheep, along with a shepherd, two wise men, Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus and a plastic angel. The stable is cardboard, too. My mom gave this to me one year for Christmas when I was in my mid-thirties, and my kids were very small. We had a good cry over it at the time, but what a gift I will treasure forever!

This is one of my mom’s paintings that I am using on a display in my living room this year–it’s a very wintry scene and looks great with the bright red lighted poinsettias and some other Christmas-y things on my couch table. Below, you can see the entire display. That’s her painting right next to the old-timey lantern.

Here’s another favorite–back when latch hooking was so popular, I made this little Christmas tin soldier and he goes on my door every year. I can’t even remember how long it’s been since I made him, but I’m sure it was very late 1970’s. It wouldn’t be Christmas without him!

Here’s a couple of new additions to my holiday decor. These beautiful reindeer that I leave out all year round. I can’t bear to put them away. I’ve named them Fred and El Wanda, after my parents.

This is a plate I couldn’t resist and a little cute miniature bird house. Bought all of this just this year, but I won’t ever part with all the traditional decorations I love so much!

I always put “icicles” on my tree–this is something we did from the earliest Christmas I can remember, as a kid. I remember when we used to buy those for .17 a box–now, they are three boxes for $14.29!!!! Times have changed, in some ways, but I’m not sure it would be a real Christmas without those icicles, so it is my one big splurge from my usual practical outlook. 

I’m going to attach a short story here that I wrote many years ago about why icicles are so important in our family tradition. It is based on a very true story, and I hope I did it justice. Merry Christmas, everyone!

 

 

SILVER MAGIC by Cheryl Pierson

Did you know that there is a proper way to hang tinsel on the Christmas tree?

Growing up in the small town of Seminole, Oklahoma, I was made aware of this from my earliest memories of Christmas. Being the youngest in our family, there was never a shortage of people always wanting to show me the right way to do—well, practically everything! When it came to hanging the metallic strands on the Christmas tree, my mother made it a holiday art form.

“The cardboard holder should be barely bent,” she said, “forming a kind of hook for the tinsel.”   No more than three strands of the silver magic should be pulled from this hook at one time. And, we were cautioned, the strands should be draped over the boughs of the tree gently, so as to avoid damage to the fragile greenery.

Once the icicles had been carefully added to the already-lit-and-decorated tree, we would complete our “pine princess” with a can of spray snow. Never would we have considered hanging the icicles in blobs, as my mother called them, or tossing them haphazardly to land where they would on the upper, unreachable branches. Hanging them on the higher branches was my father’s job, since he was the tallest person I knew—as tall as Superman, for sure. He, too, could do anything—even put the serenely blinking golden star with the blonde angel on the very highest limb—without a ladder!

When Christmas was over, I learned that there was also a right way to save the icicles before setting the tree out to the roadside for the garbage man. The cardboard holders were never thrown out. We kept them each year, tucked away with the rest of the re-useable Christmas decorations. Their shiny treasure lay untangled and protected within the corrugated Bekins Moving and Storage boxes that my mother had renamed “CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS” in bold letters with a black magic marker.

At the end of the Christmas season, I would help my sisters undress the tree and get it ready for its lonely curbside vigil. We would remove the glass balls, the plastic bells, and the homemade keepsake decorations we’d made in school. These were all gently placed in small boxes. The icicles came next, a chore we all detested.

We removed the silver tinsel and meticulously hung it back around the little cardboard hook. Those icicles were much heavier then, being made of real metal and not synthetic plastic. They were easier to handle and, if you were careful, didn’t snarl or tangle. It was a long, slow process—one that my young, impatient hands and mind dreaded.

For many years, I couldn’t understand why everyone—even my friends’ parents—insisted on saving the tinsel from year to year. Then one night, in late December, while Mom and I gazed at the Christmas tree, I learned why.

As she began to tell the story of her first Christmas tree, her eyes looked back through time. She was a child in southeastern Oklahoma, during the dustbowl days of the Depression. She and her siblings had gotten the idea that they needed a Christmas tree. The trekked into the nearby woods, cut down an evergreen, and dragged it home. While my grandfather made a wooden stand for it, the rest of the family popped and strung corn for garland. The smaller children made decorations from paper and glue.

“What about a star?” one of the younger boys had asked.

My grandfather thought for a moment, then said, “I’ve got an old battery out there in the shed. I’ll cut one from that.”

The kids were tickled just to have the tree, but a star, too! It was almost too good to be true.

Grandfather went outside. He disappeared around the side of the old tool shed and didn’t return for a long time. Grandmother glanced out the window a few times, wondering what was taking so long, but the children were occupied with stringing the popcorn and making paper chains. They were so excited that they hardly noticed when he came back inside.

Grandmother turned to him as he shut the door against the wintry blast of air. “What took you so long?” she asked. “I was beginning to get worried.”

Grandfather smiled apologetically, and held up the star he’d fashioned.   “It took me awhile. I wanted it to be just right.” He slowly held up his other hand, and Grandmother clapped her hands over her mouth in wonder. Thin strands of silver magic cascaded in a shimmering waterfall from his loosely clenched fist. “It’s a kind of a gift, you know. For the kids.”

“I found some foil in the battery,” he explained. “It just didn’t seem right, not to have icicles.”

In our modern world of disposable commodities, can any of us imagine being so poor that we would recycle an old battery for the metal and foil, in order to hand-cut a shiny star and tinsel for our children’s Christmas tree?

A metal star and cut-foil tinsel—bits of Christmas joy, silver magic wrapped in a father’s love for his family.

This anthology is only available used now, but it’s well worth purchasing from Amazon if you can find it, and reading so many heartwarming Christmas stories from yesteryear! Hope you all have a wonderful, wonderful Christmas and a fantastic 2024!

 

 CLICK THIS LINK FOR CHERYL PIERSON BOOKS AVAILABLE ON AMAZON!