During the holiday season we tend to think of time spent with family and friends. For me, hanging ornaments on the tree triggers so many memories—of who gave me a particular ornament, when and where. I imagine that’s the case for most of us who chose to and are able to set up a tree, string lights, then carefully arrange our collections.
We don’t have a large tree, but it fits a designated space very well. It’s not a real tree, but what it lacks in that balsam fir smell, it makes up with well-spaced rugged branches that hold whatever size and weight of ornaments we choose to hang.
All our ornaments would not fit on this tree, so instead, they’ve been divided into groupings that get hung in alternating years. This year’s tree is mostly decorated with ornaments from an overlooked box marked “misc.” Turns out the box was filled with ornaments mostly accumulated during my teens–many crafted by me and my family.
Home-made gifts from my then six year old little sister—the wooden ice-cream spoon girl (above) and wooden clothespin characters (a sailor, a cowboy, and Robin Hood, pictured in other photos)—angels and Santas made from old quilts by my mom, angels and trees made from wood by my dad, painted and batiked ornaments I made. So many forgotten memories.
Susan,
How inspirational! Thank you so much for all you contribute to our creative space. Happy holidays to you and Tom and your whole family.
Thank you for sharing your memories about those ornaments made by special people in your life! Thoughts of our loved ones make the holidays truly memorable. I wish for new and happy memories created this year for you and Tom! ????❄️????
Merry Christmas to you and yours! So grateful for the gift of your artistic talents that you share with all of us who live fabric collage!????????????
Thank you for sharing your beautiful pictures and wonderful memories.
Wishing you peace, happiness and good health for 2026.
I love your tree Susan!! I love all the handmade ornaments and all the memories. Our Christmas tree is very similar. Every ornament has a memory, a person, a time associated with it. We did not put our tree up this year. It has been a sad year losing several family members and friends and our kids wont be home this Christmas. It is a quiet Christmas. A time to reflect and reminisce. Thank you for sharing your beautiful tree. It made me smile.
What a treat, seeing your beautiful ornaments. We do still get a real tree but some of our ornaments go back to our first Christmas. There is a baby girl from the year our daughter was born and the small blue ball on a pipe cleaner hanging in the center of a piece of foil covered cardboard tube that our son made in a 1st grade art class. One year I wanted to try a formal, elegant color scheme, very chic and popular in a bunch of magazines. Just couldn’t do it.
Tree decorating was always a special event, always full of laughter, smiles and some sadness as well. But never without so many memories and stories of so many people and places. Most years all four of us were together, then a few years with just Joe and I, now we are likely to have one or the other of our grown children and an assortment of their grown children. No matter, it is a time to remember, with every ornament, that we share a family history which is recorded and treasured in our ornament collection.
Wishing you God’s blessings on this holy day.
Merry Christmas, Susan and Tom. I love your little tree. It looks so joyous. My favorite Christmas ornament is a gift from my long departed mother. It was one of those Hallmark glass ball ornaments. But the inscription gets me in the feelers every year. It says “There’s no place like home for the holidays and memory knows the way”
Wishing you and Tom many Christmas blessings!!!
Karen
Dear Susan and Tom and all the creatives from around the world who share enthusiasm for fabric collage, Merry Christmas to you! What a wonderful blog subject! I love learning about the traditions that make this season so special for everyone. I love a fresh cut tree and picking it out is one of my favorite days each year. This year it’s a stately Noble fir that almost reaches to the ceiling and has the most delicious, traditional Christmas scent. And, selecting the ornaments from all the collected treasures is always a sentimental journey! I may need to adopt Susan’s method and separate them into different collections and alternate years! In the meantime, I wish you all peace, good health and time to enjoy some collaging in the New Year!
Wishing you and yours a happy and peaceful Christmas with your family.
How lovely. I too think about where each ornament came from and I love the idea of alternating years. Now I have the special ornaments my parents used to hang on their tree, many gifted by family in Germany. Thank for sharing your pics. Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a new year filled with joy, creativity, peace and inspiration
I loved this. Thanks so much for sharing this special memory.
Beautifully festive.