What holiday decoration MUST come out every year?

[Kay Henderson]

We are going to have an interesting activity at my Garden Club holiday party. Members are to bring a holiday decoration, such as an ornament, that they bring out every year. We will tell each other about our treasures and what they mean to us in comments 30 seconds max.

When this activity was proposed, I thought and thought. At first I saw in my mind the little white plastic dove that sat on my wedding cake almost forty years ago. It has been on my Christmas tree every year since. My mother had its mate, and starting last year, her dove is on my tree as well. A nice story, but hard for me to tell without tears in my eyes, so on to something else. I've decided now. I will bring the shell ornament DH and I bought on a vacation to Kauai on the occasion of our twentieth anniversary. I will show them how, when it broke, I repaired it with a post-it note and Elmer's glue (the female version of duct tape?) to continue to honor my tree with its presence and the memories it evokes.

I think this could be an enjoyable activity for those of us on this BB as well.

What holiday decoration is a favorite of yours -- one you treasure so much that the holidays wouldn't be complete without it?

Kay

[Max Sutton]

My choice has to be my Fontanini Nativity set. Christmas isn't Christmas at my apartment without my Nativity scene set up for the holidays.

[Canice]

My first thought was more seasonal than holiday - it's my autumnal "falling leaves" table cloth. It's kind of crappy, actually - I bought it at Mervyn's, and no one does "cheap and cheerful" quite like them. But I love fall, and though I've looked and looked for a better autumn table cloth, I've found that I actually just want the one I have. I hate summer sooo much, it's a great day (always a Sunday) that I pull out the falling leaves.

For Christmas, it's the little village I put under my tree. My mom had my father build her one of wood because she'd always had that as a kid. Then she wanted *me* to have a village (dad was gone by then) so she bought it for me. I was having a really stressful and awful time at work, and that village under the tree was so calming to me, to cheery and enjoyable to set up and look at. Again, it's not that it's the most elegant you'll find, but it really helped me when I was down. Now I have to have a tree of some type, just for the excuse of setting up the village.

[DeeK]

Oh, this was an easy one. Burlap Santa. My mom hung him on our bedroom doorknobs one Christmas Eve a long - long time ago. I had to be less than 10 years old because it was our old house.

He has graced the top of our tree some years. Some years he just sits on an end table. One year he was the center of a wreath I made. Someone tried to run off with my wreath, but luckily Santa fell off in the yard. So, now he stays safely inside. (Side note: How low do you have to go to steal someone's wreath right off their door??????? :mad: )

Burlap Santa is about 6" tall. He has a little painted wooden ball for a head and burlap stiffened into a cone shape and painted red for his body and his hat. He's primitive looking and quite simple. But we love him.

[LakeMartinGal]

Mine is a Santa that DH and I painted ourselves, one of the first Christmases we were together. It has pride of place in the Santa collection! When it was the only one, we always put it on the mantle!:D

[sneezles]

Mine would be the beautiful wax angel that tops our tree and has for the past 26 years. I bought her at the old Christmas Store that used to open at the end of October and close the week after Christmas, it was located on Beechnut in southwest Houston. She comes from Germany and has blonde hair and a rose colored velvet gown (her head and hands are made of wax). In her hands is a scroll. It was our first Christmas home from Singapore and our first Christmas with a tree...no pine tree in Singapore :p ...she did make the trip to Scotland with us!

[jmarie]

Fontanini Nativity set

Us as well, Max.

I would tell how the children would gingerly pull the pieces out of the box and stage them. Even though they are unbreakable, they would handle the pieces as if they were glass....How each year one of the children would hide Baby Jesus (we divided it up even and odd years because of the birthdate to help us remember) ...and on Christmas Eve, before bedtime, we would open a bottle of Welch's bubbly grape juice and sip it while their dad read the Christmas Story from the Bible. After the reading and prayer, the child who hid Baby Jesus would retreive Him and place Him in the manger. I would also mention how the children would play with the Nativity set daily and tell the story, moving and rearranging the figurines and the animals...the set never looked the same on any given day....

I can't wait to have grandchildren. :D

[Kay Henderson]

Thank you so much for sharing such wonderful stories --

Please keep them coming!

Kay

[Terri_A]

A couple of Christmases ago I was at a dear friend's house and commented to her how much I really liked her "Hallelujah Santa" from Brookwood. That night I found it sitting at my front door. I absolutely love him and he's my favorite Christmas item.

You can see a photo of what he looks like here...

http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/yhst-17973527811285_1976_5176776

[leightx]

It would have to be my cast iron stocking holders from the Pottery Barn outlet in NYC. I got them on my first real-by-myself-adult trip. My aunt lived there for 50 years, and I had visited her many times, but this was the first time I had gone alone (my mom had always come). On this particular trip, I wanted to go sight seeing and shopping one afternoon, and she wasn't up to it. I persuaded her to let me go by myself, way uptown (I think??), planned my route, and off I went.

It seems a bit silly now - after all, you see tiny school kids hopping on and off the buses and subway by themselves every day in NYC. But I felt so independent and grown up going all over the city.

I can't remember where I went sight seeing (probably the Museum of Nat. History, since it's my favorite), but I do remember the shopping. The outlet was a real outlet - not the faux outlets that are everywhere nowadays. It was huge and dusty and there were shelves of chipped, mismatched plates and out-of-season knick knacks. I found some lovely, detailed Christmas tree and gingerbread house stocking holders for $2.99 each :cool: and bought four, even though I was a single college student. I quickly realized just how heavy 4 iron stocking holders can be when you're trekking through Manhattan. :eek: :p

That was in 1991, and I've used those stocking holders every year since - first just one for me, then 2 once DH and I got married. When I had my 2 kids, I finally got to put all four into service. For 15 years those stocking holders have brought back many fond memories of my (now deceased) aunt, and my first real adult trip to that wonderful city.