Your tree sounds exactly like our tree. Ornaments from DHs family tree to ornaments my 39 yr old son made in grade school.
The ornament that brings back the most memories for me is the one we call "the dead cat cardinal" Its a satin cardinal ive had for 39 yrs(my 1st tree living on my own). It has teeth marks from every cat i've lived with. All of them just loved snagging that thing off the tree and beating the living crap out of it. Needless to say its not the most attractive ornament on the tree but it is the dearest.

LOL..we have chewed up ornaments too. The latest is the one we got for Ferrell the cat last year and Digby chewed off his ear last night. I love your cardinal and know just how much it must mean to you.

Ditto from here & maybe that's why it takes me so long to decorate our tree. Each ornament seems to have it's own story & as I pull each one out of the box, I recall the trip we took & the city or town where I purchased it & who I was vacationing with. I've got old mercury glass ornaments that belonged to my grandparents & great aunt, the old "Shiny Brite" ornaments I bought at Sears for my very first Christmas tree whose glaze is now cracked with age. And yes, all the ornaments that I made in grade school that my mother saved & gave to me when I had my own tree.

And I guess my favorite, for an inexplicable reason, is a little wax angel that now has a piece broken off her skirt, that I got from my first grade teacher. Attached to the ornament is a card, written in a school teacher's meticulous hand:

"This darling little candle
Is to hang up on your tree,
And each year you hang it there,
I hope you think of me."

And every year, I do.

Oh Marda, this post brought back some good memories. My folks never saved particular ornaments. In fact, Daddy was so into Christmas, our family tree usually had the best/was the best they could afford and I inherited (then my daughter inherited) their older ornaments when they got new.

I used to put my children's hand-made decorations on the tree for many years. But stopped it about five years ago, when they started disintegrating. One of my Daughter's was dropping macaroni on the floor. Really! You're a teacher, are the school systems so hard up they need to use macaroni for Christmas art? LOL. It gets packed away in boxes in our old house, and I can't think of more powerful invitation than food for the mice who come in each fall. Here, here is a box with macaroni it it......please stay out! Ha.

So, I have gotten into using the same ornaments my husband bought every year. Very primitive and very fitting for a kitchen tree in this old house. Yes, our tree is in our kitchen. It's the largest and most popular room in our house. They're twenty five years go, so I guess they have sentimental value. We also have incorporated some really pretty little craft ornaments my deceased MIL made through the years, and gave us one each Christmas, and also some really pretty crystal beaded ones made by a blind gentleman (amazing)who was a customer of ours and given to us as a gift, one a season.

Now, we do have some really old decorations we do or have dragged out each year. Two of them are faded, and shapeless candles. One from my side of the family and one from my dh's. Gross and dearly loved.

We have some ornaments that I bought at half-price, my first 'newly single' Christmas, when I was so strapped for cash, but desperate to have a tree. So, I waited . . . . Those mean a lot to me, remembering how far I've come.
We have lots of ornaments my MIL passed on to us, which Himself remembers as a child. We have all the ones we bought our first Christmas together in the US, some of which are slightly damaged from the 2nd Christmas, when the tree gracefully fell over . . .
And every year I buy one or two more, each with a particular memory. Including the little plaster pumpkin from the table at SIL's, from my first Thanksgiving. The baby booties from DSD, which was her way of announcing her pregnancy. Last year's acquisition of an enamel seahorse, my Dad's personal 'motif', to remember him by.
The tree is up, but not yet decorated. I think it'll take a while . . .

And while we are remembering... start writing!

I'm the only one who knows the history of our ornaments, when I'm gone so will be the knowledge. GS's fascination has almost pushed me into buying a digital camera, for what better way to identify which ornament? Meanwhile -- since I haven't bought the camera, a careful sketch is followed by a short history. Yes, even for the foil ball that a favorite dog would carefully remove and bury in her bed each year.

We've no room for a tree in our present very small house but the most original ornaments we used to put up were the flag chains. Storebought chains with Swedish or Nordic flags are becoming oldfashioned but we've always had them. I brought them over to Madison, Wisconsin, for our American Christmas in 1981 and they surprised our American friends who had seen nothing like them. My mother-in-law who was an internationally oriented person had made a chain with world flags already in the 30ies and I have continued the tradition. I have made a flag for every foreignborn person who has spent Christmas in our home. They have been many as our Christmases have never been with family only and our children always brought in some friend to share with us. The Italian flag is for Vito from Naples who came early on Christmas morning before we'd even got dressed and wanted to help with the preparations. My daughter's friend Tanya is half Kenyan and her mother and younger siblings had gone to Kenya over Christmas so of course Tanya had to come to us. The Kenyan flag was the most difficult to make because of the fussy little details and I had to finish it fast before the girl arrived. Other flags commemorating Christmas guests are Somali, Gambian, Chilean, Colombian, Polish and Turkish.

"Yes, even for the foil ball that a favorite dog would carefully remove and bury in her bed each year."

That brought a tear to my eye. Am enjoying reading all these posts.

We don't put up a big tree, anymore, but have a small, revolving, pre-lit one which looks very pretty. When we down-sized to this house, we divided our *special* ornaments among our kids. The only one we kept is a tangerine-sized--a lopsided tangerine--glob of pink stuff with a paper clip stuck in it for a hanger. I truly don't know what it's made of -- maybe paper-machie (sp.?) or wood chips mixed with glue. Anyway, my son made it in kindergarten and he's now 53 years old. It's showing no signs of decay, yet.

We had several old, inherited ornaments from my husband's parents and mine plus the ones we aquired during our travels during the years. Last year I asked our sons to take what ornaments they would like to have and figured on getting some new ones this year. Would somebody please explain to me what happened to Christmas ornaments?
I found a dinosaur, cartoon characters, computer games action figures, Disney characters, a bunch of garish glitter ornaments, but not a one Christmas themed ornament.
So on Friday I had a hospital appointment and went there to the gift shop, they must have something better. The first thing I saw was a pink tree with flamingos, ballerinas and lime green glitter stars. It got better around the corner, a yellow tree with green and yellow John Deer farm ornaments. I have nothing against John Deer, but on the tree?
I trimmed my tree today with what was left of the old ornament, a dozen of plain white balls and a handfull of Morovian stars I just made out of computer paper.
If somebody knows of a good source of on-line ornaments I could get for next year, please let me know.

A friend recommended this place [linked], although I haven't yet dealt with them. There are some ornamental ornaments.... on my computer it showed 30 to a page, 1111 pages. Surely you'll find some that suit you.

Last year, a local dollarstore had glass balls beautifully etched with snowflakes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Online ornaments