OT: Share your tree and/or memories

9 years ago

As I am working, once again, on another house renovation (ignore the plywood backdrop) during the holiday season I was happy to find that at least this year, I am able to put out my most favorite memories.

If you think about it, I believe for most of us the tree/ornaments/traditions tyed to this time of year are more about memories than anything else.

This weekend I was able to get my favorite tree up. Last year was the only time in my marriage that, due to remodeling, it didn't go up.

I didn't quite realize how much it affected me, not putting it up last year, until I unfurled everything and put it up this year.

I present to you, my wedding tree.
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The tree itself is ancient, practically falling apart.

My parents bought that artificial tree early in their marriage, before I was born, and it was the tree I helped decorate every year of my childhood. During my senior year, my parents finally bought a new tree and they gave me my "childhood" tree to have as I moved out and set up my own home.

Shortly afterwards, I met my future husband. We fell madly in love and we wanted to get married quickly.

We were all set to get married at the JPs office when my mother said "my baby only gets married once (hopefully) and it had better be special!!!"

So....my ultra crafty mother set to work, quickly turning her normal Xmas tree into a glittering silver, white and blue backdrop. She made and bought ornaments to cover the tree and, one week before Christmas, my hubby and I took our everlasting vows in my childhood living room, in front of our parents and best friends and no one else.

Afterwards, my mother presented us with all the ornaments that were on our tree, including our special lovebirds.
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Those boxes held our wedding rings, simple, plain solid sterling silver bands, and our MOH and Best Man pulled them off the tree when the vow exchange happened. I hang them all together every year, in a prominent spot on our tree.
{{gwi:2140883}}

Every year, we get one or two special "anniversary" ornaments to place on our wedding tree.

Notable ones include
{{gwi:2140884}}

When he took me to see The Nutcracker ballet for our anniversary along with the delicate glass bells that adorned his childhood tree or the sand dollar ornament given to me by my grandparents when I was a child, or

The "new home" ornament we got when we purchased our first home together along with the "wedding tree" and wedding gift ornaments we received.
{{gwi:2140886}}

The vintage ornament/s we've acquired during our antique shopping plus the anniversary gift "wedding bells" added to the original "wedding tree" decor.

We have lived life so well that the majority of the "filler" ornaments/balls won't even fit on the tree anymore.

Though it stills tugs on my heart/memory strings to see them packed in a box that one of our wedding gifts came in.

Honestly, at this time of year, I don't care if my house is perfect, or even finished, my perfectly finished kitchen didn't make these memories and, while I'm certain it will contribute to future memories, it isn't the heart and soul.

I look at my wedding tree and I see, already, a lifetime of memories, experiences and LIFE. Every year there is a few less fillers and a few more "life lived" ornaments covering it.

Nothing soothes my soul better than sitting and looking at my wedding tree, even through all of its beat up crotchety-ness, it is much like our marriage and life. A little beat around the edges, if you look at it as a standalone it is downright pitiful BUT...you take that battered, beaten, worn down tree and add a lifetime of care and concern and you have transformed that pitiful Charlie Brown tree into something glorious!!

So, I thought it might be nice for all of us, during this season, to stop worrying for a few moments and think about what it really means and what we have really accomplished.

Share your pictures and stories. What makes this season so special for you?

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Comments (11)

User
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Oh my. Your story needs nothing further. The best of tradition and romance.

The tree I share only survived for one year, 2004. I had sold my MoccasinLanding bayou home and was residing for one year in a small kit-house in a friend's back yard, on Dog River. I'd renewed a romance from 50 years before with my college sweetheart, and life was good for us. I put up this tree with all the ornaments I'd saved from the years of my lifetime. The next year in August, Hurricane Katrina destroyed the riverside home we'd bought together, one month after moving in. This tree is 9 foot tall, and has plenty of headroom. i was very happy here that one lovely year.
{{gwi:2140889}}
Texas_Gem
Original Author
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
The tree is lovely! Katrina did a lot of damage to a lot of peoples lives, I hope you have recovered. Did the hurricane destroy all your ornaments as well or do you still have them?
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User
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Most of the ornaments were mush or broken, and no way to sanitize the others. I began a new tradition which started with our wedding the next July......Swarovski Christmas stars. Our granddaughters (his actually, but I claim them) will always have durable ornaments which have family memories.

It seems to be mostly the memories and not the ornaments themselves that folks treasure.
Terri_PacNW
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Lovely trees..but really it's about the memories..

My tree is brand new. I wanted a beautiful new tree for my "new" house. My husband and I found one set of new decorations and then went from there. Some of the fillers are $store purchases. Nothing was expensive really, well except the tree. We decided we wanted an elegant tree. I added only a few ornaments from previous years. The boys were shocked when "Rudy" wasn't at the top. He's all they've ever known. I made him when we were dirt poor. He's a reindeer that has wired limbs and holds a felt yellow star. He's very homey and country. I do think next year I will put him out on a smaller tree in another part of the house. Kinda weird not to have him out!
Sorry for the poor quality, my gen 2 ipad doesn't have the best camera.
Texas_Gem
Original Author
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Moccassin- I would love to see your swarovski stars tree!

Since our wedding colors were blue and silver, I've always gotten ornaments in those colors. In the past few years, I've really fallen in love with crystal ornaments.

I didn't even realize until I was putting up my tree and looking at the date written on each ornament, that the past 3 years have been crystal. This years is the Waterford snowflake, lasts years was a teardrop shaped crystal and a swarovski snowflake, the year before was a swarovski bird.

All of the ornaments on the family tree in the living room are durable, nonbreakable ornaments.
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Hopefully, when my kids move out they will be like I was, and have a tree full of ornaments.

Terri- beautiful tree but you do have to bring Rudy back!

As we have all agreed on, its about the memories!

I have so many ornaments and I love this time of year so much that I'm thinking I will snag a tall narrow tree after Christmas on clearance and put it in my dining room next year. I will keep my wedding tree in my room where it currently resides, my "elegant" tree in the living room and the brightly colored, all other ornaments, in the dining room.

I already have a miniature tree for each of the girls that is 4 ft tall for them to have in their rooms but they are still young enough that they mess with ornaments so I haven't put them up in a few years.

I can just see though, in 10 years I'm going to practically have a tree in every room!!

As much as I admire my tree every year, I think I enjoy putting it up and taking it down the most.

As I grab the seashell ornament and pack it away, I'm reminded of my trip to San Diego. When I grab my cute little snowman ornament, I'm instantly transported back to our weekend trip to San Antonio and the Macy's store I picked him up at.

Every ornament is a little vessel of memories. I see them, touch them, and I'm right back at the moment in time and my life that I was when I got them.

I think the fact that we only see/hold them once a year is part of what makes them so magical.

That cheap, one dollar globe from the dollar store? We were flat broke, college kids but I still insisted on getting an ornament for the tree and that means just as much to me as the 75 dollar swarovski crystal does.

It tells a story, specifically, our history. Where we once were and where we are now.

That Pyrex I received as a wedding gift? I use it still, every single day but when I grab a loaf pan, I'm not flooded with memories of my wedding day, despite the fact that I received it on that day.

I think only seeing and touching these special items for a short period of time each year makes them all the more special.

This post was edited by Texas_Gem on Mon, Dec 15, 14 at 23:31
User
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
TexasGem, what you said is what I was trying to say. I too fell for the Swarovski snowflakes, although I originally thought Waterford until I held the almost weightless Swarovski in my hand.

I won't have a tree up this year. If I did, it would be nothing special. I packed those breakables months ago, when I thought we'd be done with remodeling before it actually began....so many delays.....and now I'll have to wait to discover what box they are in. I'm suffering from DEMO BRAIN.
sandesurf
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Lovely and heartbreaking stories...
I LOVE this time of year also. My grandmother instilled my love of Christmas over 50 years ago. This is our tree. It's looked like this for over 30 years. Most are ornaments that our kids made, but there are also a few from my childhood, and even my grandmother's childhood.
My "funny" story... our kids (who are all adults now) stopped helping me decorate years ago, because I would always move almost every ornament they put on. I admit it, I'm sort of a perfectionist freak when it comes to my Christmas Tree. I try to put the most important ornaments (Baby's Firsts) in the same spots, so I can see them from my place on the couch! LOL
Merry Christmas! :)
Texas_Gem
Original Author
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Lol sandesurf, I'm the same way! Some of the ornaments have a special place they have to go!

The rest can go wherever, though the longer the tree is up, the more the ornaments migrate to the top branches. Every time I have to take an ornament out of a babies hand, I put it up high where they can't reach it again.
tomatofreak
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Today, I went into a store run by a non-profit and found vintage glass snowflakes and a vintage tree topper. I don't even have a tree! They're so pretty, I may go buy a living tree and put it on the upstairs deck and have my heart's delight (6 y/o GGS) help me decorate it.

I don't have pictures, but I think I can lay claim to two of the most unusual Christmas trees ever. In the late 70's, money was scarce so my then DH and I went and gathered tumbleweeds. We (he) wired them - from the biggest to the smallest - to a broomstick that was fastened to a brace to keep it upright. We sprayed the whole thing with white flocking and hung the colored lights and all the ornaments we had. It was gorgeous. A few years later, after the not so DH departed, I was alone with my daughter and definitely not in a Christmas spirit. I didn't want to have nothing, so I got a tall dried Century Plant stalk, stuck it in a pot and hung ornaments from the pods. Some ribbon helped and it did garner a lot of comments.

As for the rest of you, I have really enjoyed your stories and your trees. Very nostalgic, yet happy.
Terri_PacNW
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
TF, I bet that tumbleweed flocked tree was pretty impressive.
You know TG, I may just put up a mini tree and do the family ornies and Rudy this weekend.

My "old" tree is in my school office covered in "warm" gifts that will go to needy families this weekend. We've been loading the giving tree with hats, scarves, gloves and socks.

SS, your tree is so full and colorful.
Texas_Gem
Original Author
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Tomatofreak- too funny re: the tumbleweed.

My cousin got a giant tumbleweed from behind her house and sprayed it silver one year for her tree, but I never would've thought of layering them! I wish you did have pics and, even if you don't have a tree to put them on, I sure would love to see a pic of those ornaments and topper.

As a mom to a 5 and a 7 year old, you should get a tree and let him help! I know mine just LOVE everything about this season.

OT: Share your tree and/or memories

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