Christmas Traditions – Keepsake Ornaments

What is it about a good tradition, anyway? The ceremony of it all, the nostalgia?

Whatever it is, I’m sure enjoying sharing some of my family’s favorite Christmastime traditions with y’all… from gingerbread houses to pajamas, there are endless ways to make the season bright.

Here’s another:

I mentioned it briefly in another post, but I’ve probably got an ornament with my name and date on it for every year that I’ve been alive (thanks largely to my mother).

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1984 was the oldest one i could find adorning our modest faux fir, we didn’t use all of them this year… i was born a few (ahem) years prior

Collecting keepsake ornaments is a tradition that I’ve continued, but with my own spin on it, as an adult…

Rather than present each member of the family with a new individual ornament every year, we select a special one- just one– as a family, that somehow represents our collective year.

In fact, as a teenager dating my then-boyfriend-now-husband, I purchased one for the two of us to share, starting with the very first year we were a couple.

Creeptastic? I know. Presumptuous? I concur. In my defense, we started dating during spring break and had gotten to know each other well (as well as two immature, self-involved, precocious teenaged sillies possibly could) by Christmas. From this vantage, however, I’m sure thankful I did! Hindsight really is 20/20. It’s a delight to have one for each year from the very humble inception of our family.

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the beginning: 1997 – 2000, he was already into computers and i was a barista, our first cat, lucy, lived in his college digs, one christmas i had a star named after him… a classic 90’s cliche
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2001 – 2003, got hitched (which warranted two ornaments) and hubby was deployed to war
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2004 – 2007, the baby-makin’ years… including the fur-baby variety
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2008 – 2011 third daughter went to heaven, first baby went to kinder, we all went to hawaii & i went to Africa
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2012 – 2014 moved to mt, got us some chickens, daddy killed us a buck (two for 2013… idk), and we flew to china to bring home little man

What are some of your family’s most treasured Christmastime traditions? I’m always on the lookout for new ones to steal adopt…


Comments

2 responses to “Christmas Traditions – Keepsake Ornaments”

  1. Ginger (4 legged girl) always filled our stockings when we got married. They sad empty the 2 years she was gone until our little Isabel (4 legged girl) was adopted. Now Santa fills them for all 3 of us, soon to be 4!

    1. Awww that’s so sweet and will be so fun to continue that tradition with your upcoming addition! 🙂

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