Favorite Meaningful Christmas Decorations

In keeping with our small house, the Christmas decorations are simple. Both the area available for decorating and the limited storage space mean that I have to be pretty selective with what I keep and use. Of course, I have things that I have bought (after all, who can resist Christmas decorations?) but the majority of my decorations are things that people have made for me and things that have been given to me as gifts. And, I am lucky to have some family decorations that belonged to my grandparents'. I enjoy these things that hold special meaning. Here are a few of my favorites:

For me the most important thing is the Christmas tree. I think the best part of the Christmas season is having the Christmas tree lit on a quiet, dark morning. It is just so peaceful. 

Quite a few years ago I bought an artificial tree that I can put up quickly and easily by myself. It's just the right size for our living room. And, I can put the tree together and decorate it in just a couple hours. Knowing that I can put it up early in the season if I have a chance or I can wait until the  last minute if I need to and that the tree will go up with no problem eliminates so much stress.

The tree is decorated only with white lights and glass Christmas ornaments that I have collected gradually or that belonged to my grandparents. Someday I may add ribbon or strings of beads or but for now, I am happy with my simple tree.

For some reason that I don't understand, many of my grandparents' old ornaments have string tied to them. My mother remembers the string always being there but it doesn't seem to serve any practical purpose. I leave it on out of sentiment.

As far back as I can remember, my grandmother had this bottle brush tree on a music box. It has seen better days and is now a bit lopsided and is missing some of its decorations. Along with Christmas ornaments, it was one of the decorations that I selected to keep when I emptied my grandmother's house.

 A friend of my mother made all of these St. Nicholas figures. She molded them out of plaster of Paris using vintage candy molds and hand painted all of the details.

As a child I did not care for this hand carved nativity scene. It was made by an older man who went to our church. His hobby was carving and he each year he donated some of his items to the annual Christmas bazaar. Back then it bothered me that the cows and the sheep are almost the same size and that the wise men are taller than the camels. As an adult I came to appreciate its charm and I 

am very happy to own and display such a wonderful piece of folk art.

Do you use decorations that hold special meaning for you?

This post is linked to Christmas Tree Party, 2014 at Thrifty Decor Chick.

Raggedy Ann Christmas Tree

Our local historical society holds an open house each December at our museum which is in a house built in the early 1800's. My mother is in charge of decorating the Christmas tree, the fireplace mantel, and window sills. Every year she tries to come up with a different theme--something vintage or nostalgic. Since there is no budget for decorations she mostly uses what she has.

This year she decided to do a Raggedy Ann theme. She collects Raggedy Ann items and her collection includes quite a few Christmas ornaments. To have enough decorations for the tree she supplemented the ornaments with small dolls, plaques, and even some cards. Red and white striped ribbon, small red balls, and over-sized red rick rack filled in the gaps and brought some cohesiveness to the overall look.

I think the tree turned out well and accomplished the goal of evoking nostalgia on an zero budget. Have you ever thought of using a collection to create a themed Christmas tree? Almost any small items that can be hung on the tree or nestled in the branches would work. Using toys would be a great way to decorate a small tree for a child's bedroom.