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.

Decoupage Dictionary Page Christmas Ornaments

For many years I have had a 5-inch thick, vintage dictionary tucked away in the closet. I bought it at a yard sale with the intention of using it for craft projects. Until this week I had never touched it. I finally found a project where my old dictionary was perfect. Christmas ornaments decoupaged with book pages are all over Pinterest (see my Made From Book Pages board here) so this is not exactly an original idea but here is my twist on the idea.

I used Mod Podge to glue the pieces torn from the dictionary pages to the glass ornaments ($5 for 15 from Big Lots) and as a sealer coat on top of the paper. After allowing the Mod Podge to dry thoroughly, I sprayed on a light coat of clear acrylic sealer. In our often-humid climate the Mod Podge ends to become sticky or tacky and I noticed the instructions recommended the sealer. Once the sealer dried, I added glitter and tied a ribbon to the top to finish them off.

For plenty more inspiration, follow Better Nesting on Pinterest.