Old Friends

this angel, along with 2 others (one for me and my 2 younger sisters) sat above our stockings since around 1962.  My youngest sister didn't "have" one, as she was born 8 years later after the youngest at that time.

I read on lots of blogs accounts of wondering how one will decorate the mantel this year for Christmas, what theme to have for the tree, what colors will one use . . .

I don't have those questions, because I decorate for Christmas the same way every year.  Every year we bring down the boxes from the attic.  Every year the girls tell me I have hung the stockings on the wrong stocking holders and every year they fix them ("Rhiann's goes on the snowflake, Hannah's goes on the angel, don't you remember!??" -- with 4 girls, um, no I don't).

The same stockings, the same decorations -- the two vintage looking stuffed Santa's that my own grandmother gave my two oldest daughters when they were 2 and 4 (they are now 25 and 27), the Rudolf stocking holder that sits on the mantel clock without holding a stocking because it is too tippy, the candy cane striped candles, the faux garland with lights.

And the rest of the house is the same way.  Over 35 years of ornaments accumulated for the tree -- and all (minus some breakage and deterioration) go on the tree, each with a story, a connection, a memory.  A collection of snow globes on the windowsill in the kitchen, the Christmas Village placed always in the same way on the dining room buffet.  As unchanging -- as dependable -- as the Thanksgiving Dinner menu.

Each item, an old friend that we acquaint ourselves with anew each year at the end of November, for a month's visit.

Linking to Sunny Simple Sunday

The Littlies Came Today

We had Christmas again today when our oldest was able to come out with our two grandchildren.

Aydan after he looked in his Christmas stocking and opened 80 piece wooden train and tack set.  He lo-o-o-ves trucks and cars and trains and anything with wheels.

And Ari looks pretty happy with her goodies, too.  So does her mom.

I think they like having their pictures taken.

Looking for more, under the tree.

Our daughter wanted a picture of all three of them by the tree.  We had a fun and fairly relaxed afternoon before driving them back to their home (in a not very good part of town) before it got too dark.

Christmas Dining Room

The Dining Room is the first room we always decorate for Christmas, because the Dining Room tree is the one on which we hang the small wooden and felt ornaments from the Advent Calendar given to us by my parents when our oldest was quite young.  The box itself is cardboard, but it has held up fairly well over the past 20+ years.

This tree has ornaments that are either home-made or evoke the natural world, in either their nature (apples) or their material (natural fibers, bark, wood, etc).

It has no lights, other than 4 tiny candles (one for each child) that fit in candle holders that clip on the trees.  I'd love to get some small LED candles to put on the tree, but I have yet to find any.  You can see one of the candles in the picture above.

One year I saved egg shell halves, spray painted the white ones gold (kept the blue and green shells from my chickens natural), hot glued some ribbon around the shell half and filled with tiny dried roses from my garden and tiny berries and pinecones from Hobby Lobby.  I gave sets as gifts, but saved a few for myself.

There's an ornament made from old silk ties and rickrack that covers the pinheads where the pins secure the ties to styrofoam ball, and a picture of my oldest when she was 4 yrs old at a "trike-a-thon", holding Abba, her stuffed yellow bear that she kept until she left home.

We even put on the natural wooden baby rattle that my two youngest played with when they were babies.

The paper bird was part of a set of 12 that I made that hung from a mobile for many years, long since dismantled and now the birds hang on the tree, alongside colored and glittered butterflies glued on to sticks that the girls made in years past, and sand dollars picked up on trips to the beach (very rare to find whole ones where we go).

This was a little wooden box with three compartments that some snowflake gift toppers came in, that I covered with paper, some chipboard letters and glitter.

A quilt that my husband's grandmother made probably some time between 1920 and 1950 serves as a tree skirt.  The girls used to love to play with the woodland animals below which only came out at Christmas.

Home-made Christmas cones hang from the chandelier, along with felt elves.  When the girls were young the cones held treats for New Year's Day.  You can glimpse the Christmas Village on the buffet.

Why are there no pictures of the dining room table?  Because it's covered house refinance papers, boxes for lights, miscellaneous garland, some mail, a hat and scarf, and other things that desperately need to be put away or otherwise dealt with.

linking to:

Masterpiece Monday

Show Off Your Cottage Monday

Christmas Kitchen

We have a ridiculous accumulation of Christmas stuff -- boxes and boxes -- one whole box for the kitchen alone.

Snowglobes accumulated over the years and displayed on our big kitchen window.

Even cheapo-plastic-y kind -- they're really the best kind, received by the girls from friends and old scout troops and various Christmas events.  The one on the right is the kind where you can insert a photo, but my now 18 yr old had a real thing for Rudolph when she was young and drew a Rudolph for it when she was 5 or 6.  She was such a tender heart for Rudolph, sobbing at the cartoon "Why are they all so mean to him?  I'll be your friend, Rudolph!".

We have 3 big picture size windows in the kitchen, and we tape all the construction paper stockings and trees and what-not that the girls made over the years to them.  You can see another Rudolph drawing by Hannah, and some construction paper stockings by Loren (now 24), mostly from her girl scout Daisy and Brownie days.  She went through scouts all the way through Cadets, but dropped when the meetings and activities began to conflict with her increasing soccer activities.

 I've got 4 of these vintage winking Santa mugs -- they belonged to my husband's family and now sit on a shelf by the window at Christmas.

I have this candy garland strung around the kitchen peninsula, with some candy ornaments.

An overview looking over the peninsula towards the table.

One Final Shot (for now)

A more full shot of our Christmas mantle in our family room.  See the old photo of the man to the left of the candy cane candle?  That's old Josiah Conger, a forbear of my husband.  The Santa on the right was given to my oldest daughter by my grandmother.  My stocking on the far left has been mine since young childhood.  The four center stockings were given to our children by my mother.

From this picture and the other posts of our Christmas decorations, you can see why we have about 17 large boxes of decorations (not counting the outside ones!).

These decorations have been collected over 35 years of marriage, and some are from my childhood.  I know some people like to have a new Christmas theme each year, but we like to use all of our ornaments and decorations.  I love a simple natural look, but I love all of the memories and the sheer abundance of Christmas -- the Victorian "too much is not enough".

More Christmas Tour

Here is our family room, our couch, with Christmas pillows, our Advent Wreath.  This photo was taken in early December, so we had not received many cards yet.

My small collection of nativity trees, which sits on our tv cabinet.

A shot of our main Christmas tree, the one we put the presents under.  35 years of collecting ornaments.

A more full shot of the tree.

Our mantle with stockings.

Christmas Tour Continued

These pictures are in our kitchen.  This is a little shelf unit that hangs on the wall opposite our table.  I've had the matrushka dolls since I was around 10 years old.  They are from Russia and were given to me by my best friend in elementary school.

This is a little tree sitting on a small table along that same brick wall.  I got the tree on clearance from Target a few years ago.  It was a Bratz tree, believe or not.  I chunked the Bratz ornaments and scraped off the Bratz label from the base.  I love the little glass mushroom ornaments that I found to hang from it.

Here is a picture of our kitchen table and window that looks out on my bird feeders and flower garden along the side of our house.  The window has a large sill that holds a collection of snow globes.  The shelf unit and the little white tree from above flank the window.  We have Christmas lights strung around the window and we use our Nikko Christmas china every evening from the first day of December until New Year's Day.

Christmas House Tour

Here are some pictures of our dining room, decorated for Christmas.  This is one of 2 trees that we have.  This room has an "old fashioned" Christmas feel, with a few candles on the tree held on with clips (which we dare not light!), and ornaments that are of natural materials or home-made.

Here you can get a feel for the room, Christmas cones hung from the chandelier, and our Christmas village on the buffet.

Pictures of the rest of the family room and kitchen to come in other posts.

mood music

Well, is there anything more Christmas-y than listening to Julie Andrews et al on the old Firestone Christmas album from the 60's (at least I think it's from then)?  We used to listen to this just about every afternoon after school and all through the Christmas holidays from whenever my parents first got it (in the 60's) until I left home in the mid 70's.  Not sure if that picture is the right one or not, but it's certainly close.  A couple of years ago my dad burned it to a cd for me, along with the old Boston Pops album.  I have them playing now as we decorate the den tree.  I'll have to get on the ball and take some pictures.