What I love most about Christmas trees are the stories they tell. Some trees tell the story of a 75% off sale at Pier 1 Imports last January. Some trees tell the stories of days gone by. Some trees even tell the story of a hopeful future. My tree tells the story of my family.
When I was first married, my mom gave me a bunch of ornaments she didn’t want anymore. They were nice but they didn’t hold sentimental value or reflect our personal style. Nothing gave me greater pride than rushing out to purchase the “Our First Christmas Together” ornament. It instantly became my favorite and I gave it a prime real estate on our first tree.
Our First Christmas Together 1998
In the years that followed, I slowly exchanged my hand-me-down ornaments for ornaments that marked special occasions in our lives. We have Baby’s First Christmas ornaments, Our First House ornaments, Our New House ornaments and ornaments that symbolize our personal interests.
Every year I buy a few but none are better than the handmade, overly glittered ornaments made by my kids. Today, those are the ones that get prime real estate on my tree.
I have a girlfriend who has a wish tree. She collects ornaments that symbolize her wishes for the coming year. I love this idea because she’s built an eclectic collection of her grownup wishes that serve as a reminder of all the hard work she’s put into making her own dreams come true.
If I were to start a wish tree, this would be my first ornament:
Hint, hint.
What story does your Christmas tree tell?
MOMMYFRIEND 
I love the idea of a wish tree! I have never heard of that. I had to take all of our ornaments off the tree this week because our 3 year old was breaking them at an alarming rate. Our tree now has lights and maybe 4 ornaments around the tree top. So frustrating, but I am going to that 75% off sale at Pier One!
Oh, I love this! Ours is the same way. No special tree with glass ornaments that no one can touch. I try to get a new one each year to mark something we’ve done each year. It’s funny because my husband just noticed that last year after about 7 years. (That goes with your last post!)
Our tree is a mutt!! It has a little of everything. We mainly have a ton of Looney Toon ornaments we bought when the Warner Bro’s store was open. We try and buy an ornament from places we’ve visited. We also have Disney ornaments and fancy ornaments. Of course I just love the one’s Hunter makes and one’s with his picture. Hunter has his own tree and we buy at least 1 ornament a year for it. It’s mainly sports themed but it also has many ornaments we’ve found with his name on it. He may only be 5, but his tree is full w/ over 20 ornaments. 😉
I can really relate to this post. For years, that is exactly how our tree looked. I had wanted my theme to be Victorian houses, and I bought a new ornament each year, and eventually sold them because there was no room on the tree with all of the specialty ones. I now have two trees – Tho the girls are in their 20’s now, I cannot part with those homemade ones.