There was a hallmark commercial when I was young of a very large Christmas tree with only one Christmas ornament on it, the couple’s first Christmas together. My mom in an effort to avoid this, always buys a matching set of ornaments for the tree each year. Each of the kids get one, & we keep our ornaments separately in a box. Some years we have made crafts of it: punching tin ornaments or painting ceramic or wood ornaments as a family. We also each keep a Christmas card with the ornament & the year written on it. This way, we will always take our memories with us & will never have a one ornament tree. We each have an ornament collection that it would take most people years to collect, full of sentimentality. Hmm I thought I was making up the word sentimentality, but the spell checker seems ok with it. I learn something new everyday. Works for me!
9:38 pm on December 19th, 2006
My mom did something similar for me, she bought me an ornament each year. It was wonderful the first year I had my own tree to be able to pull out all the special ornaments she had purchased for me.
5:29 am on December 20th, 2006
ok you’ve convinced me (and my husband) the kids won’t think their ornaments are cheesy when they are adults! Thanks!
6:04 am on December 20th, 2006
My parents started doing this for me after our naughty kitty destroyed all of their felt ornaments and they had to start over. It is a great idea. However, make sure you get an ornament for yourself now and then too, because their tree looked a little bald the year I moved out when suddenly 1/3 of the ornaments were gone!
7:41 am on December 20th, 2006
What a nice idea. Mom mother-in-law always gets each of us an ornament every year and it is blast to see the collection grow. I’ve picked up the habit and bought an ornament for each of my four kids. Last year, I picked up two small containers and when I packed up the tree, I filled each container for my older girls with their own collection. They had such a good time picking through those containers this year to decorate…and I didn’t have to worry about my breakables being dropped, to boot!
Blessings from under the pile,
Elisa
http://www.laundry-alternative.net
6:21 am on December 21st, 2006
What a wonderful tradition! The first Christmas I was married, I wrapped up M&Ms in Saran Wrap and hung the bundles all over the tree. It sure was yummy taking the tree down that year. Remember: a set of Christmas ornaments is a great gift for Newlyweds!