Christmas Tree Ornaments: New and Old!

Wow--can you believe there are only 18 days until Christmas?  That's crazy!  I did, though, get all my Christmas shopping done on Monday.  Mama and I made a mother/daughter date out of it.  I didn't have much money to spend (as in, $21.25) and I had to buy for six or seven people, but with Mama's help, I managed to stay on budget!  I'll be making a lot of the presents and just using items from the dollar store.  The sweet, sweet dollar store.  :)

Anyway, I wanted to share with you some of our favorite and most sentimental Christmas ornaments.  Some are new, some are old; some are store-bought or have been given to us, and some we've made ourselves.  Oh, and I'm sorry if some of the pictures are blurry!  Some of them were okay to take with the flash, and some weren't...I didn't get it right on all of them!  :)

These ornaments...

...were made by my mama.  She made one first for Colt, then for me.  It's a star (much like a King David Star) made out of popsicle sticks coated in glitter (gold or silver).  In the center, you put a picture of the child.  We're planning on making one for Luke this year!

These were made recently--last Christmas--by Luke and I.  We like to make at least one type of Christmas ornament each year if not more, and this



Of course, it is nothing other than a train!

was the first Christmas tree ornament Luke ever made.  I made these two last year:

And salt dough ornaments...oh so easy and oh so cute!



This one was made by Colt WAY before I was born.

And I just LOVE this ornament that my mama found for me at K*hl's on B*ack Friday--she knows how much I love Asia!

Have any of you seen the movie It's a Wonderful Life?  A while back (before I was born), my mama and older brother, Colt, went to meet "ZuZu" (George Bailey's youngest daughter in the movie) at our local library.  Of course, she was all grown up (It's a Wonderful Life was made in 1946).  She signed out copy of the movie and signed the ornament that we bought--it had her picture on it.  Anyone remember ZuZu's petals?  :)

These ornaments are ones that my mama bought for she and my daddy's first Christmas together as a married couple.  It's possible that one of them might have been my great-grandmother's--Mama said she doesn't remember which ones she bought and which ones were my great-grandmother's.  She says that she had so much fun shopping that first Christmas!

These are some more fun, homemade ornaments.  Make a triangle out of popsicle sticks and put a piece of triangular paper behind it; then let the child draw and/or color a manger scene inside.  Attach ribbon and hang on the tree!  You can even add straw/raffia at the bottom of the triangle and a star/star sticker at the top!


Every year, my grandmama and pop give each granddaughter (this year, there are four of us) an angel ornament and each grandson (this year, there are four of those) a snowman ornament.  This year, I got this angel:

And Luke and Colt got these snowmen:

Have you ever seen these ornaments?  Take a Prin*le lid and cut out a Christmas-y picture in a circle that will fit onto the lid.  Glue it on, and then outline it in glitter and stick a hanging-hook through it and you've got yourself a cute, homemade ornament!

Our friend Kim and Chuck, whom we traveled with in C*ina (they were adopting their daughter, Shiloh, from Luke's province), sent us this ornament last year.  It has Merry Christmas written on it in both English and Chinese.

This is from when I played the part of Gladys in the play The Best Christmas Pageant ever.  I was five and I LOVED it!  Our local theater is putting on The Little Princess this Spring and I'm hoping to try out for one of the parts.  :)



I insisted on writing my name and the name of my part in the play at the bottom.

And I love these little booties from my first Christmas...they're so delicate and pretty!

My mama made these ornaments in 2008.  She is so talented--she made these herself!

And last but not least, every tree needs a topper--whether it be a star or an angel!

So what about you?  Tell me about your ornaments!

God bless you!

Joy :D