Time for some pretty sparkles

Two posts in one day?  Most unlike me, I know.  But I just finished putting up the Christmas tree:

(Well, finished in the sense that I discovered that the lights don’t work, so I’ll have to get some new ones, and I really need to get a bit more tinsel to replace the old stringy stuff. But mostly finished.  As finished as it’s going to get today, anyway.)
Lots of new ornaments added this year – at this rate I’m going to run out of room. Maybe I should get rid of some of the old ones… or I could just buy a bigger tree 🙂  As well as some generic baubles I bought cheap in the post-Christmas sales last year, there’s a few special additions:
The glass angel from my BC Ornament Exchange partner, and the crocheted balls from my Christchurch Bloggers Secret Santa,


some Scandinavian reindeer and a Welsh sheep and dragon sent by lytteltonwitch in her travels,




the ornament made from red-zone wood I got at the craft fair last weekend,

and a star from the Christmas shop Mum, Niece and I visited when I was down in Alexandra after the Queenstown convention.

I love the way my Christmas tree is filled with wonderful memories. So many of the ornaments were given to me by special people, or are souvenirs of special occasions. Wherever I look on the tree, there’s something to make me smile.
There’s too many special ornaments to show you them all, but here’s just a few highlights:

A memory of an amazing road trip across America with Skyring.

And another amazing road trip around Ireland with Lytteltonwitch.

With the announcement last week that they’re definitely demolishing the cathedral, this bird takes on new significance – I bought it many years ago in the cathedral’s gift shop.

The oldest ornament on my tree, bought with H in London for our first Christmas together (when we didn’t even have a tree to hang it on). Some might say I should throw it out now, given what happened, but I still treasure it as a reminder that those 18 years weren’t a complete waste – there are good memories as well as bad.

This fairy was a thank-you gift from the rest of the organising team for the Christchurch 2009 convention.
Christmas tree 2013
A present from Jenny, more precious now that she’s moved on to foreign parts.

And this one Mum gave me the first Christmas after I moved back to New Zealand, in what turned into a tradition of her giving me a new ornament every year.
Yep, I like my Christmas tree!

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6 Comments

  1. So many wonderful memories. I am still bereft that I lost my childhood ornaments in the move here (far as we can tell they were taken out of a moving box by a neighbor helping herself to things) I have so very little from when I was young and while Christmas was not a time of joy for me and the only tradition was lots and LOTS of alcohol, they were still special. Thank you for sharing yours.

  2. I love your tree. I can’t tell you how much I miss having a tree that isn’t just plastic balls. Mine has been up a few days and the cats have already re-arranged most of it. I don’t dare put up anything I care about. My special ornaments will be hung from a rack up on a wall, safe from cats and kids. It will show only a teensy bit of my treasures, but at least that’s something. I love other people’s Christmas trees!

    1. I’m amazed (and thankful!) that Parsnips doesn’t seem to be interested in the tree. Even last year when she was still very kittenish she never tried to climb it or attack the ornaments, and this year she’s been ignoring it completely.

  3. So many adventures and memories hidden in your Christmas Tree, just waiting for you to discover again and again.

  4. I love your special ornaments and reading about the memories. I have a lot of ornaments that were given to me by friends, loved ones, and parents of the children I cared for in day care and Mother’s Day Out. And some souvenirs that I bought, too.

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