Decorating For Christmas and Holiday Traditions

Decorating our home for Christmas is one of the funnest parts of the holy day.  We put on Christmas music and start the fire in our little fireplace in the parlor.  We always buy a real fresh Christmas tree and it must sit in the middle of the big bay windows of course.  That way you can see the multicolored lights from the street. 

We then one by one we take the precious ornaments out of their boxes and take time to find the perfect spot for each one.  Our tree looks a little funny this year due to the fact that we have a very inquisitive little two year old.  All the ornaments are on the top half of the tree so that they wont get broken.  Only a few ornaments can be labeled "Viking Boy Proof" and he has fun taking those off and putting them back on.



On the day we decorate the tree each child gets a new ornament that is their very own.  Usually Husband and I pick them out after much thought.  Each ornament represents something unique about that child that year. 

So for Eldest Daughter we bought a French Horn in celebration of her new talent

For Captain of the Sea's we bought a parrot (at his request) because pirates always have a parrot!

For Princess in Waiting a ballerina was the only thing she wanted

And for Viking Boy a train was the thing to do because he loves trains

I have ornaments given to me from when I was a child.  And now my husband and I always get a new ornament for our tree.  One thing we try to get every year for our special ornament is two turtle doves.  This tradition started when we were still courting and went up to Leavenworth together.  While browsing through the Christmas shops we found a beautiful brass ornament of two turtle doves holding mistletoe over a heart.  We already new we wanted to spend our lives together so we bought it and have been collecting them ever since.

This year we went back to Leavenworth and looked in vain for a similar ornament in the same style.  But every shop owner told us they no longer could find those types of decorations!  Finally we went into the nutcracker museum (yes there is such a place) and tucked into a corner was a clearance rack of brass cut ornaments!  There were no turtledoves but I found a lovely snowflake with six little bells on the outside of it.  And guess how many people are in our family this year?  SIX!  I bought on the spot as a perfect ornament for this year.

Almost all my other decorations have some special meaning.

As a child my mother made this lovely music box and I remember winding it over and over listening to "I saw mommy kissing Santa Clause" and watching the happy couple dance.  Now my children do the same thing.

This beautiful little lighted Christmas scene show two little girls and a little boy looking into a fireplace.  I just need to get one little matching boy and it will be our family!