What’s on YOUR tree?

I love to look at pictures of perfectly decorated Christmas trees in magazines, trees with decorating schemes, trees that are colour coordinated, lush, richly ornamented trees, trees of which Martha would approve. Our tree would not make the grade. However, I enjoy its homey selection of ornaments, old and new, lovingly unpacked each year for their annual showing.

Some of the decorations date to my daughters’ youth. The opening cube was decorated by Ponygirl when she was about 2 1/2 years old, while the wooden tree above was glued by Fiddlegirl when she was about the same age. They roll their eyes when they see these early efforts trotted out each year.

I made this little salt dough mouse myself. He has been dreaming about Christmas in his little walnut-shell cradle for about 30 years now.

This needlepoint birdfeeder is a testament to the immense patience of a pair of dedicated Brownie leaders, who aided and cajoled a troop of 6 to 8 years olds as they completed this ambitious project.

A friend gifted me with this kitten in a pram in the year Birdgirl was born. Surprisingly, there aren’t many cats represented on the tree. There are a few horses, though.

Over the years, we accumulated a big collection of ornaments, but as the kids left home, they took a selection of ornaments with them, leaving me with a bit of space for newer decoration. I’ve been on the lookout for woodland creatures in recent years. I found this little fawn on a visit to the gift store at the Winterthur Estate in Delaware this summer.

My favorites are the raccoons. Here’s a gleeful snowball tosser.

This little glass raccoon looks startled to find himself on a tree each year.

Raccoons have beautiful, delicate, clever hands, nicely depicted on this little fellow.

Strictly speaking, we don’t have any alligators in our woodlands around here, but this whimsical creation was just too charming to pass up. He can always make me smile. What’s on your tree?

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