Do you have any favorite ornaments? Let's share some and why they are your favorite and/or why they mean so much to you! If you want you could include a picture of it! I mentioned one of mine on the Christmas Tree thread. I have a couple of others: One is from a friend for the first Christmas after my dh and I got married--very special memory! The other is from that same friend for the first Christmas after having our first child! Actually I have one more---it's a plastic see through heart that come apart and snaps back together. I put petals from the flowers in my wedding bouquet inside, which makes it very special too!
Ok, I will be the good mom and say that all the ornaments my kids made are my favorite. Ok, with that said....I really like the decoupage one I made. lol. We did decoupage one year for our ornaments. One of my other favorites is a pair of felt mittens ornament made by my best friend. Another one is a ceramic teddy bear my mom painted for me when I was a kid. Guess, I really like the handcrafted things. lol. Oh, no pics. Sorry. For one, my dig camera is of very poor quality and I need another. Second, I don't even know how to add pics to message boards. I can change avatars, add pics on eBay, blogs, websites, copy and paste banners....blah, blah, but adding pics with on a message board never works for me. I said never works for me like this is a subjective thing...I just don't know what I am doing.
Mine has turned up missing. I use to collect frogs. One year, I found a Hallmark ornament. It's a toad, under a mistletoe rope. You pull on something, and the frog gets a BIG grin and lip-prints on its cheek. It was titled "Mistle-Toad".
I have lots of coke cola ornaments and we get a new one each year. I like old fashioned looking ones (retro). And just in general any kind of fun ones. We have a bunch of hand made ones too.
So hard to pick a favorite. I have so many. There is a memory tied to every single ornament on our tree. From my very first Christmas, my grandmother gave me an ornament. Then my mother started the tradition with me AND my kids too. Everyone has a story. Hubby & I started buying 1 ornament a year to represent a big event that year or a place we visited. A few of my favorites: 1. The first one my grandmother every gave me - a pink and white ball with glistening glitter all over it. Knock wood - it has not broken in 38 years. 2. The ones we bought each year of our kids birth from Bronner's in MI...just a large shiny ball with their names on it. 3. A lighthouse my friend gave us about 8 years ago when we started a homefellowship bible study in our home. It plugs into the light string so that it acts like a lighthouse. SO COOL. 4. My husbands grandmother made us a set of 12 crystal bead icicle lights. We cry every year when we unwrap them. She went to be with the Lord in October of 2005. 5. Every year I make an ornament with my kids pix inside it - kind of a Christmas Chronicle of how they've grown. Year 1, my daughter as a baby. Year 2, another of her (these two were bought and we just put the pic inside). Year 3, my daughter and son each glued inside two candy canes formed into a heart. Year 4, a candycane wreath with their pic inside. Year 5, a copy of a pic in a 3D miniature blues clues house from nick magazine. Last year....a mini paper pic frame with our Christmas Card pic in it. This year has not been done yet....thinking of an idea. 6. This one has disappeared - I think my husband either hid it or threw it away. We had a plastic boy on a drum that when you pressed the bottom played "It's a Small World After All" in it. But it would play for like 10 minutes! Used to drive him crazy...I think that's what I loved about it...come to think of it, I'm going to go dig thru the boxes, it's NOT on the tree and it should be! heee heee heee...ooooo, I'm gonna be in so much trouble!!! I could really keep going, but I would say, those are the ones that would just not be a homey tree without them.
I have a lifetime of memories in our ornaments but one year my kids made wooden ornaments to sell at our church missions craft sale. They are little mangers with a baby in it and over his head it says "Shhhh, He's sleeping" I just love that one. Beth
Beth: I made a little orniment when I was a kid you take round toothpicks and make a manger (house shape) then you glue from the back a christmas card picture -- I had one of baby Jesus in the manger. Becky: there is an idea for your sunday school classes! My husband's favorite ornament is a maravian star he got from the hospital gift shop when the twins were in the hospital for 3 months. He hangs that one up and then we do the rest.
My dd loved Pooh from when she was tiny. So she has a few different Pooh ornaments also. I'll have to ask my kids what their favorite ornaments are.
my favorites are... a beaded spider given to me a few years ago , a small pair of crocheted bells that were made by my Nina (grandmother) years ago, and of course, all of the ornaments that were made by my children. I also have quite a few that were hand made in the past by some internet friends.
When I was a kid every year my grandmother bought each of her grandkids one of those flat shiny gold ornaments. Each one is engraved on the back with To Carla Love G'ma & G'dad and the year. They are my favorites! When we each turned 21 she stopped buying the gold ones for us. I always have to put them on the tree in order. My favorite of those was from my first Christmas, it's a little child angel who is praying and there is a little bell hanging from her hands.
I like the ornaments that I got when my aunt and I used to go to craft fairs I have a mr & mrs santa bear I think I like those best.
I have some fun candy cane ornaments, but not like any you have seen before. They were my mom's when she was younger and always had them on her tree. I have such memories of hanging them on our tree when I was little! My mom gave them to me a few years ago and now my dd loves to hang them on our tree. They are really nothing extraordinary, but I just love the memories that come along with them. And now passing that on to my kids. I also have an christmas tree ornament that each of my dc made in school with their picture in it. I love those, too!
When my DH and I first got together he cut out about a dozen wooden snowflake ornaments and we painted them and put clear glitter on them.... they are special now, but now you can go to any craft store and buy them already pre cut. We also bought some of the ceramic ornaments you can paint your self. Yesterday I bought this years ornaments for the kids, they are different clay ornaments, I'll scratch in the year on the back.
I had some lovely crocheted snowflakes that someone made me when I was a teen. Those, along with the little cross stich ornaments I made in college, are missing!!! When I was a kid, my g'mal had this stuff, kind of like cotton balls, only it wasn't cotton, maybe from Angel's Hair.....? But it made large "puff balls". She would put a colored light right into the middle of each one, and the puff balls would glow all different colors. I always thought that was so cool.
I really do not have ornaments from the past. My mom is still holding on to everything for dear life. I like to make ornaments out of molds and plaster. We also buy ceramic ornaments to paint. One year I cut out a whole mess of snowmen and they came out so cute after they were painted and dressed. I usually give them away as gifts unless Emma painted them.
One year I cut gingerbread men out of heavy brown paper. They were about 6 inches long. Then I sewed two together with the sewing machine set for a long stitch leaving a opening to stuff it. I put in just enough stuffing to make them puffy. I closed the hole and decorated the outside like a gingerbread cookie. We sold them at our missions bazaar that year.
This isn't an ornament but it was cute. My grandmother took a long knitting needle and starting with some big glass ball ornaments she ran the needle through the metal loop on the ornament. The large ones made the bottom of a colorful Christmas tree. As she went up the length of the needle she used smaller balls. On the top she put a small gold ball like a star. I can't remember how she got the whole thing to stand up but it did and everyone admired it when they came to her house that year. She had such a knack for stuff like that. She was a florist. Beth
Beth, Have you ever tried burnt paper bag crafts. It is a bit time consuming but worth every minute. The final result is a craft that doesn't feel or look like paper bag but rather it looks like antique metal and very old. After it is sealed it feels like a soft metal. Actually that will depend on how much sealer or glaze you use in the end. I wish I can post pictures of an angel I made. It was about 16" tall and so wide. Everybody thought is was bronzed or copper. It is beautiful and it lasts forever because of the glaze. I bet your gingerbread boys would look really pretty like this. Patty
