More MISTLETOE Ornaments!
I know, I keep promising you Blood Lily and then reneging! I am officially postponing the Blood Lily give-away until January because… my fabulous publisher managed to unearth some extra Mistletoe ornaments from the depth of the office. I have five more ornaments to give away.
So here’s your question: Do you have a favorite ornament? (For those who aren’t tree folks, it can be any kind of holiday accessory.)
Winners will be announced tomorrow evening.
My Christmas 1982 muppets ornament that my grandparents gave me. It always makes me smile.
I also have a series of barbie ornaments that my grandma got me when I was growing up and which now festoon our tree much to my husband’s embarrassment. We have about six ornaments besides the ten barbies so it’s an estrogen-heavy tree.
My favorite is porcelain Swedish Chef with a wooden spoon. The Swedish Chef was my father’s FAVORITE muppet of all time. My father passed away when I was 11, so every year the Swedish Chef brings a smile to my face of all the happy years we had.
Ever since I was little, my mom would make snowflake ornaments. She does a very fine crochet and then pins out the corners and brushes them with glue to harden. They’re gorgeous! I always gave them to my elementary teachers and friends’ parents growing up.
Homemade ornaments are always the best.
My favorite ornament is my Garfield one, he’s tangled up in Christmas lights and doesn’t seem pleased about it.
My favorite Christmas ornamentation is a stocking that my grandmother crocheted for me when I was little. I’ve stolen it from my parents’ and it’s the stocking I hang at my home.
My favorite Christmas ornament is the angel tree topper I made as a child in grade school. It is made of a styrofoam ball and some flattened raffia, age-yellowed ribbons, and a mess of curly hair-type material underneath a silver pipe-cleaner halo. It has been squished and re-boxed more times than I can recall. Every time I see the face of that angel staring down from the top of the tree, I recall the many wonderful Christmas’s spent with my family, and get the feeling that we really are blessed.
When I was young, my grandma made me a mailbox from needlepoint on those plastic weave mat things. She only had space to write “Chris” on it. I always thought that is funny, though no one has ever asked who Chris was. The past couple years, the kids have put ever small toy and anything else that would fit inside of its 1″ x 1 1/2″ opening inside. Legos are frequent flyers. I’ll miss it when they get too old to do that anymore.
Mine are my barbie ornaments. Ever since I was 10 my mom gives me a new one every year. I have 13 now, and I love them so much. Its a little tradition we always keep that means so much to me, and I would like to do with my children when I have them!
On the fifth (+1) day … the author gave to me
5 extra things,
4 thrilling books,
3 fresh quotes,
2 selfsame FAQs,
And a hero in her story.
😉
The tiny angel at the top of the tree that reminds me of the traditional Christmas joke.
I have a couple of favorites from when I was a kid – Strawberry Shortcake holding a candy cane and another one with an angel swinging from a snowflake. But a few years ago I found an awesome one for my husband – it is a golden retriever on skis!
Mine is a little drummer boy that my aunt gave me for my first Christmas.
Well, every year I purchase one very nice ornament to symbolize something special that occurred that year. So, I guess I’d have to say my favorite ornament(s) are the yearly ones, with the top three being the ones I got the years my children were born!
My favorite ornament is the foam ball snowman that I made in 1979 when I was 5-there was never a year that it was not on the family tree even after it’s face was flattened and when my mother died it moved to my tree. However, a new ornament from one of my favorite authors would make a wonderful addition to our tree (and a great birthday present for this winter solstice baby)
Mine is clear pale green glass with Santa, sled and reindeer flying across the sky. It was very old when I was little, and I’m 60+ now. A direct link to when my parents were young marrieds.
My favorite decoration is my miniature Charlie Brown Christmas tree. It’s the first holiday decoration I purchased for my new house.
A cloth ballerina with purple curly hair. It’s been on my tree every year since I was born!
I know I just won one, but I like participating. This is the first year my husband and I have gotten a tree since we got married and I found ornaments with our names on them and put them together on one ribbon. It hangs at the top of our tree.
My favorite ornament is Santa and elves on a gumdrop teeter-totter!!
My parents have a lot of really beautiful glass ornaments (many of which are not up this year due to a new and hyperactive kitten), but my favorites are probably two cloth-covered horses that they named Affirmed and Alydar, after the great rival racehorses of 70s. Affirmed is the one looking back over his shoulder at Alydar, who could never catch him.
Speaking of Mistletoe, a spotting “in the wild” as it were on the Apple iBook page: http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/ibooks.html#close
My favorite ornament is Glinda from “The Wizard of OZ” She is inside her bubble so it looks really cool and sparkly with all the lights. I’m an actress and when I was younger I waned to play Galinda in Wicked So my mom gave it to me several years ago. Every time it goes around (The tree rotates) I start singing songs from the show. It just always brings a smile to my face.
My favorite ornament is an old one of my mothers. Its a frosted cream color and has the first couple bars of “Adeste Fideles” painted on it.
My favorite decoration is a table-runner that was made by my grandmother and given to me upon her death a few years ago. It reminds me of her at Christmas. Happy Holidays everyone. 🙂
There have been some constant faves since I was a kid, and of course I’ve added a bit to the list as I got older. One of the most recent favorites is a beautiful wooden lion I got at a dept store sale. They had the most gorgeous ornaments, I kept going back and getting more on that great sale. This one reminds me of Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia, so there’s a Christmas connection in two ways.(The general Christmas theme of the ornament and the Narnia Christmas theme in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe movie.)
I just got an ornament as a gift for “First Christmas in Our New Home”. It’s so sweet!
My favorite ornament is a silly little plastic angel. She has long, wavy hair decorated with flowers, and her wings are fabulous. But the best part is that she is transparent except for a rainbow shimmer that looks amazing with the Christmas lights reflecting off of her.
I would have to say, my favorite ornament would be that of a girl and her white horse, feeding it a carrot. I received it as a gift for Christmas when I was a little girl, the year following the Christmas I received a white horse named Shane that I was leasing as a Christmas present. It reminds me how my whole family came together to help my parents get the horse for me as a gift. My family made a scavenger hunt of poems that my grandmother wrote that led me to different spots in the house, then outside to where another poem would be waiting. I was eventually led out back, down to the barn to find the last poem on our tack room door, telling me that the horse that I fell in love with was now mine! It was such an amazing moment, I looked down the isle of the barn to see my father and uncle leading Shane up the barn isle, covered in bows, curl ribbon, all of the wrapping paper from the presents we were opening previously, reindeer antlers (courtesy of our dog) and a santa hat. I started crying and laughing at the same time, for as far as I knew he would never be for sale, since the girl that owned him was too attached. Turns out, she needed money for college, resulting in his sale. Every time I look at the ornament, it reminds me of my favorite Christmas as a little girl!! (sorry for the essay, lol!!)
My favorite movie as a kid was The Wizard of Oz. I have an ornament that has all the characters standing on the platform when they’re saying goodbye to Dorothy.
It’s always been a family tradition that we each get an ornament attached to one of our presents each year. So I have plenty of ornaments to choose from … however there’s one that’s been on my tree ever since I could remember: a mail box. Much like Christy above, We have a hand-made mailbox from that plastic webbing and yarn. Mine is white with green trim and a red flag (that of course moves up and down). It’s about 2.5 inches long and about 3/4 inch “square” … not big enough for much more than a note …
When I was little, I’d fold up my letter to Santa and put it in the box. Magically it would disappear the next day. Santa always wrote back, but his note was too large for the mailbox. The elves however wrote small enough notes for the box. 🙂
When I grew up a bit the notes were replaced and I learned the story of the mailbox. The mailbox hung on my mother’s tree growing up too. It’s older than I thought. She had done the same thing I had, writing to Santa and getting responses from the elves … and when she moved out on her own, the mailbox went with her. But it didn’t leave empty. Her mom placed some “seed money” for the new year in the box.
Mom did the same for me the year I got married. There’s a dollar bill that lives in that mailbox. My gramma put it there, almost 35 years ago … my mom held on to the dollar and placed it back inside when she gave the mailbox to my husband and myself.
We just moved across the country (Ohio to Colorado) this year … about 12 weeks ago for my husband’s job. We don’t have a tree this year. But we do have a banister that I wired with garland … and a few of our favorite ornaments … and the mailbox.
This year, my mom found a box full of ornaments she made when I was little. She would use pins and colored sequins and cover foam balls in designs using the colored sequins. My daughter who is 4 years old, loved these ornaments when we opened the box. So, this year our tree is covered in the “new” old ornaments that I had memories of when I was a little girl. My mom will be thrilled to see our tree on Christmas that’s all decorated with her ornaments from long ago.
I can’t believe I’m sitting here with tears streaming down my face reading everyone’s responses! It just warms my heart to read that something so simple as a handmade trinket can evoke such memories of love and childhood magic. My favorite ornaments for our tree are the handmade ones my children made in their preschool years, made from felt and glitter and sequins with their little pictures attached.
It’s really sad, but I think my favorite ornament is this snowman couple that is on a candy cane tobaggon. My late boyfriend and I picked it out for our first tree together. I think of him when I see it.
My Walnut ornament that I made with my dad when I was 7. We had a walnut orchard, so we hauled the walnut, glued it back together & then decorated it with glue & glitter. It is such a wonderful memory.
this may make me sound like a cat lady but the ornament with my first cat’s portrait painted on it is my favorite – it was a gift from my parents one Christmas: one for me with Marmalade on it and one from my sister with her horse’s portrait on it.
My favorite was one I made myself during the eight grade years ago. It’s made out of some sort of crystals and shaped like the Konoha leaf village symbol (from an anime show I was obssesed during the time) ^.^
I have several favorites. My kids make ornaments in school with their pictures in them. They are not the greatest quality, but they have sentimental value. Most of them are from their pre-school days.
I’m Jewish, but around Christmas time I love to look at the lights. When I was younger my best friend’s mom would drive us around to various houses that had intense light displays.
Now that I’m older, there are two categories. The first is for houses that are pretty and tastefully done. The second is for houses that are clearly trying too hard; the kind that I feel the need to wear sunglasses in order to look directly at them.
My favorite ornament is a fabric Santa Clause, about 2 inches high, that my grandmother made for my mother when she was a child. About 170 years old now..
Jess, I love the light-watching! When I was living in Somerville, there was a house we used to call the Mafia Christmas House because there were, in addition to the lights, a Santa, a Jesus, and a Snowman taped to the porch rail with thick rolls of duct tape. They looked like they were being held hostage!
My favorite ornament is a clothespin angel that my mother made for me when I was younger. Recently she was telling me how she had stayed up all night making one of them for all of my siblings and I. Now when I see it on her tree it reminds me of all that she and my father did for me.
My favorite ornament depicts the Liberty Bell.
I have several china bells with decal decorations and small china ringers that belonged to my grandmother, complete with pipe cleaner hangers that she attached somewhere along the years, that I always find a pride of place for.
I refained from answering until after the contest (since I JUST won an ornament), but I wanted to share. Every single one of my ornaments from “Baby’s First Christmas 1982” to the red blown glass wine bottle I bought in Michigan wine country on vacation this year (and the ornament from the author I met in person this year!) were all purchased to symbolize something amazing I had done that year (and yes, I do plan my whole year around making sure there’s something amazing to memorialize on the tree). My current favs are a gold outline of my college from graduation last year and the carved Washington Monument from my Spring Break trip to D.
I refained from answering until after the contest (since I JUST won an ornament), but I wanted to share. Every single one of my ornaments from “Baby’s First Christmas 1982” to the red blown glass wine bottle I bought in Michigan wine country on vacation this year (and the ornament from the author I met in person this year!) were all purchased to symbolize something amazing I had done that year (and yes, I do plan my whole year around making sure there’s something amazing to memorialize on the tree). My current favs are a gold outline of my college from graduation last year and the carved Washington Monument from my Spring Break trip to D.C.