By Lily
Every year, most of us trudge to either the attic or the basement to pull out boxes of holiday decorations. Among the green and golds, we find some precious treasures. As I dig through the boxes, I find ornaments made years ago by the older children. I see them and sort of long to return to the days of their youth.  I would love, to once again, see their happy, greedy, little faces on Christmas morning. Watching them rip, tear and then scream to each other what they got. Enjoying our breakfast and then relaxing while we figured out how things worked or played one of the new games. I feel blessed that I have a last little one to refresh our tree with ornaments of her own design. I have ornaments I bought as souvenirs, and ones that were given by friends. When we are done, my tree drips with sentiment and lights.
Just as I did, my children have their own favorites out of our own family decorations. We have an animated Santa that has been around forever. He always go under the tree, next to the candied ladder of elves. I have a cheap little Santa train that everyone always wants to play with. My favorite is the one from my childhood. I loved our plastic Bakelight church. When my older ones were little, my mother gave it to me to have in my own home. I was delighted that it became a part of my family’s Christmas decor.  I have the same feeling every time I pull it out and look for someplace safe to set it.
I remember being that child on Christmas. I remember my parents trudging in the boxes and how we kids enjoyed seeing the decorations come out. We would hang the all the blue and red balls, while the color wheel hummed and change the tint of our silver tinsel tree. I remember how we hung the ornaments we had made in years before. I was always waiting for the box with the little church to come out. I thought it was beautiful.  The painted stained glass windows glowed from a light inside and a it had a music box that played “Silent Night.” Over and over, I would wind the music box and I would turn out the lights to see how pretty it shown in the dark. I treasure this piece of my past and all the memories it holds. I hope someday one of my children will do the same.
What about you? Do you have a favorite sentimental holiday decoration? Please share your holiday memories.
A note from Pam@IW:
The Nativity Scene pictured above is a very sentimental decoration to my family. My father died in 1955 and left my mother with 3 children under the age of five and pregnant with me. His very close friend and co-worker, Emil, painted this nativity scene and gifted our family with this to help us celebrate our Christmas in 1957. Emil married our mother in 1959 and they celebrated their 50th anniversary last year. Emil (he has always been referred to as Dad in our family) is a very remarkable and talented man in many ways and you will see his writings from time to time here at Imperfect Women.
This Nativity Scene has been proudly displayed outside during the holiday season at my parent’s home for over 50 years. My parent’s recently moved into an apartment in town and so now this Nativity Scene has been passed on to my younger brother and will continue to shine at night during the holiday season. It is amazing that his artwork has never needed any touch up. The picture attached here shows the Nativity Scene back in 1958.
What a beautiful nativity! Sentimental decorations are my favorite. When my husband and I got married, his mother gave us most if not all of his ornaments from his first Christmas on. I love looking at them each year. Every year I get each of us an ornament, I try to make the ornament reflect something from our lives that year. We bought a house this summer so mine is a beautiful, red (sparkly!) key. My husband grew a garden for the first time this year and I got him a Santa in overalls holding gardening tools. I was so excited when I found that one bc it was perfect.
Lily, what a beautiful nativity set. I have many of my Grandmothers and my Mom’s old ornaments from their first tree’s dating back to WW11. Each year I carefully unwrap them, a few have broken over the years. My favorite is a shinny silver elf with bells on his toes. He bends so you can sit him anywhere you want. When our kids were growing up, we played a game called hide the elf. The child who could find it won a small gift, and it seemed over the years they all won at one time or another. He then is placed sitting in our tree for the rest of the season. He is over 70 years old, but he will be passed on to one of our kids. I said he should travel to the home who will host Chritmas dinner when we are gone.
That Nativity scene is lovely. And what a beautiful story.
Snickers, it is a beautiful nativity isn’t it? It was Pam’s dad, Emil, who made that. Hiding and finding the elf ornament is a really cool tradition. I would love to see your old ornaments. I only had a couple. By the time they got to me, they were barely holding together and crumbled away years ago. They weren’t glass, they were that cellulose stuff.
Pam, that’s a such a sweet story about your Dad (before he was Dad) making the nativity for your family. That is a treasure.
Samantha, your first Christmas in the new house! Congrats. Nice find on the gardening Santa.
The nativity scene has held up great for being over fifty years old but I noticed a spot that needs to be touched up. I’ll just need to match the paint color.
I emailed my Dad and told him that I had posted about his artwork on Imperfect Women. He emailed me back this comment and I thought I would share it. This is something that he had never shared with us before.
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One story I’ve probably forgot to tell you about the famous Nativity Scene’s history is that it was once blessed by the Bishop. Perhaps that has helped it to survive the years.
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The Glen Haven priest once arranged for the Bishop to visit the Glen Haven Catholic Church and congregation. The Bishop’s vehicle came slowly down the 2-mile hill into the tiny community, following a group of mounted members of the local Saddle Club. On the short street in front of the church, the local farmers displayed samples of their hay, straw, grain, and other produce. The Bishop carefully blessed these. All in all, it was quite a day.
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My boss, Dick Metcalf, knew that I had painted the Nativity Scene. He thought that it was absolutely great. He told me to bring it down for the Bishop’s blessing. Being a member of the Bloomington parish, I would have felt kind of out of place, so at first, I didn’t bring it. Dick asked me again whether I had brought it, and this time he insisted that I have it there. So I went home and got it. I set it up in front of the Catholic School’s front door. And there I suppose it got its (and my) share of holy water and blessing.
As adults, my brothers and sister and I have exchanged some nice ornaments for Christmas gifts over the years. We started doing that years ago when the cost of exchanging gifts and shipping just got out of control. I love all of these ornaments and even though we have scaled down to a small Christmas tree the last several years, I still look at everyone one of them when I am decorating. Some of them are just too big to hang on the small branches.
Snickers,
I think that is so great that you have decorations dating back that far. I wish I had some from my childhood and from my parent’s childhood.
Pam,
What a beautiful Nativity, and precious memories it brings back! Thanks to Emil for adding another layer to the story. I love the color.
Most of the ornaments that hang on my tree are very meaningful to my children and husband and I. Many are ornaments Santa put in the kids’ stockings to commemorate something special in their lives. I have only a few from my childhood, though my parents still have a few that I made them as a young child.
Our Nativity set is also treasured. I bought a resin collectible set when I had the girls because they loved to re-enact the Christmas story with the figures, and they chipped and broke my inexpensive plaster set. Many times I found the small Barbies from Happy Meals in attendance at the stable. 🙂
I remember sentimental holiday decorations from my own youth but I don’t think my own children have any. We are rarely at our own home for Christmas. We are either with my parents or my inlaws or just somewhere else. Some years, we haven’t even put up a tree. I don’t think we have any of our own Christmas traditions. My family is still young so I’m sure that will come.
I was just thinking the other day and somewhat related-when I was young everyone had a wood burning fireplace so during winter and Christmas I remember the smell and sound of roasting chestnuts and a crackling fire. We would sit in the dark with just the fire for light for hours until it burnt out. When you went outside, it would smell smoky from everyone else’s fireplaces. Now we live in a new community where everyone has a gas fireplace. No smell, no crackling. People turn on the fireplace channel on TV instead. LOL. Times change. I miss wood burning fireplaces.
I love the story of the Nativity. Thanks for sharing it. It is beautiful.
One of the best parts about Christmas is the misty eyed feeling I get when I see these special decorations. This year I was lucky enough to recieve in my opinon the most precious of our familys decorations. A set of handcrafted felt candle holders that as a set spell NOEL. My uncle Peter had made these as a child and my Granfather (Emil) and I spent my entire life tormenting my poor Grandmother by changing the order to say LEON. The battle for LEON has been going on for longer than I can say and I had to fight back tears when Grandma gave them to me this year at Thanksgiving. Now the tradition will carry on with my daughter and I vs. my wife. I hope she is up for it.
Zak, sweet story. May your daughter grow up to spell LONE just to mess with you all.
What great stories! I love to read about other family traditions and know that I am not alone in being sentimental.
I have to add that I too have a plastic Bakelight church. There is a place in the back to put a light that lights up the ‘stained glass window’. It is one of my favorite decorations.
We always put up two trees, a more formal one in the living room and the tree in the family room would have all the ornaments that the kids have made from pre school on.
Beautiful story about the nativity, Pam!
Thanks for sharing Zak. I just heard that story for the first time when I was home this past October.
Many times I found the small Barbies from Happy Meals in attendance at the stable.
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LOL! I love this.
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Zak, LEON – that is priceless. Congatulations on the birth of your daughter. Sounds like you are already grooming her to assume responsibility for the NOEL set.
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I don’t have anything to quite compare to some of these stories. My only child is 19. When she was younger, we had a lot of fun setting up several Advent Calendars each Christmas. She is isn’t really into that anymore, but perhaps there will be little ones in our future to carry on the tradition. These days, besides putting up a pretty good sized tree, we still put up lots and lots of lights indoors and outdoors.
Over the years my family has always made something homemade for Xmas giving. A decoration, fudge, popcorn balls nothing big but always memorable. I believe the tradition started when I was young and was being raised by a very creative mother and father. Some of my very first memories are of making decorations for Xmas with them.
One of my prize possessions although quite tattered and worn are a set of four elves that my dad, sister and I made when my parents were first married. I am not quite sure my Mom ever understood what my Dad was thinking giving us two girls paints and paint brushes while we were still in our Sunday church dresses.
The elves are in the front of our house this year in need of a makeover. This makeover will probably happen when my granddaughter is old enough to help.
What sweet elves! They are so whimsical, and have one-of-a-kind look.
We were in our Sunday church dresses? Mom must have had her hand full doing something else to let that happen. 😉 These look great in front of your house.
Ann@iw,
I came home to find my father in law had changed them to spell LENO. So the tradition will continue with a twist as you suggested.
Part of the tradition of the “Noel” “Leon” candles is that Leon is our Dad’s middle name. As I have heard the story he always thought that his middle name was Leo until his birth certificate was found (later in his life) and Leon was the spelling not Leo.
Regina,
All of Jeff’s life he was told by his mother that his middle name was Ray and every document he has says Ray. After his mother died he received his original birth certificate and it says Roy. Of course he is not even able to ask anyone about it at that point because his Dad had already passed away.
Regina
I have the love for old Christmas stuff, and these elves look they have magic in them. How cute!!!
It’s great to see that the elves have found a new home. They look GREAT! As for the “Leon” part of the story, I remember my Grandfather Schmit referring to me as “Little Leo.” It wasn’t until I reached Social Security Age that I learned my name actually was recorded as “Leon Emil.” But after this long, it doesn’t really matter a lot. Wishing a Merry Christmas to all of the family, and also to the elves … Grandpa Leon Emil Schmit.
Well, Grampa Leon, that’s one story I hadn’t heard before.