Christmas Ornaments

Here's a picture of the Christmas tree that we have up this year. Connie despairs of me sometimes because I don't get as excited about Christmas as she does. She does such a superb job decorating the tree and inside the house.

But I didn't really want to write about the tree so much as the ornaments that we use.

I've inherited them from my grandmother. These were all handmade by her and my mother nearly 45 years ago. As I recall they got the idea from a women's magazine. They bought fabric-covered styrofoam balls at craft stores and went to work. They never had designs to copy but made up their own as they went. For a couple of years in the early 1960s, I remember my mother and grandmother working on these as we watched television as a family. They had big plastic bins of pins, ribbon, lace, sequins and beads they would pull material from. They would buy cheap costume jewelry at yard sales and use their components as well.

They lived 60 miles apart so they mostly worked separately. They would make multiples of designs they liked and trade back and forth. There's no way I can tell now who made what. My sister has my mother's collection.

My mother died in 1984 and my grandmother died last year. When I see these ornaments now it is a great reminder of them and their ability and creativity.