Your favorite Christmas items...their 'story' & 'home'

[zchristy]

I have been dreaming about my nativities lately...I have 4, but 2 are especially precious to me.

The first is a gorgeous, ornate ceramic set that has the holy family, angel, wisemen on camels, animals and a gorgeous creche. My Mom gave it to me one year for Christmas and it's such a treasure. My house is a bi-level with a sunken porch and when you go up the stairs to the main floor, there is an open ceiling to the kitchen and it's the perfect open place to display it.

The other set I pined over for a year and finally bought last year at 10,000 villages. (http://www.tenthousandvillages.ca/cgi-b ... em=2722010) It's a stunning two-tone olive wood nativity made from wood from Bethlehem. The creche is also just lovely and it sits prominently in my living room.

It is a funny story how this happened actually. I was in the store and it was uncharacteristically busy. I told my Dh to head one direction and I would go the other and see if we could find that olive nativity we had seen the year before. I was SERIOUSLY on a misson. At one point, DH waved me over and there it was. I stepped aside to take my son by the hand and woman in a wheelchair came over and hovered over the set for about 5 or 6 mins. I didn't want to be rude, so I was just standing nearby holding my breath and praying she wouldn't take it. FINALLY she wheeled away and I must have swooped down like an owl. When I took it to the till to pay for it, a sales person came over to the manager, who was ringing me in and asked him "Are there any more? I have a lady who would like that set". Sure enough, she wanted it. Took everything in me not to turn back and grin openly.

So what are your favorite things you look forward to bringing out, where do they 'live' in your house and how did they end up yours?

 

[HouseElf]

I have one item. A snowman ornament named 'Crackpot'. A handmade gift from my husband many years ago. What makes this so special is it was a total surprise! (I still have no idea how he found the time).

Crackpot is packed carefully in tissue each year, then placed in a wood keepsake box. He is placed at the topmost branch in our tree - only by me.

:frosty:

 

[Kim Loves Snow]

In my family there is a glass Christmas ornament that once belonged to my Great-Grandmother. It's very much like the old fashioned mercury balls, and it has a snow scene with a church and the words "Silent Night". Since I was a little girl I have been in awe of the ornament. Once, I can remember hearing a crash and all of us running into the family room only to see the Christmas tree face down in the floor and broken ornaments everywhere. We held our breath as we looked for Silent Night and when we found it, it was one of the few fragile ornaments that was not damaged. Amazing. It has since been retired to a clear display box lined in cotton and still goes out at my parents home every year. For decades my brother and I have playfully argued over who would get Silent Night when it was time for a new home. Finally, last Christmas, I gave in and said he could have it. Little does he know I found the exact same ornament at an antique store and bought it...of course I'll get the real Silent Night and he'll get the "fake" Silent Night one day! :haha:

 

[snowlvr]

Gosh, when I think about my Christmas stuff, I love it all! However, My MIL passed away not long after I was married and she had given me a handmade angel ornament she bought at our church bazaar, that always makes me sad/glad to hang..also, I still have my 28 yr old DS first xmas ornament which I am KEEPING--he got his box of ornaments we had collected for him over the years when he bought his own home and married, but the Hallmark 1980 Baby's First Christmas is staying with momma!! Both are carefully wrapped in tissue paper and have their own boxes, and ditto-they are wrapped, unwrapped, and hung only by me! :rnament: :rnament:

 

[pkcrafty]

I have two plates I made when my children were little - one for Santa cookies and one for 'reindeer food' - I spent many hours painting and having them fired - and it was such fun to watch my girls take them out each Christmas Eve and fill them up for Santa's visit. Now, I still bring them out on Christmas eve, but piled with sweet treats for us to share before bed. Hope I'll be able to keep them safe until grandkids arrive! :grin:

 

[momtomaddie]

I have one thing that I love. I honestly don't know what its called though. But, It has three candles on the bottom that when they are lit they push the little fan around in a circle and it makes the angels hit the bells. There was one kind of like it in the movie Christmas Vacation. But anyways... It was my great grandmothers. I love it so very much, has to be my favorite thing to put out every year.

 

[missjane]

I have two favorites. Both belonged to my parents. Funny, but I don't remember how they came to be mine! One is a very unique looking ornament. The outside looks like it is covered in onion skin and it has a face that looks like the snowman from Rudolph. I always hunted for it to put it on the tree before my sisters :grin: could find it. I still don't understand my fascination with it. The other is a plastic snowman about 15 inches tall that illuminates. It was always in the living room window at Christmas at my parent's house. My window sills are not wide enough for it so I put it on a table every year near a plug and plug it in.

 

[zchristy]

MomtoMaddie, I know EXACTLY what you mean and we used to have those too! They are called candle-powered chimes and they are a German tradition.

This page for collectors is really interesting: http://www.oldchristmaslights.com/candl ... chimes.htm

You've reminded me about this - -I think I'll look for one for the kids to set up this year. THANKS!

 

[momtomaddie]

ZChristy! It makes since it was a german tradition! My family name is Verpooten! LOL funny. And Thank you!!! I hope you find one for your kids, I love ours!

 

[momtomaddie]

AND.....The first one shown on that page is almost EXACTLY like what I have. Mine's not quite as detailed though...

 

[FrostyShimmer]

I have one thing that I love. I honestly don't know what its called though. But, It has three candles on the bottom that when they are lit they push the little fan around in a circle and it makes the angels hit the bells. There was one kind of like it in the movie Christmas Vacation. But anyways... It was my great grandmothers. I love it so very much, has to be my favorite thing to put out every year.

I bought 3 sets of these last year to give as gifts this year...and 1 for myself. We had an old one as kids but someone broke a piece and garbaged it

Usually Added Touch has them on their online store. I just checked and there are none listed now...but maybe closer to Christmas?

 

[momtomaddie]

Ebay has them. Should'v known, they have everything!

 

[ChristmasCheerleader]

What a great topic!

Several come to mind, but I will single out just three

1. A cardboard angel with tinsel around it. The tinsel has faded to almost a brass look and the angel is missing an arm. This was given to my grandmother by her Sunday school teacher when she was about 4. She just passed away last month at the age of 96. I am having the ornament framed this year.

2. A percosious (sp?) looking little elf. That has been around since I was a kid. It was given to me my the Santa at the mall.

3. A binky! Yep! A pacifier. My son stuck it on the tree when he was one year old and we just kept it there! (The next year he tried to take it off and use it!)

 

[AuntJamelle]

I just saw the German candle thingies at Tuesday Mornings - a couple of different sizes. They were imports and not cheap - but they looked awesome!

As far as my favorite Christmas items go...

The ornament I purchased the weekend DH proposed - we were in Chicago and visited the aquarium. While there I bought of those painted metal ornaments where the plates of metal are strung together and flex a bit - it is painted in blues and greens on gold and is very pretty!

The mini-fire screen with places for a series of several votive candles behind it. The pattern looks like Santa is his sleigh with the reindeer before him against a night sky. It was a gift from my oldest and closest friend...

I have so many memories tied up with various ornaments, etc. it is hard to pick!

 

[holidaymama]

German Smokers.

My mom bought her first one in Germany, and then we found a Christmas store in a little German town and now she has several and you buy the incense things to burn and it comes out of their pipes.

They have a very church-like smell...well Catholics use it any way. But it reminds me of Christmas...

I don't have many favorite "things" but I am a smells person! I have certain holiday smells that just warm my heart and bring back special memories.

 

[Cathymac]

Mine would have to be my antique Santa. You can see him at Pumpkins and Reindeer on the side bar, just scroll down a little. My Mom purchased him at the dollar store my first Christmas, and when I moved out she gave him to me to use at my first home! He didn't get put out for 2-3 years while the boys were little bitty, but he's one of the first things out now! His head is a little bent from being in a box, but otherwise, he's intact!

 

[Cinnamonstix]

I have a few favorites, one bring the plaster tree ornament that DD made for me in kindergarten, also the beautiful crochet angel I purchased at a church fair from an elderly lady who made them for a pass time not for a profit...she only charges the price of the thread. Such a sentimental feeling that angel gives me, truly made with love.

 

[Pam Spaur]

I always wanted a nativity set. Christmas, 1976, Sears had them for $15. My sweet daddy gave me the money for it. It was my youngest son's first Christmas (he was a year old 3 weeks after Christmas Eve). I haven't put up a tree for two years, but I always put out the nativity. It just isn't Christmas without it. It gets more and more fragile as the years go by. The creche is falling apart, but that makes it even more appropriate to me. When I no longer decorate for Christmas, it will go to Stephen, the 1976 baby. (I bought the twins each one for their 28th birthday, which is five weeks before Christmas.) My dad has been gone for three years, so my nativity just grows more precious with time.

I have collected quite a few angel, too, so my nativity always has a choir of angels.

:bigsnow:

 

[coffeenut]

I have three favorite ones. A small sled that the father of a friend of mine made many years ago and two ball ornaments that my dad and I made when I was a young adult. All three are hung on my main tree. The other favorite decoration I have is a creche from when I was a little girl. :bigsnow:

 

[aggy]

I don't have it anymore but it was a candy wreath my oldest newphew made me when he was about 3 or 4 (he's 17 yrs old now - how time flys. Anyway, he had tied lots of small sandwich bags to a wire hanger that had been reshaped to look like a wreath. It was spray painted green and had glitter all over it. Then he glued lots of starburts candies to it. It was soooo cute. Even after the cany was all gone and the glitter fell off I would still hang it up every year. Sadly it had gotten too ragedy and I finally threw it out. I wonder if I have a photo of it? I need to go through my drawer of photos.