This is our tree this year. Perhaps you can tell just by looking at it that 3 children under 4 feet tall decorated it. I thought about redistributing some of the ornaments towards the top but in the end decided against it. This is how they decorated it, so this is how it will be this year.
There is a lot of ornament clumping, too. I think I count 4 on this branch alone.
And another 4 on this branch.
Nearly all the ornaments on our tree are from my childhood. We had a tradition in our home of getting Christmas ornaments on as our souvenirs when we went on vacation. In addition my grandmother also gave us each an ornament nearly every year as well.
What this means really is that now that I'm married with my own family decorating the tree is only meaningful for me. As I pull out certain ornaments I relive certain memories from vacations as a child. But these aren't shared memories for my husband or children.
We do have an ornament from our family trip to Yellowstone.
But everything else is from my life pre-marriage.
It got me to thinking that I REALLY need to update our Christmas tree. I want it to be meaningful to my kids. I want it to be fun and interesting for them. Which means it's time for some new family traditions.
