Christmas time, it's one of my favorite times of the year. I love decorating the house with all the many fun decorations I have collected through the years. I have so many special ones that I can't let a year go by without using them all. I want to share a few of them with. Most of them have a story behind them. This picture of Santa Claus has been gracing the White house wall since 199o, it's very special to me becuase it was made by my kids. Kira was 9, Jacob 5, and Kaitlyn was 2. This Santa is made from scraps of a dyed mop I had been using to make mop doll Santa's for a boutique I was doing way back then. They were here with a babysitter which was Brooke Hales and she was 13 at the time. She had taken type paper and taped them together to make one big sheet, then she drew the outline of Santa and she let the kids fill it in with the scraps. They used some of my cotton balls for the trim around his suit and hat and colored his face with crayon, they even found some buttons is my sewing drawer and added those to his suit, and the sprig of holly was in the scrap pile too. They gave this to me and Stuart for Christmas that year, it was folded and put away with all the other decorations. So the next year I had it framed and matted for us to enjoy through the years. I included the little brass plate on the bottom which is engraved with their names and ages. This is the first decoration that goes up and it's the last to come down. The kids are already fighting about who is going to get it when were gone, maybe they will have to rotate it year after year! Just a thought.
Another favorite of mine started when Kira was a baby. We started taking the kids to pick out ornaments at the Hallmark store. The kids always liked doing this and we have had some fun ornaments on the tree over the years. This year Kira and Kaitlyn both decided they wanted to take theirs home to put on their tree. I knew this day was going to come so a few years back me and Stuart decided to start buying them for ourselves. We still have Jacob's ornaments on the tree this year, plus our new ones. This is what we all picked out.
Don't you love mine, it's a gift bag and it plays the song Santa Baby. There have been years that Stuart has given me diamonds of some kind, and this year we have a new car so it reminded me of that. As for the fur, no thanks I think I'll pass.
Stuarts all time favorite Christmas show is the Grinch, so he has been collecting the Grinch ornaments, this one plays part of the song from the movie.
Jacob chose the truck again this year. In the first few years of collecting he was choosing anything that maybe represented the year but 14 years ago they introduced the truck series and he has been getting those ever since. This truck is a 1960 Ford F-100. It reminds me of a truck my dad had that was just this color.
This fun ornament was a gift to my parents, it was the first year they had bought their trailer. We found it while out shopping for the kids, so one night when they weren't home we snuck down and put it on their tree with the note that said, "May all your travels be grand" Love, Secret Santa. So when we were going through Mom's christmas things I found this one along with another one that I liked that I had given her.
Mom was a collector of Precious Moments figurines. This little one said on the bottom "May all your Christmas' be White. So I brougt it home to put on my tree too. These will always remind me of my mom and how much she liked Christmas too. I was always fortunate to go help her with her decorating after mine was done. I miss doing that now.
Another fun thing I have done through the years is collect Santa's, these are a few of them nesting together on top of my entertainment center. The rest of them are spread out through the house.
My last on my list is our countdown to Christmas calendar. I made this several years ago for the kids. You tie candy bars all the way down the Santa to the bell. the kids would take turns everyday. Today it's me and Stuart or if Jacob or Hatch is around they will do the honors. It's fun to see the sparkle in Hatch's eyes as he see's how many more days til Santa arrives. I'm glad we can start some of these traditions all over again with the grandkids now.
So there you have some of my favorite things, did I mention Christmas is my favorite time of the year?
Another favorite of mine started when Kira was a baby. We started taking the kids to pick out ornaments at the Hallmark store. The kids always liked doing this and we have had some fun ornaments on the tree over the years. This year Kira and Kaitlyn both decided they wanted to take theirs home to put on their tree. I knew this day was going to come so a few years back me and Stuart decided to start buying them for ourselves. We still have Jacob's ornaments on the tree this year, plus our new ones. This is what we all picked out.
Don't you love mine, it's a gift bag and it plays the song Santa Baby. There have been years that Stuart has given me diamonds of some kind, and this year we have a new car so it reminded me of that. As for the fur, no thanks I think I'll pass.
Stuarts all time favorite Christmas show is the Grinch, so he has been collecting the Grinch ornaments, this one plays part of the song from the movie. 
Jacob chose the truck again this year. In the first few years of collecting he was choosing anything that maybe represented the year but 14 years ago they introduced the truck series and he has been getting those ever since. This truck is a 1960 Ford F-100. It reminds me of a truck my dad had that was just this color.
This fun ornament was a gift to my parents, it was the first year they had bought their trailer. We found it while out shopping for the kids, so one night when they weren't home we snuck down and put it on their tree with the note that said, "May all your travels be grand" Love, Secret Santa. So when we were going through Mom's christmas things I found this one along with another one that I liked that I had given her.
Mom was a collector of Precious Moments figurines. This little one said on the bottom "May all your Christmas' be White. So I brougt it home to put on my tree too. These will always remind me of my mom and how much she liked Christmas too. I was always fortunate to go help her with her decorating after mine was done. I miss doing that now.Another fun thing I have done through the years is collect Santa's, these are a few of them nesting together on top of my entertainment center. The rest of them are spread out through the house.
My last on my list is our countdown to Christmas calendar. I made this several years ago for the kids. You tie candy bars all the way down the Santa to the bell. the kids would take turns everyday. Today it's me and Stuart or if Jacob or Hatch is around they will do the honors. It's fun to see the sparkle in Hatch's eyes as he see's how many more days til Santa arrives. I'm glad we can start some of these traditions all over again with the grandkids now.
So there you have some of my favorite things, did I mention Christmas is my favorite time of the year?
Such darling Christmas decorations. I remember Kira telling me you collected Santas. How fun! Hope you are getting all your projects done.
ReplyDeleteThat Santa picture is a classic. Thanks for sharing a few if your faves...now if only I had the decorating thumb you and Kira have!
ReplyDeleteexcuse me? Who drew the Santa? I remember me drawing it.
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ReplyDeleteWe still use the cute countdown to Christmas Santa that you made for our family. But I think we have been doing it wrong all these years. We have been going from the bell at the bottom to the Santa at the top. Oops!
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