A few of my friends and I exchange ornaments every year.
I love this tradition as I always pick one that I think reflects their personality, and in turn I am building a collection of ornaments with meaning.
I fill in the tree with lots of fun ribbons and white lights, but I love putting each ornament on the tree and thinking about who gave it to me.
There are lots of great crafty ideas on Martha Stewart’s website for making your own ornaments and fun projects to do with your kids.
This weekend I am going to work on getting ornaments for friends that I exchange with as Christmas is five weeks from today. I don’t want to have to go to the post office after December 10th with the rest of Charlotte. This coming week I am also going to start addressing envelopes and working more on my gift list. While I have been covering Christmas, other bloggers have great ideas for Thanksgiving…Check out the Simplified Bee for kids Thanksgiving table ideas, Eddie Ross has a great example to make an Indian corn centerpiece, Pure Style Home’s Thanksgiving Table and Urban Grace for a yummy treat. Any other bloggers with Thanksgiving posts put it in the comments with what your post is on for everyone to read.
Do you love ornaments, do an ornament exchange or have an ornament tradition?
Photos via domestic wonder woman Martha Stewart
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{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
What a brilliant idea! Thank you for sharing. And how much more meaning to all those ornaments. Unwrapping each and every one of them must feel so special.
No special traditions here more than that I want everything to be handmade. So we are slowly facing out all those mass produced items (even though they look lovely from a distance!) and my own tree gets more personality and heart every year. One day I might just want to I keep it up all year around!
Happy weekend lovely Laura!
Monika.
I love ornaments! I have a tradition of buying a new ornament each year for my husband (and myself because he hasn’t caught on). I tend to favor Hallmark ornaments but always pick something special that represents a part of his personality or something we went through this year.
I have not participated in an ornament exchange but last year (and coming this year) I held an open community event to create ornaments from ribbon and styrofoam as well as ways to decorate glass ornaments. It’s amazing how many ornament ideas are out there! I’m going to start collecting so my future Christmas craft days are fun and different.
Thanks very much for sharing your tradition and so many great ideas! I love the button one, it looks like a wreath.
Happy Holidays!
I make ornaments every year for friends and family and love visiting their homes and seeing my handwork on their trees. This year I am making ornaments inspired by Raoul Dahl’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox, my husband’s favorite book. Hope I get them done in time! I need to post a tutorial on that…..but need to have at least one to do it! Darn work always gets in the way.
What a great idea! I too love unwrapping my ornaments and thinking about where and who they came from!
As for Thanksgiving posts: If anyone is going to be a guest in someone’s home for Thanksgiving (or attending any other holiday parties) I have several hostess gift ideas:
http://blog.lilacandivy.com/2009/11/hostess-gifts.html
Have a great weekend!
My favorite ornaments are things my girls made when the were little: handprints, needlepoint squares, tree cutouts, paper chains, and new years’ resolutions–e.g. “I’m not going to kick my sister anymore.” Before we had any ornaments I used to make cookies with holes in the top and tie them on the tree with red ribbons. Santa loved those trees.
My mom has some that I made, I love the tuna can covered in felt with my picture inside with sparkly glitter.
pve
I give my girls a new ornament every year. By the time they are old enough to leave the nest, they will have a collection of ornaments for their own tree.
I love your focused, thoughtful posts. You are sweet to include my Thanksgiving post too.
Happy Friday! Busy prepping for turkey day?
cristin
I came home after an especially hard day to find this happy and wonderful post. Thank you, Laura, for it, and all the responses are wonderful, too.
Thanks for giving me joy today.
How fun! In my family we’ve been given one ornament a year since we were little so that when we moved out on our own and had a tree we had lots of sentimental holiday memories to display. It’s a gift I look forward to each year and can’t wait to do the same for my kids someday!
you have a wonderful blog… so happy to have found you… have a great weekend, pam
I love your third sentence down. A testimate to your dedication to friends and family. Thanks for the reminder about the post office after December 10th-the way you wrote it made me laugh. xoxo
I have given many of the family tree ornaments to my daughter. My sister in law has a special girls get together with a themed exchange
These are all BEAUTIFUL designs – not a dud in the bunch! I’m usually so afraid of Christmas crafts, but I would love to receive these from someone. I have some handmade ornaments from my grandmother that I likewise treasure – I think of her every time I hang them. Sweet memories.
Laura, What a gorgeous post on ornaments! You know I love collecting vintage ornaments. Great post.
Cheers,
Karen O.
Hi Laura, Thanks for stopping by. I know what you mean about NEEDING to get away! I’m with you on that all the way right now! In fact, let’s organize a blogger get-away!
We won’t tell anyone where we are all going, we’ll get massages every day and we’ll watch the sunsets with mai-tais till the cows come home! 
I love the idea of the ornament exchange. I’ve never known anyone to do that and I don’t know if I could let go of any of my pieces, because most of them are sentimental, but I suppose you could buy or make some ornaments just for the exchange.
Have a lovely day!
Becky
Laura — This is a great idea! Can’t wait to see your tree.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Courtney