Christmas decorations

The fairy for our tree, which (who?) I made when the children were small, 40 odd years ago, is a rather shabby now. I will try to smarten her up this year as I couldn't possibly replace her, she'd be hurt.

Lakeland were selling some of the old fashioned paper 'collapsible' decorations last year; I bought a little fir tree and it will be opened and put on display today. I do remember the bell shapes so well, the 'stick them yourself' chains - oh that glue - uggh! Also the Chinese lanterns that folded flat from top to bottom - thank you all for reviving those happy memories of childhood.

The only jarring note was that Lakeland described the decorations as 'one use only' or something similar; they clearly don't have any children of the fifties in their organisation - my little tree will survive many a Christmas I hope, stored folded flat and held in place with a paper clip. Wasteful lot!

I have an artificial garland across the mantelpiece and down each side which I bought from a very expensive shop. I couldn't really afford it but I loved it and still do. It is decorated with silk ribbons in gold and red. Apart from that, cards on ribbons on the wall and the tree which is always my pride and joy. The ornaments which go on last are the two little silver bells which were on my great grandmother's wedding cake in the 1880s. I think the family were quite prosperous then as they are solid silver, probably lost their money in the 1930s crash. She had 20 of them and they have been shared out as each one passed on but only through the female line. My sister doesn't have any children so my son will inherit four of them. My cousin sold hers which made me very cross - I would have bought them quite happily. My son is an organist in a large London Church so by the time he has got through Christingle, Midnight Communion, and two services on Christmas Day, he has lunch with one of the parishioners (they take it in turns each year) he drives back to Salisbury and crashes out in bed. They come up to us on Boxing Day but we do not have turkey as the children have already had a Christmas dinner at the other Grandma's house. We went down one year when it was freezing cold and had to drive back in the dark from Winchester to Devizes in icy condition - there was still ice on the inside of the car when we got home! Never again!

I was born in 1940, and can still visualise the Christmas tree we had when I was a child. A green bottle brush type, about two feet high, with a collection of decorations collected at parties etc.....a silver shoe....a glass bird with feather tail...clunky coloured fairy lights with a Father Christmas controller light......and of course a fairy on top (not an angel)
It got very tatty before it was replaced when I was a teenager, but the excitement when it came out every year couldn't be bettered

I remember when school term finished and we would bring home yards and yards of Christmas chains which had made. Now we have a tree at home and a few Christmas ornaments around the house.i do have a advent calander on my door in the hall when I worked in the school with young children we always put it up for them. One day I found it thrown out and took home for my gd. She is now 16 but still loves it.

We still have a glass bird with a feathered tail. It belonged to my MIL and dates from the 1930's.
We have always had a real tree but have an artificial one in a box in the loft ready for the time we can no longer cope with putting up the natural variety.

We have a couple of glass baubles from my childhood tree, but a lot have been smashed over time. The remaining ones are right at the top of the tree, away from little hands and the cat's tail.

When we were clearing out my DMIL's house, I came across her little collection of pretty glass decorations, carefully painted shells, exquisite pictures cut from old Christmas cards and fastened with ribbon. I put the box to one side to take home later and my unsentimental DBIL gathered it up with the stuff he was taking to the tip - he couldn't believe I would want "that old tat". I was distraught (still am, if I dwell on it! )

When the DC were very young I bought a big Lladro nativity stable when a local china shop closed down - even at 75% off it was much more than I could really afford, but I just loved it. It had no figures with it, which is why a note now resides in its box for when I pop my clogs. "This stable is Lladro and worth something. The figures are Wilko and aren't".

Has anyone noticed that vintage decorations are very much back in fashion. I hate soulless hi-tech, so called 'tasteful' decorations. The more tinsel, coloured lights and home made decs the better. I own some coloured lights that my parents had, and these are so treasured, plus the now distinctly fragile fairy that is as old as I am. It always goes on the top of the tree, together with ancient decorations my children made at school. Now my father has died, and my mother has vascular dementia, these things matter more than ever.

A couple of months ago, whilst having a sort out, I came across a little cardboard box, with a small glass bauble in each section. The box was from Woolworth's and has the name Winfield printed on the outside. These little things are quite fragile and have wire loops to attach them to the tree. I can't bring myself to lose them now.

Does anyone remember those strips of foil, silver on one side coloured on the other.? They were sort of corrugated. You would twist them and hang them over the fireplace so that they spun round and round with the hot air from the fire. As kids, we thought they were the most beautiful things ever.

When I was a child the tree and room decorations were mostly made by us children. Paper chains, snowflake cutouts for the window, a fairy or star for the top of the tree, and Christmas cards on a ribbon. The tree was made sparkly with tinsel and silver or gold painted fir cones. Paper hats made out of tissue paper or newspaper, a snowman made from cottonwool, and the main feature which was made by our mother was a ball made from two hoops and covered in holy from the garden, plus a sprig of mistletoe. For the nativity we had a pop up Christmas scene out of a book. Meant so much more to us than these modern decorations.

I forgot the tiny crackers for the tree, and the wreath for the front door, all home made of course.

Thought I would tell you about something my GS had this year. It is called 'The travelling Nativity' and is made up of knitted/hand made animals and people. Each family at the church has a turn at having it before passing it on to someone else, and each child in every family gets to keep one of the knitted lambs. I think it is a lovely idea, and it teaches the children all about the Christmas story.

That is absolutely charming Yorkshiregel. Such an imaginative idea and so homely, in the nicest sense of the word. Wish it might be adopted elsewhere!

Our local yarn shop had a knitted Nativity displayed in the window last year; I did think of making it all but never got around to it.

That's a lovely idea, passing it round and letting the children keep a lamb.

allule, we had a tree just the same as yours, I think! I was born in 1950, but I think the tree was bought many years before that. It was dark-green and similar to a bottle-brush. The decorations for it included clip-on fragile glass birds with nylon tails and the lights... oh, the lights were so beautiful (I thought!) Little candles were also clipped on to the tree, but thankfully never lit.
The tree was kept in a 'mysterious' cupboard in my parents' room. That added to the magic, I suppose!

I can't stand the "interior decorator" style of decorations ie all one colour on a tree eg all blue on white tree - far too artificial. I love lots of colour, lots of (non-flashing) lights and tinsel. Our daughter lives with us and refuses to get rid of the 40yr old lantern-shaped lights even though they don't work any more because she loves the shape.

Ha ! happy memories ! Nearly 70 years ago my brother and I would make endless streams of paper chains ....and we had some tissue fold up bells as well ,,,and blowing up balloons ..one year from somewhere we got this terrible black stuff in a tube which made odd balloons ! AND the real tree had real candles held on the branches by tiny candle holders ,,,,think 'elf n safety would have a fit now ! no one's tree I ever knew set fire to the house ..whereas now I sadly often read of fires caused by the electric lights on a tree !

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You might enjoy this. We have clearly been decorating our trees all wrong. ;)
It made me laugh.

Oh my, what a faff!
Thirty to forty-five minutes tweaking your tree into a natural shape? We used to get our trees from a forest plantation, choosing it in October and digging it up a week or two before the great day. Many's the time we have brought home what we thought was the perfect sized tree, only to find out that it was several feet too tall or took up half the living room and you had branches covering the sofa. Out would come the shears and the poor old tree would end up looking like a huge, green lollipop! Once we had to tie the tree to the curtain rail as it was in danger of falling over. Happy days. ?

Nelliemoser I've been doing it wrong all these years

I am going to get the DGD on to the decorating, five year olds have the right idea, just throw it all on there.

Oh! It's OK to have one or two special baubles but they should come in groups of 5 or 6
Put them on one at a time? - I always try to put on half a dozen at once, fingers get a bit tangled.

Oh, I need a and a jump on the trampoline!
Damn, Buster got there first.

A friend of my mother's knitted a little Father Christmas for the top of the tree for my DD's first Christmas - she's 41 now. I wrap it up and put it away each year and it still looks as good as new. I think everyone would be disappointed if he didn't make his appearance every year.

Next weekend I'll bring in the Christmas tree and I've collected lots of evergreens, berries and fir ones and dried slices of oranges. I only use natural decorations for the house.
This year's tree is tiny so most of the old decorations will stay in the box and only my favourites will go on the tree. I'm going sparse and simple in my old age.

When my sister and I were children our tree and decorations went up on Christmas Eve, after we'd gone to bed. Always a real one of course and always lit with candles in clip-on holders. The candles were only lit while we were eating or playing board games, safely sat at the table with mother and grandmother, while father dozed by the fire!

Somebody always bought us a compendium of games each year - ludo, snakes and ladders, tiddlywinks etc. All little bits made with flimsy cardboard, apart from the counters that fell out of the box every time it was moved. It never lasted very long but I always looked forward to getting one.

People used to post parcels around the country at Christmas and I remember the GPO would hire great big furniture vans to make their Christmas deliveries. Oh the excitement when the children saw one pulling into the street - whose house was it going to?