The Perfect Tree

My daughter is now old enough to put ornaments on our
Christmas tree. We were finally able to get rid
of the plastic non-breakable (read: ugly and boring) ornaments, and get out the
ones my husband and I have collected and kept from our childhoods. —

I loved watching my daughter hang the vintage
1950s robot on the tree – the same ornament I got excited about when I was a
little girl. She was also very intrigued
by one of our oddest ornaments. . .a
pair of sunglasses. It was never my
favorite, but knowing she’ll likely look forward to digging it out every
Christmas made me feel differently. Watching a three-year-old get excited about sunglasses, an evil looking
plastic elf from the 1960s, a mini-trumpet from my husband’s sisters, all made me
realize that a Christmas tree is essentially a keeper of our memories. I decided
right then to keep collecting interesting ornaments, and never bother with a
fussy, color-coordinated tree like you see in magazines. Our tree may have a pickle, a mini Easy Bake Oven and the Starship Enterprise hanging from it. ..but to me, it’s perfect.

For especially interesting ornament options this year, check
out Elizabeth Wren Vintage on Etsy, Barking Sands Vintage also on Etsy and these Candy Orb ornaments.

Paula Balzer is the co-founder of the blog adhocmom.com, and the author of the how-to book Writing and Selling Your Memoir. For more on Paula, see our contributors list to the right. Contact her at paula@pbliterary.com.

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