Collecting Christmas Ornaments That Speak to the Heart (7 photos)

As an adult, I find it surprising that she continued as long as she did and that none of her children persuaded her to stop. Maybe they tried and she ignored them. Grandma could be stubborn. She shopped for bargains all year long, and many of us helped her with the wrapping, but it was still a huge and costly undertaking. As time passed, her ability to handle all of it began to wane. It was the year she gave one of my Indiana uncles a dress shirt with ¾ sleeves (obviously an irregular bought at a discount store) and forget to buy a present for one of my Wisconsin cousins, that her children realized two things: 1) Grandma was slipping and 2) perhaps it was time for her to stop buying presents for 31 people every year.

And yet gift giving was so much a part of the family culture, they and she were reluctant for her to give it up entirely. I don’t know who thought of it, but someone suggested Grandma should give Christmas ornaments. Everyone (and by this I mean Grandma and the aunts) agreed it was a wonderful idea, and for a few more years Grandma enjoyed the relative simplicity of looking for that year’s ornaments. She usually chose one for all her children, and for the grandchildren she selected one for the girls and another for the boys. It was the year she began having conversations with herself in the mirror that the aunts took over buying the ornaments on her behalf, which they continued until her death.

My mother and several of her sisters already gave an ornament every year to each of their children, and they began to go out the day after Christmas to area boutiques to buy deeply discounted ornaments for the following Christmas. It was a fun and practical tradition. The kids liked it, too. My siblings and I had our own little box of ornaments. One by one we hung our ornaments and remembered Christmases past. By the time I set up a home of my own, between my Grandma’s and my parents’ annual gifts, I had dozens of beautiful and unique ornaments. My mother, my sister and I have continued the tradition with our children, who love it, too.

If you want to make collecting ornaments a part of your Christmas traditions — and I really think you should — here are just a few suggestions.

Buy vintage. “They don’t make them like they used to” is true of so many things, including ornaments. Simple vintage bulbs bring beautiful color and character to a tree. You can find them the cheapest at thrift stores and garage sales, but even antiques stores price them reasonably.