When Willie and I first got married, we bought an artificial Christmas tree. Which we still have. It’s a real beauty. It may not unfold like an umbrella, and it’s not pre-lit, but it’s full and lush and very real looking. It cost us about $80 back then and we’ve had it for about 11 years. Definitely money well spent.
And at the time I prided myself on making it beautiful. It looked like something on display at Pottery Barn. Well, okay, not EXACTLY Pottery Barn. Maybe more Martha Stewart-ish. Okay, okay – sheesh! Maybe one of those real matchy-matchy ones they have at Sears. Whatever. The point is that is was a beautifully decorated tree. Because when it’s your first one, you get to pick all the decorations from scratch. All my ornaments were new and colour coordinated (I went with the red & gold theme if you’re interested). I read somewhere that the key to a beautiful tree was the amount of lights – so I bought lots. I would painstakingly arrange the lights, garland and ornaments so that all areas were covered uniformly and that no 2 ornaments of the same colour would be side by side (yes, I do suffer greatly from have a mild form of OCD).
And then the children arrived. And then they went to school. And my beautiful, colour coded, uniform Pottery Barn tree went all Kindergarten on me.
Because as you know, every year in school, the kids make Christmas ornaments with their Teachers to bring home and hang on the tree. Some are made from popsicle sticks or beads. Some are made from dried clay or macaroni. Some are made from felt or pipe-cleaners. All are usually covered with glitter and suspended from yarn. And they are all beautiful in their own way because they were made by my children’s soft chubby little hands. And I put them on my tree, year after year. My beautiful Pottery Barn tree. That’s not so uniform anymore. And the colour coding has gone completely out the window.
Oh sure, I’ve had thoughts of “doing away” with some of the less attractive homemade items from the early school years. But I just can’t bring myself to do it. Because each year when we drag out the box and they look through the decorations they’ve made over the years they are happy. They are happy that their handmade ornaments are in that special box with all the other treasured things. And they like to tell me the story about how they made each one. And they always find a special place on the tree to hang them all – which is inevitably clumped together at the bottom front section. Only to be quietly redistributed by me once they’re in bed (the unbalanced aesthetics would kept me awake at night).
This year I finally came to the realization that I no longer have my beautiful Pottery Barn tree. I’ve slowly traded it for something even more special. And I’m okay with that.
What about you? Have you ever “done away” with any of your children’s handmade ornaments?
9 Responses to “I Used To Have a Pottery Barn Tree”
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December 23rd, 2009 at 7:55 am
I would never do away with Any of the home made ornaments that they have made, What I do however is hang all of them at the back of the tree (the tree is in a corner) where nobody can see them!!!, cause let me tell you none of my boys are very “artsy” so most of their home made decorations are quite hideouse!!! Sorry Boys!!!
December 23rd, 2009 at 9:44 am
I didn’t LOL but you brought a real smile to my face. I remember one I made – an angel, cut out of a styrofoam meat tray! Every year my Mum would bring out the box of ornaments – beautiful ones from their years of marriage and all the ones my sister and I had made. We hung every one! Loved that styrofoam angel!
December 23rd, 2009 at 10:14 am
i don’t have kids yet, so i still have that pottery barn-looking tree (with red and gold ornaments, by the way – i knew you had good taste)! but i’m thinking i’ll do what my parents do one day… have that big, beautiful glam tree downstairs then upstairs they have the kiddie tree with everything me and my siblings made over the years. well, actually my mom didn;t love me as a kid so she only has my siblings’ ornaments. she apparently “lost” mine. anyways, it’s a win-win situation because we still get all the memories of the kindergarten ornaments plus the beauty of a themed tree.
December 23rd, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Same way I feel about some of the ornaments that are scattered around the house. Live in the now woman…. Out with the old, in with the new.
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TOG says: Hey, that’s the same way I feel about some husbands . . .
December 23rd, 2009 at 11:46 am
Geez…I fell terrible…I don’t have any of the stuff my kids made! And it don’t even have a nice tree!!!????
I’m a bad mother!
December 23rd, 2009 at 4:21 pm
As *ahem* slightly *ahem* OCD as I am I wouldn’t trade the kidlet masterpieces for the world.
December 23rd, 2009 at 9:46 pm
The way I handle this is by having 2 trees. One for the kidlet stuff and other misc. ornaments and another matchy-matchy fancy Sears tree. The problem is that they are trying to infiltrate the fancy-shmancy tree, too.
December 23rd, 2009 at 9:28 pm
I only have one school-made ornament so far, since my daughter just started preschool this fall. I absolutely love it. I also love how she trims the tree with us.
That being said, I rearrange the ornaments as soon as she goes to bed. The tree would fall over from the ornament weight in the bottom right quadrant if I didn’t. You can have only so many snowmen and glittery Santas before those suckers take down the entire tree. So I’m with you on the aesthetics.
December 23rd, 2009 at 11:44 pm
I think what you need is a second tree. You have your pottery barn tree, and then one especially for the kids stuff. They’ll love it because they’ll feel special with “their” tree, and you get your pottery barn tree back.
Mum won’t do away with any of mine ornaments. Not even the one where Santa is a golllywog. It’s horrible, but she treasures it. Oh well.
With no kids of my own, I can’t understand these things.