From Christmas to Christmas, we all tend to get more decorations.
For some of us, the kids make special things each year at school or are given their own Christmas ornament. People give ornaments as gifts, something pretty catches our eye or we ‘inherit’ things from our families.
However you collect them, your Christmas decoration collection probably grows every year.
What to do with those decorations?
It’s nice to keep all those decorations because they are all beautiful in their own way and may have sentimental value, too.
But let’s face it, storing them throughout the year can be challenging and there is only so much space on your Christmas tree…
So what do you do with those decorations?
I know some people like a stylish Christmas tree so only store selected items or buy a new set every year to match a theme.
Others are happy with a haphazard decoration style, so let the kids go wild with whatever they have, giving pride of place to items with sentimental value.
Even at 14 my daughter enjoys seeing the decorations she made in kinder and prep or at home with me, so I certainly keep the decorations my kids make. With 4 kids, though, the tree is filling up!
I often decorate a gum tree outside our house (choosing suitable decorations for the impact of weather of course so never child made ones) so that uses a few of our decorations. And I’m thinking of using a second tree this year!
We decorate our Christmas tree with ornaments collected over the years. Every year we tend to buy one new decoration although sometimes I’ll receive a new one as a gift. Each decoration reminds me of a certain Christmas or evokes a different memory. There’s no real colour scheme but I love how colourful and cheerful it is.
Perhaps a quarter of the decorations have been around since I was a child. I admit I have my favourites which I like to display prominently. I remember one year refusing to put away the large felt reindeer after Christmas. So now it has a prized position on my grandmother’s mantelpiece all year round. It makes me smile when I see it.
I’m in my early twenties and like your daughter I still like to keep the ornaments I made when I was younger. 🙂
I hear you, Tajnz – our tree has no scheme and is a chaotic mix of colours and styles every Christmas but that’s fun!
I love that your Grandmother still has a reindeer on display all year because you didn’t want Christmas to end one year 🙂
My mom always used mine and my siblings crafts as decorations. We also each had a special ornament for each year that we would just add to the overly decorated tree. 🙂
So you just kept adding them to the tree, mamaof6?
I’m just finding that our tree can’t hold them all anymore – and I with a two year old I know I have many more handmade decorations to come 🙂
Is Love Santa on Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that would be okay. I’m loving reading all the Christmas recipes and stories – I want to start some new traditions as our new family when buba arrives next month.
hi GivingSpirit. Yes – you can find us on Twitter under the name LoveSantaAu and we’d love you to follow us as well as contribute to the blog with your stories. Good luck with the baby and making your family.
I’ve been collecting Christmas ornaments since 1981. Each year I add at least one to the collection, so it’s been growing for 31 years. I’m not really into themed trees. I use as many from my collection that will fit on the tree each year. Some of the special ones, especially those that are fragile, I use as part of my table displays.
Wow, actively collecting Christmas ornaments for 31 years – good effort! I gather you have a few tabe displays as well as the tree to empty your decoration box?
I live in a small home so there are not many places to decorate. Plus, the cats would destroy any Christmas tree or ornaments.
However, if I did get overwhelmed with excess decorations, I would: a) donate them to the Salvation army, b) have a yard sale, and c) give as gifts.
One day, I would love to have a home where I can truly decorate, as I would love to do the old English theme, very natural and cozy.
I hope you have some decorations up each year, Beyre as I think you’d be happy with them in your home – you just have to find the right depcrations and locations to remove the cats’ interest 🙂