Memories from Christmas Past

I have been at a "Frosty Friday" art (not!) show today, so I hope you will forgive me for recycling a post from my blog from 2010!

Experiencing the yearly Christmas tree adventure always brings certain memories to mind...for those of you who don' know, I was born and raised in the Deep South...Alabama!  The very first scent of green, citrus-y, woodsy tree smell remind me of going out in the woods with my Daddy, and a few of my siblings, probably in the back of his old black pickup truck to find a suitable tree and possibly some mistletoe to hang.  Daddy and my brother were hunters and usually had the perfect tree already scoped out! It was usually cedar and Daddy would put it in a 5-gallon bucket full of wet sand and it would go in front of the big picture window in the front room of our little house.

We didn't have alot of money, especially for a lot of store-bought Christmas ornaments...there were some gorgeous huge glass balls that I remember hanging on the tree every year but I also vividly remember the hand-made decorations we made every year.  Like the little sweet-gum balls that we spray painted and decorated with glitter.

I also remember cutting a big star out of cardboard, covering it with aluminum foil and then cutting a hole in the middle so that one of the big lights could fit inside it for the top of the tree.

Gosh, I always loved decorating that tree!  After I was older, our handcrafted ornaments became a bit more sophisticated.  My sister Susan and I made a whole bunch of scrap fabric-covered balls decorated with sparkly rick-rack, fake pearls and seed beads with straight pins and glue...When Mama died and we divvied up things I took a few to hang on my tree..I love them, even though they are about to fall apart.  Maybe I will make some new ones!

circa the 70's!

After moving away from my hometown and living on my own, I did some ornament making on my own...here are some little clothespin and paper angels...love the one with pasta hair!

One year I got ambitious and tried to duplicate a stuffed angel I saw in a magazine...only I didn't have a sewing machine, so I stitched her and her friends all up by hand.  I gave them as gifts that year.

Poor little thing, her spanish moss hair and potpourri dried flower bouquet have seen better days!

I tried to find a few crocheted angels and ornaments I used to make with tiny cotton thread, but alas they were nowhere to be found.

Good times, good times!  What memories from past Christmases do you have?

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