Christmas Trees to Remember - 2018
If you’ve been a reader of mine for the past 6 years, you will remember that I have been doing a different themed Christmas tree each year since 2013. It’s been really fun and meaningful to plan and decorate each of these different trees. Here are some links to the past themes.
I wasn’t sure what I was going to do for this year’s tree. I like to have it reflect something special about our year so going with a wedding theme was the first obvious choice since our daughter’s wedding was a big part of 2018. In all honesty though, I’m just a bit burned out on wedding stuff after that. lol! It was awesome and wonderful, but I didn’t want to have that be the theme for our tree. I was so happy when I finally thought of something that might just be my all-time favorite Christmas tree ever.
Memories of Christmas Past
We have a 12 foot tree and so it’s an enormous project each year. The heart of this theme was the photos I gathered from all of our Christmases since we got engaged in 1990. Overall, I printed out 100 photos. I used Persnickety Prints and ordered 4x4 prints with white borders. A friend who helped me with some of the decorating had the idea to punch holes in the top corners and use a pom pom ribbon to thread them together as a garland. So fun!
l spend time each day looking at all the photos on the tree and reliving so many memories. I especially like that the pictures aren’t in order. They are all mixed together randomly with baby photos and current snapshots.
The tree is dressed with ribbon, berries, and some gold filler garland all from Hobby Lobby. Everything else on the tree is something sentimental. Lots of my daughter’s Christmas themed stuffed animals. Hand painted ornaments made by my Mom when I first got married. Some ornaments from Disneyland and a trip we took to San Diego. Ornaments that my kids made - those are the best! Another favorite is the frosted ice cream cone Christmas tree ornaments. I made an ornament like that when I was in Kindergarten and I’ve always thought it was such a fun idea. The angel on top of the tree was a gift from my Sister-in-Law back about 20 years ago.
The book of Sweet Smells of Christmas was a childhood favorite of mine so I was excited to find it on Amazon. The big teddy bear belongs to my daughter and she always wanted him to sit by our Christmas trees when she was young. Of course, we had to have some LEGO santas on the tree as well. I filled these ornaments with various Christmas mini-figures. You may recognize them from my construction tree back in 2013.
The blanket under the teddy bear was a gift for my daughter from my Sister-in-Law. It will eventually go with her but she lives in a pretty tiny place and didn’t have room for her Christmas stuff this year. The chalkboard was hand-lettered by my creative friend who also used that same board for a sign at Riley’s wedding. I love it!
I really love this tree and all the feelings it brings. I’m so thankful to have years of wonderful Christmas memories to celebrate!