General Chat

So many people seem to buy new decorations each year but I was wondering if anyone has a favourite decoration that has been handed down....my treasured decoration is a 55 year old 'Bacolite' Father Christmas that has stood beneath whatever tree has been put up ever since my older brother was little. The FC has passed on to me when I left home and has travelled all over the country as I've moved around. Once again this year he is under our tree and woe betide anyone who damages him!

I have some baubles from my childhood, but they are a little tatty now, so stay in the box each time.

I have a pair of plastic boxing gloves, which were in a christmas cracker the year of my sons first christmas, they have been on the tree (at the back, they are ugly) every year. He is 26 this year. But I cannot bring myself to leave them off, in case bad luck for the year, silly billy me.

I'm not sure how old it is but i have a glass strawberry bauble which I remeber always being on my tree and my sister say she also remeberd it so it has to be min of 45yrs old

I have a red rocking horse which a teacher gave my son 20 years ago, a bauble with my daughters first Christmas on it so it's 24 years old, but the oldest is a glass bauble from when I was a kid it's about 45 years old. All of them treasures
Carole

how soppy we all are, I have to laugh, one year decided to go all trendy, and have a complete set of matching trendy pastel coloured deccies. Hubby went balistic, and made me take them off, and put the old multicoloured ones back on. He said it look too contrived, trying too hard. And I have to say I agree with him.

Its my family tree, and if we like it, so what if it is a load of old tat.

a load of old tat, each piece holding memories for us.

I can't be sure on this Colin......but my Mum gave me two candles......one is Father Christmas, and the other is a Christmas Tree......I seem to remember them when I was at home years ago, but it could have been two that were similar....

Anyway....I have never lit them......especially after Mum passed, i could not bring myself to light them.....so again this year, they will sit on the mantelpiece......

Ah yes the colour co-ordinated trees look nice but lack the memories don't they, remember the old fairy lights with different coloured shades. If one bulb went out, they all did. From my memory ours always went out Christmas morning resulting in much cursing from Dad who was crawling around trying to get them working again. Lovely memories. I used to love the smell of tinsel and can still be found sniffing the tinsel in Debenhams and Woolworths much to OH's embarrassment

I like a green tree can't stand the modern coloured ones and the thought of a black tree Ugh. We have decorations going back 50 years sadly a lot of the old glass ones are broken. I have one with my name on (my first Christmas) 70 years this year but has a tiny bit broken out. Don't care the memories are there.
Pat

I have a big glass bauble which I bought for my first daughters first Christmas, the one which i bought for my second daughters first Christmas.... she tried to eat one year!! SO LUCKY...... she was not even scratched!
have a glass bird which was bought for the tree when my first son was born and a tiny glass bird which was bought for my youngest son....

But the oldest decoration is a SCRAP (remember them girls?) of ST Nickolaus which was mine as a child. It comes out and is stuck to the corner of the mirror each year.
My daughter (second) said one year... "I know when Christmas is here... that Santa goes up on the mirror....."

looking a bit 'shook' as my husband would say. but he is still here.
Deanna X

Hi ,
I have 2 paper and cardboard father christmas's
which you pin or stick on the walls you open them out so he has a fat tummy.
they were my mums they must be about 50/60 yrs old .
dont use them any more as their to delicate.
Hazelx

I have some minature baubles & some minature crackers that have gone on my tree for the last 35 years
Dee x

We had them Colin, the best tree lights ever.
I very stupidly got rid of them for the new fairy lights..... idiot that I am.

The fairy lights go out, and you end up buying a new set.

With the old ones ... we only needed to buy a bulb.

And I forgot to say... my oldest is 50 next year. So her decoration is quite an oldie really.
Deanna X

I have loads of *old* really old glass decorations that were my grandmothers,,,,some clip on metal ,candle holders,and you can put real candles in them,! glass !birds with some nylon type stuff for tail feathers,,,and paper decorations that unfold into snowwhite and 7 dwarfs and into round coloured balls,,,,,,ok they dont look pristine now,,but on the tree they go,,,,,,

,,,,and one shaped like a silver heart that from schooldays xxyears ago when they took down the class tree we were allowed to choose one but that has been passed to my grandaughter,,,,,and my daughter has the tree lights that were used by my mum&dad,,still going strong old screw in bulbs which you can still get hold of,,

I dislike all the foil one about now too gaudy and sickly,,,,,,,,,,

I have the paper tree decorations the children made when they were in nursery/infants.

They go onto the tree every year and although they are tatty now they bring back memories of when the children were small and the Christmasses we shared.

Sue x

I still put the same fairy on the tree (many time re-dressed) that we had on our first tree in 1960. she doesn't sit on the top any more, we retired her to a lower branch a couple of years ago as she is a bit shabby, but she is still there. she reminds me of the excitement of our first Christmas together, how proud we were of our tree, and of all the Christmases when the children were young, how excited they were each year when the fairy came out of the box again. 47 years old she is!

I forgot to say, I also have a choirboy candle which was my Mum's, never been lit, I can remember it when I was at home so must be late fifties.

My nativity crib was made from straws and a cardboard box in the early seventies by my daughter. Some of the figures are new though.

Ann
Glos

We were married Christmas Eve 1955 and I still have the fairy my aunt gave us - a bit worse for wear now - with the message attached:-"Take me home with you and you will always be happy".

i have some plastic bells which my mother had when i was a baby, 60 + years ago,also some wooden trains and father christmas's ,which i got with some tea 20+ years ago. iris

I still have a couple of glass baubles that I can remember putting on the tree when I was a child - so they are at least 55 years old! One is a santa and the other one a fish. How they survived I dont know. lol

And I have also saved some of the decorations my daughter made when she was at playgroup - so they are nearly 20 years old now.

My parents have these little robbins (four of them) that attach to the branch with wires. They're as old as my brother and he's 40 in March. It doesn't matter what we do with our tree with regards colours etc, there always has to be one or two of them little robbins on it. I'm thinking that I may pinch one for when I move into my own place *grins*

Kay, we had those clip on candle holders on our tree when we were children. I had forgotten them. Of course they were only lit for certain times and never when we were alone in the room.
They had a charm of their own, didn't they?

I also forgot my two oldest baubles which are, a silver, and a green glass bell which have little hammers inside to make them ring when touched.
They were always put on a higher branch in case the children broke them, and we lifted each child up to have a wee ring of them.

THEY are off my childhood Christmas trees, and they are over 60 years old.

Oh dear, the memory needs a bit of a kick start at this age... :-0)

Deanna X