My Mom, Ornaments and Trimming the Tree
This post is part of a year-long sponsored post series with Hallmark.
Ornaments have always been a big deal in my family. It started when I was born – one ornament from St. Nick each year so that when we moved to our own homes some day, we would have a beautiful collection to go with us.
I attribute my love of ornaments, especially ornaments from Hallmark, to my Mom. You see, she has always loved Hallmark ornaments. Every year she would receive several – usually Santas – to add to her collection.
I remember trimming the tree with her and opening dozens and dozens of Hallmark boxes filled with ornaments. Each one had the year on them, and sometimes a note of who it was from.
This year, when Hallmark said they wanted to send our family some ornaments to review, I asked if they could send one for my mom too since she was coming to help with the kids at the end of October. They graciously said yes. (As a side note, it is sort of amazing to me that I get to work with Hallmark every month because it is a brand that has touched my life in so many ways for SO many years.)
The kids and I carefully went through the ornament catalog to select the perfect one for each of us and for Nana. We selected the Poppy Holidays ornament for Nana because:
- It plays “Let it Snow”, which was my Nana’s (mom’s mom) favorite song
- Snow makes us think of Wisconsin, where she lives
- We loved that it “popped” snow – animation/music of any kind is especially awesome for the kids
Elias and Adeline were delighted to give it to my Mom and she loved it. I know it will make her smile all Christmas.
Today the kids are home from school and Matthew is going to bring the tree in (we do artificial because of allergies and because it lasts longer). I am excited to put these ornaments on the tree, especially knowing that in 20 years my kids will be doing the same with their families.
Our new Hallmark ornaments will be some of the first ornaments on the tree. Here’s what we selected:
- For daddy: Matthew picked the Amazing Grace piano because it plays one of his favorite hymns. It is lovely.
- For me: I picked Silent Night, Holy Night because I loved the sweet Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. It also reminded me of expecting our own new baby right after Christmas.
- For Elias: Naturally, he selected a Star Wars ornament. The Rise of Lord Vader says a line from the movie! I think Elias pressed the button 25 times the night we got it.
- For Adeline: Like I said in my blog post last week, Adeline loves Cinderella, so naturally she selected the Cinderella ornament.
I know that each of these ornaments will bring joy for many years to come. I’m so thankful for traditions like Christmas ornaments and companies like Hallmark that are a part of the memories.
Do Christmas ornaments hold a special place in your heart? What ones mean the most to you?
I absolutely love Hallmark ornaments!!! I have so many from when my kids were smaller. It was so fun choosing them this year.
I love Hallmark ornaments too – we choose a special ornament each year – we did that when I was a kid and I love continuing the tradition with Scarlette
Hallmark creates tradition with every ornament ❤️
Love reading about others traditions. My mom bought me ornaments occasionally growing up and has started giving them to my kids as gifts now too. I think they are wonderful gift as the kids love them and it’s something that will grow with them. I too have given my kids an ornament every year since birth. We hang them on our family tree, I write in the box from us and the year and also use a fine point sharpie to write on the bottom if possible when it was their very first ornament. As the Kids collections grow eventually I’d like to have another tree for just them to decorate downstairs in their playroom. Thank you for sharing your stories. I now want to go in to hallmark to admire all the ornaments.
How wonderful!
My grandmother gave me my first ornament when I was 6 months old and continued the tradition way into adulthood of an ornament on top of my Christmas gift each year. I have each and every one and love them all.
So exciting for you to be able to work with Hallmark. I’ve always wanted to work in or own one of their stores…. I would go in just to collect cards. I would send some…but mostly I bought them and saved them. Some were just too beautiful to mail!!
Happy Thanksgiving!! Enjoy your ornaments!
Holiday traditions are the BEST! Thanks for sharing, friend!
I had the same idea your Mom did: I started a Hallmark Collection for our son and daughter when they were infants. The only problem with the idea was when Hallmark raised the prices so high I could no longer afford to buy them. I was truly so disappointed! But then, I ended up with all that I had bought because neither child wanted anything but a theme tree. Now, I still buy an ornament every year of various kinds (except glass balls) and I buy them for OUR tree. It’s now 9ft tall and there is at least ONE ornament on every branch! When you’ve been buying your own for 50 years AND have all your own Mom’s ornaments, it’s not very hard to fill it up! I am hoping that our new grand-daughter-to-be will be ‘old fashioned’ like her Mama Dalton and desire to trim her own tree one day with three generations of ornaments that were lovingly collected.
I love the tradition of Hallmark keepsake ornaments. I have them back to 1977 when I was born and every year after that for my entire childhood. My Mom gave them to my husband and I when we got married and now she buys new ones every year for my kids.
I love the stories so I’m just adding my name to the list vs writing the whole thing out which would just be repeating all the other posts. But I will.add a by-line or 2. I liked the fact that they not only were so beautiful but thru out the year when things happened Hallmark could read our minds. Like my mom made wedding dresses beautiful gowns. And one young lady gave her a gift it was an ornament of (I forget but se cute little animal) holding a sewing needle with a spool of thhread, for example. There always seemed to be one one to fit a situation. Thanks for the memories.