Welcome! It is the Serendipitous Stitching 2021 Advent Blog Hop! The theme this year is Christmas Trees! I was so happy to see that because I just love Christmas trees. My parents lived in Germany before I was born (actually I was born in Heidelberg and spent my first year there too) and collected many beautiful wood and glass and wax and pewter ornaments. Our tree was always very beautiful. Early in our marriage, my husband and I traveled a great deal, even living in The Netherlands for most of a year. My souvenirs were ornaments (and a beautiful wooden Nativity set from Oberammergau). I delight each year in getting them out and decorating our tree. But now it is only the 6th day of Advent (counting from Sunday) and usually I do not have too much up for Christmas at this point. We always have had a real tree since moving to our current house and so we wait till closer to Christmas to get it. Therefore I shall show you some trees of Christmas past.
Sometimes we have a huge tree, and sometimes one not so big. You can see by the window there how they vary. We have 11 foot tall ceilings in this room so we can fit a big tree and some years it is fun to be really grand. One year we got one too big and had to chop off the bottom. That would be the one on the top right there. It was too tall for me to reach the top, even with a step stool and I didn’t get around to bringing in the ladder! I will not get one that big again! We had to bolt it into the wall it was so big because if it fell it would have hit the piano across the room!
Since making these collages, I notice over the years they all look very similar-probably because most of the ornaments are the same every year with a few new additions! And while sometimes we had an angel and sometimes a star, there have even been a few years when we didn’t put anything on the top!
Our most memorable tree was the Bow Tree of 2007. That was the year my first baby was born…on December 20 (he will be 14 in a couple weeks! Yikes!) I was able to assemble our artificial tree that year and put lights on it but soon lost steam on decorating, being in my last days of pregnancy. I was never able to get out the ornaments and decorate it properly so we just put bows on the tree as we unwrapped our gifts. It was quite pretty actually.
I know the pictures above don’t give a good sense of what the ornaments look like so here are a few close ups. In addition to the European ornaments, I have a great many handmade ornaments made by my grandma Ruth, my mom, and myself. You can see I also love blown glass ornaments, and if you looks closely you’ll see some cuties from Hallmark and a few Erzgebirge German ornaments as well.
Decorating the tree is one of my favorite things to do every year. I am like my mom…constantly arranging and making improvements until the day we take it down! The kids help a bit at the beginning but they usually leave me to do most of it (maybe they get tired of my “guidance!” I should try to give them more freedom but I can’t help myself!) We ALL enjoy it though. It is in a part of our home where you see it every time you go up and down the stairs or walk through the house to or from the kitchen so it is constantly admired all month. Like I mentioned, with a live tree we wait to put it up until a week or two before Christmas, and try to leave it up through Epiphany, depending how dry it gets.
As I don’t have any new Christmas stitching to show you at this time, I pulled out the box of ornaments I’ve made over the years and spread them out to share. They make me so happy! You can see many of them are Mill Hill. They truly are treasures and little works of art! This doesn’t include many I’ve made for my kids which are in their own boxes.
Oh…I may not be able to wait very much longer to get a tree this year after writing this post! I am so excited to hang these up again! And seeing them also makes me want to stitch more! There are SO many cute designs awaiting my needle and thread!
I wish you all a blessed and joyful and peaceful Advent season! Thank you for visiting Mary’s Thread today!
Thank you Mary for sharing your wonderful history! I love it all. 🙂 And that leaning tree! Wow! Your ornaments are SO gorgeous! You are like me, making ornaments for the kids.:) 🙂 🙂 Our Jacob and his bride now have his!
Wow that is a lot of Christmas stitching, what fun to pull them and your other decorations out each year and have the memories flow.
Oh wow Mary, what very lovely trees you have enjoyed over the years and shared with us today and all those amazing stitched ornaments, a treasure chest of beauty to be saved forever – you make me want to pick up my needle and get stitching . Merry Christmas wishes.
What a beautiful post Mary, I love your trees, good to know the leaning one stayed up. Beautiful ornaments. Merry Christmas
Thanks for taking part in the Advent Calendar this year. I love all your tree photos, it does appear that that window grows and shrinks while the trees stay the same size!
The bow tree is a fabulous idea too. It’s not easy to decorate a tree with a big pregnancy tummy!
Your Ornament collection is wonderful, it’s nice to see them all together like that.
Lovely! We once had a crooked tree, too 😛
Merry Christmas!
I’ve had a lovely visit, Mary. It was nice to see the trees that have been part of your Christmas celebrations over the years, and I had fun enlarging the pics to see your beautiful ornaments, and stitched items. Merry Christmas
That’s what I call a Christmas tree! Thanks for sharing, it’s breathtaking to see how big they are. With so many lovely ornaments and I love the story of the gift’s bows put on the tree. Joyeux Noël ! xxx
Your trees are all lovely and I too love the blown glass ornaments. I try to buy at least one new one every year. Last year I couldn’t find anything in the shops so I’ve made up for it this year and bought 4 new ones on line, a squirrel, slice of orange, hedgehog and a gold snail. Taking a photo of all your stitched ornaments together is a great idea, I should do that with mine before I put them on the ornament tree. Last year I stitched one every month, they were the 12 days of Christmas and this year I have been stitching Prairie Schooler Santas. Next year I have another theme in mind. Shame I don’t have anyone to leave them to. Look forward to seeing this year’s tree when it goes up.
You’ve had beautiful Christmas trees over the years Mary. I love a real tree but we have an artificial one as it is more practical for us. It’s lovely to see a selection of your ornaments in more detail.
They are all such beautiful trees, having real ones certainly makes them truly original – faults and all! You have so many lovely ornaments, the stitched ones are treasures.
Happy Christmas!
I love the bow tree, great idea!
Love, love love seeing all your tree photos. And the story about not feeling like decorating while waiting for your first child-precious. Thanks for sharing.
Beautiful trees! A great variety of ornaments too. I love how you couldn’t get a tall enough ladder to reach the tip top of your tree so left it blank! There’s a memory attached to every tree <3 Great post!
Thanks for sharing your beautiful trees!
Happy Holidays!!
Lovely post. Thanks for sharing.
Lovely ornaments. The story and pictures of your trees was great. Merry Christmas
Wow that’s a lot of ornaments you’ve stitched over the years 😮 They must bring back so many memories.
P.S. I tried to reply to your comment on my blog but you showed up as a no-reply commenter. Are you on Instagram?
Thanks!! I don’t know why I’m a no reply! Sorry! But yes I’ve been following you on IG as Marysthread for a while now! I was glad to find out you have a blog today when I was looking for more information about that Japanese fan project you just finished. I really admire it!
Gracious!! What a lovely legacy of Trees of Christmas Past you shared! And I loved the collection of sweet ornaments — quite a beautiful bunch!
Love, love, love that pile of beautiful ornaments, Mary! I so wish I had a giant tree like yours as mine is running out of room for my ornaments 🙂 But, at age 66, I’m trying to bring fewer new things in to my home and starting to downsize. I know my sons will thank me some day–ha ha! Lovely trees through the years ♥
Love all the trees…even the leaning one. Enjoyed your story and all your ornaments. Merry Christmas from door #16
You’ve had some huge trees! It speaks for your collection of ornaments that there are enough of them to cover even the big ones.
Goodness me, so many beautiful decorations – so much stitching!
I can’t imagine bolting a tree to a wall!!
You’ve certainly had some gigantic trees, it was nice to read about them.
Merry Christmas Mary!
Barbara x