Ornament Memories
A scrapbook in Christmas tree form
Inspired by my friend Pressley and her wonderful newsletter, I thought I might kick off Christmas week with a look at some of my favorite Christmas ornaments and the memories tied to them.
It takes me several hours to put up our tree because I reflect and relive each story as I hang them on the tree each year.
For more than two decades, I have looked at my 1993 Holiday Barbie Collectible Ornament on the tree and it has brought me so much joy. I don’t know what it is about her very 1990s formal look, but she is one of my major associations to Christmas. I was given her the same year that I gained a little sister so maybe the two are tied in my mind or maybe it’s just the first year I really started to form memories of my own, but the tree doesn’t feel complete unless I know where she is!
When I graduated college and moved into my first real apartment, my mom gave me all of my childhood ornaments. My mom has always gifted me an ornament each Christmas so this collection felt like a little time capsule of my interests and hobbies. There are a ton of horses, some beautiful porcelain ballet shoes, and books, lots and lots of books. These always remind me that while some things change, other interests never do!
The first trip Cameron and I ever took together was to the Bahamas! It was my last fall break as a college student and I felt so grown up to take an international trip with my new boyfriend. Picking out this ornament felt like a promise of our future together. Even though we were only a few months in, we saw future Christmases together and the start of a lifetime of shared memories.
My friend Amanda’s mom mailed me this butterfly out of the blue one year at the holidays. It’s absolutely stunning and so delicate and she had taken a lot of care to protect it for the mailing. She wrote me a note that just said how much I meant to her and to Amanda and that this beautiful butterfly made her think of me. It was so sweet and so unexpected and I find myself touched and a little emotional every year when I put it up. I try to take the same care with it that she did when she sent it to me.
When Cameron and I got married, our cake topper was a Willow Tree figurine. Since then, my mom has given us that year’s Willow Tree ornament for Christmas. Now 12 years in, we have a beautiful collection that really fills out the tree and it’s special to see it grow alongside our life together.
My dad is very talented at woodworking and handy crafts and one year he got a machine that lets him do laser engraving on pretty much anything. One year we were going to have a little bit of a different Christmas at the beach in the Outer Banks, but we still needed a little holiday decor! He crafted dozens of different wood ornaments to hang on our very basic tree and added a reminder of the year and place on the back of each one. I took them home with me and I love that they help fill out my tree and remind me of one of my favorite Christmases together as a family.
There are so many others that I could add to this list, but maybe I’ll save those to go down memory lane another year. My holiday decor is like a scrapbook in Christmas tree form and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
What are some of your favorite ornaments?
This Week’s Recommendations
Holiday Fun
A Mannequin for Christmas by Timothy Janovsky - Put all realism and cynicism aside and lean into this very cute gay Christmas romance! The premise is a mannequin come to life to be the MC’s perfect man but really it’s about what it means to be human and to love yourself and find beauty in the world. I’m fully in my holiday reading bag now through Christmas!
Jingle Bell Heist on Netflix - I have a soft spot for heist movies in general so this blend of two of my favorite genres really worked for me! The leads are so cute and charming and the hijinks are a mix of zany and heartfelt. Adorable!
On My Shelf
The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton - This is one of the most unique climate fiction books I have read! It envisions a world not too far in the future where Florida (along with many other places around the globe) is completely underwater and abandoned by the government. It’s about survival and what that means to different people and I really loved it!
On My Screen
Hamnet in theaters - I WAS BLOWN AWAY by the haunting beauty of this film. Honestly I walked into it with low expectations because I felt like the book was just okay but so much of the story translated better to film than on the page. Lately going to the theater has taken me out of movies because of all the other people on their phones, but this was such a beautiful experience. Everyone in our theater was sobbing and visibly moved by what we were watching. Chloé Zhao’s vision for each scene was so clear and the settings were a character in and of themselves. It was perfectly cast and Jessie Buckley was unreal. Highly recommend!
Wake Up Dead Man on Netflix - The latest Knives Out installment was great! I love this series so much. Daniel Craig just always seems to be having the time of his life filming them! The real standout of this cast was Josh O’Connor. He is a STAR! It is a little hazy on Catholicism, but I do think it is an incredible reflection on the weaponization of religion and the care and beauty of faith that could be shown instead. Particularly in a very powerful and moving scene with Bridgett Everett. The “who” in this whodunnit feels obvious from the start, but the why and how are really a journey!
In My Tabs
Ordinary Americans are fighting back against ICE: ‘We’re going to outlast them’
This is some of the most powerful visual journalism I have ever seen - “A record number of Americans are living outside. Cities have responded by removing encampments from public spaces, a practice commonly referred to as “sweeps.” In the process, workers often take people’s belongings — including important documents, survival gear and irreplaceable mementos.Over and over, people across the country told ProPublica they were devastated by such losses. We gave them notecards so they could explain in their own words how the sweeps have affected them.”
I am anti just putting AI into everything but this is delicious - Pentagon Unveils New GenAI Platform, It Immediately Starts Flagging Pete Hegseth’s War Crimes
ICE Threw Thousands of Kids in Detention, Many For Longer Than Court-Prescribed Limit
Burn Harry Burn: Reckoning With My Harry Potter Fandom as a Trans Person
The butterfly made me tear up, too! How beautiful and how kind of Amanda’s mom! (Love that you wrote about your own ornament memories ❤️)