When my husband was a boy, he saved his allowance to buy Christmas lights for the outside of his parents' home. He's been a nut about Christmas decorating ever since. My decorating doesn't live up to his fussy standards so he does it all himself. I'm not complaining, everything always looks good and I can concentrate on cooking.
Here's what he's done this year. A live tree, 12 feet high, in the Middle Parlor holds everything from our most precious antique ornaments to red popsicle stick sleds I made 30 years ago.
Do you have a pickle on your tree? Tradition says that the first child to find the pickle on Christmas morning gets an extra gift.
These next two ornaments came from my husband's grandparent's tree. They are handpainted, a skier and a blue Santa.
Our newest tree in our dining room.
This is our Front Parlor tree which is decorated in Hallmark Ornaments. We started collecting them in the early '80s and now have...well, too many to count. (Although my husband keeps a notebook indexing each one. I told you he's a Christmas nut!)
Katherine at Yellow Rose Arbor shows her beautiful collection of Nativities this week. Stop by to see them! Here is the one we use at our house. My husband received one piece for attending Sunday School each year. We have 18 different pieces, including 6 sheep for some reason. Each piece was made in Italy and is quite detailed for something that was probably very inexpensive at the time.
