Sunday, December 4, 2011

Virtual Advent: Ornaments from Around The World

My fascination with Christmas ornaments started young - I remember walking around the tree and fingering my favorite ornaments each year. As I grew older and started to decorate my own trees, I had ornaments but few had any special meaning. At that point in my life, I was also traveling extensively for work - I was fortunate enough to visit the Netherlands, Russia, South Africa, Spain and many places across the US. I was often tempted to bring home a memento from these countries but was loathe to clutter my small apartment with trinkets. On one visit to Amsterdam just before Christmas, I saw beautiful delft ornaments and an idea was born. I bought those ornaments and then began to buy an ornament in each country or city I visited. The tradition has continued now for more than 10 years and I have amassed quite a collection which reminds me every year of the wonderful places I have been fortunate to visit. Each year I virtually travel as I decorate the tree and the ornaments are often conversation pieces as people inspect my tree and I get to share my travels with them. Unfortunately I will not be putting up a tree this year because I will be out of town over the holidays but I did pull out a small sample of my ornaments to share here.
I am not a fan of Lladro generally but while in Spain I found these porcelain Lladro ornaments that are issued each year and because I went back there over a couple of years, I collected one for each year - some are balls like this one and others are bells.
As I have said here before, Ireland holds a special place in my heart so I had to have an ornament from there - I actually have quite a few but this delicate bell is one of my favorite. It made on bone china from Galway and I think it just looks like traditional Christmas and not at all kitschy.
I found this delicate leaf on a ski trip to Vail. I certainly have ornaments which just have the place name plastered across it but I also like to get ornaments which represent the place and where you have to ask where it is from. This one really sparkles on the tree with lights behind it.
This one from my alma mater was picked up on a visit to campus for my reunion. Williamsburg marks the beginning of the holidays with Grand Illumination which includes fireworks and other colonial holiday traditions. It always coincided with finals so we often missed it but my friends and I went back at Christastime a couple of years ago and enjoyed it without the stress of studying!



These two ornaments are less traditional but represent where I found them. The silk elephant on the left is from Cambodia and I found it in a handicraft shop run by a NGO to benefit and offer jobs to the disabled of Cambodia. Th ornament on the right was picked up in St. Petersburg and is reminiscent of the handmade traditional ornaments of Russia.

I am a bit disappointed that I am not decorating a tree this year but writing this post has given me the chance to enjoy them nonetheless! Thank you to the Virtual Advent crew! Check out their website or all the Virtual Advent posts. Do you have themes for your trees or ornaments with special meaning?

17 comments:

  1. I love ornaments with meaning and pick them up when we travel as well. Yours are lovely!

    ReplyDelete
  2. These are great! I have some ornaments from our travels, too, which join all the ornaments from my growing up years and the ones family and friends have given us through the years.

    ReplyDelete
  3. One of my favourite ornaments is one that my sister got me from Paris. I wish it was me travelling great places, but it isn't at the moment. It is a fabulous idea to buy Christmas ornaments as mementos.

    ReplyDelete
  4. We also collect ornaments from special places. I think that's why it takes all day to decorate the tree. Your ornaments are fabulous.

    ReplyDelete
  5. What a lovely post--it's so special each year to unpack the boxes of ornaments and remember where and when we got each one. I love the Irish bell :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. I really want to collect a new Christmas tree ornament every year, but never do because we don't even really put up a tree because of space constraints. Maybe I should start stockpiling for when I have more room...

    ReplyDelete
  7. I like your idea of collecting ornaments from places you visited! I bet your tree (when you put up one) is so very pretty and different with ornaments from all over!

    I liked snowmen for themes for trees; wouldn't have all snowmen on the trees, but would look for a few here and there, that and snowflakes.

    My mom made a lot of the ornaments on our trees so a lot of them have special meanings because of the love she put into them.

    I hope you have a wonderful Christmas season!

    betty

    ReplyDelete
  8. We collect and pick ornaments much like you do ... to commemorate travels and places we've been. We always look for ornaments when on vacation, and it makes putting up the tree so fun and meaningful as we recall each trip. We also look for an ornamnent or two to remember what our son was "into" that particular year. I love a tree that tells a story! Thanks for sharing a bit of yours.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Beautiful ornaments! I bet you have great memories for each one.

    ReplyDelete
  10. What a fun tradition! I love it! Our tree has no theme it all.. we just throw on everything we have, mostly kid stuff. If I had these cool ornaments, I guess they'd just go on with everything else.

    ReplyDelete
  11. What a great idea!! I love getting Christmas ornaments - typically I will buy one new one every year. This past September, I was in England and purchased a small ornament from there for my tree, but I never thought of buying ornaments from every place I travelled. It must make for quite a lovely and nostalgia-filled tree!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I have a bunch of really old ornaments that I took with me from my parents' home when I moved out. To this day I have an eye-less Sylvester the Cat on my tree. He used to have eyes AND hold a candycane, but alas. My name and the date on his scarf is from 1979, so I know I was 3 and he's lived a long, loved life of tree hanging. Though my husband makes fun of him every year. haha

    ReplyDelete
  13. I've been buying my daughter (who's now almost 40) at least one ornament a year. She took many of them with her when she started her own tree for her daughter. Every year, I remember the trips to Greece, France, Germany, Hawaii and each ornament brings back the wondeful travel memories.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I have tried to pick up ornaments at places we've traveled. They have so much more meaning than decorations bought just for looks. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  15. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I so enjoyed this post! Since I don't travel much, this was like a vicarious trip around the world for me :)

    The one ornament that means the most to me is probably the paper ornament that my daughter made in kindergarten. It has her photograph in the center of a wreath that she colored, and it has hung on on tree every Christmas since she made it (she will be twenty next year).

    ReplyDelete
  17. I love how unearthing ornaments every year brings up warm memories from the past!

    ReplyDelete