When Tom’s Mum moved into her aged care home, we had only a relatively short time to help go through personal belongings and decide what to keep, what was good for a garage sale, and what could be discarded/donated. A box of Christmas decorations was put aside to keep temporarily and go through the next Christmas.

This Christmas as I put up our own tree, and again today as we took the tree down (after the 12 days of Christmas, of course!), I thought about our decorations.

I’m pretty sure that the decorations discarded/donated from Mums were of the run-of-the-mill regular supermarket/discount store variety. It made me think, though, about what if our kids were going through our stuff in preparation for discarding/donating? I think, without knowing the background of each item, most would be discarded.

Our Christmas tree seems to be decorated with no style, with no concept of complementary colour schemes, no order and perhaps little thought. However, that is far from true. Well, perhaps no style and no colour scheme is true, but there is certainly thought and meaning behind most of the items that make it onto our tree every year.

Don’t misunderstand me, I certainly admire beautiful colour-coordinated trees – I particularly remember cousins Tina’s and Kim’s trees when we visited England in 2005/2006. Absolutely stunning and worthy of magazine inclusion.

Our tree, however, is a mishmash of many styles. But so many of the decorations have a personal meaning. I don’t expect the kids will be going through our decorations soon for the purpose of discarding them, but just in case …

Decorations that were made by, or came from, my Mum. These are cherished every year.

Decorations bought on holiday in 2019 with Tammy and family. These from Kennedy Space Center, Roatan (Honduras) and Costa Maya (Mexico). We don’t always buy Christmas decorations on holiday, but these were too cute to ignore.

Decorations which have been received from friends and work colleagues, each with memories and their own stories.

Decorations received from Mum’s pen-pal “Creen” (Corinne) in America; they corresponded for many years. I received these back in the 80s; they were hand-made, and the mouths opened to reveal “Hershey’s Kisses” – a chocolate treat not available in Australia.

There are personalised decorations which commemorate the first Christmas for each of the grandchildren; this one is Keely’s. Maybe these would be kept in the family and handed down.

Handmade decorations, including from a cousin and grand-niece.

Some of the German decorations from friends Eliza and Gesine. Beautiful wooden decorations. I am still amazed the delicate straw stars made it through postal customs in the 90s!!

A few more purchases on travels. These ceramic decorations from family visits to Stoke-on-Trent on different occasions.

Another reminder of travel; the latest addition, purchased on our 2021 trip to Uluru, produced by an indigenous artist.

These decorations probably won’t hold too many connections for future generations, but they do each have a story. While most of them will probably be readily discarded one day, we look forward to reminiscing as we put up and take down our Christmas tree for many years to come.