Saturday, December 3, 2011

Advent Calendar - Christmas Tree Ornaments

My mom is really creative, so growing up we crafted a variety of homemade Christmas Tree ornaments. We put a few on our tree, but we gave most of them as Christmas presents. My mom's mother and grandmother were usually the recipients of these gifts.

Mom's grandmother passed away when I was in grade school and Mom's mother passed away a few years ago. When we went through Grandma's things, we found she had kept everything we had made for her. She also had everything we had made for her mom.

One of the ornaments was Baby Jesus in a Manager. It was made from a walnut shell, cotton ball and a match. A piece of flannel was wrapped around the match and it became the baby when we added eyes with an ink pen. You can tell from the picture that a preschooler made the eyes.

The cotton ball and the walnut shell formed the manger. We decorated it with plastic chips and coated it with Mod Podge. It is still shiny and has lost a chip or two, but it's in good shape for being over forty years old.

5 comments:

Julie Goucher said...

A lovely post. A new visitor here & your newest follower.

Unknown said...

Welcome to the geneablogging world. Nice beginning. Because you have an Ohio connection, I have added your blog to the listing of Ohio Blogs on my blog - Stardust 'n' Roots (http://GeneaPopPop.blogspot.com). I am originally from Ohio - born in Youngstown, raised in Ashtabula, college at Bowling Green. My wife is from Dayton. Many of those in my family tree are from the Youngstown area, Dayton, and Lancaster County. Your post on the Aluminum Christmas tree brought back memories. After my sister, brother, and I all left home, my mother had an aluminum tree with the color wheel. I, too, was fascinated by the changing & shimmering colors on the tree. Our artifical green tree now seems tame by comparison.

Nancy said...

Your walnut shell ornament is adorable. I've never seen one before. It looks like an easy ornament for a child to make.

So what small Ohio town did you grow up in? I grew up in the very small town of Mineral Ridge, Trumbull County, Ohio.

Colleen G. Brown Pasquale said...

As a genealogist & a quilter, I love the look of your blog. Glad you joined geneabloggers.
http://leavesnbranches.blogspot.com/

Colleen G. Brown Pasquale said...

Me again. Where in Ohio? My father grew up in Wayne County & his mom grew up in Medina County.
http://leavesnbranches.blogspot.com/

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