Our Christmas Memory Tree

What is a memory tree you ask?

Every Christmas we usually put up two Christmas trees in our home. A more formal, cohesive tree in the living room that has a theme and matching color scheme as well as a what we call a “memory tree” in our family room. This year however, we decided to move our memory tree into the living room  to compliment our new fireplace and make that our only Christmas tree this year. Like many people in this modern social media driven world, I too post pictures of our Christmas tree to my personal Facebook page tagging my husband as well as posting it to a group page my friend sets up each year for her friends to post pictures of their trees. My caption usually reads “our Christmas memory tree”.  The comments I receive are very warm and wonderful, but I also receive a lot of, “what’s a memory tree?”, or just plain “memory tree?”.  I decided instead of typing a long explanation in the comment field I would take the opportunity to write a blog post to share with you what our family calls a memory tree and include some pictures of my families “memories”.

In a nutshell a memory tree is basically just that, a Christmas tree decorated with ornaments and items that have significant meaning or memories for you and/or your family. We include items of our kids such as their first pair of shoes (which is on grandma’s tree), things they made in preschool, ornaments from places we visited, ornaments from our childhood or that have been handed down to us. We even have small toys that have sentimental meaning and items from family events such as weddings and first communions. I even attach notes to some of them saying what the item is and why it has meaning. Below are pictures of some of the items on our tree with captions of what each item is and what meaning or memory it has for us. I hope this inspires you and your family this holiday season…

Enjoy and Buon Natale!

My older daughter’s coveted dalmations from Happy Meals of long ago riding in the slippers my younger daughter wore the first time she was a flower girl when she was two years old.

Our baby girl’s first ballet slippers.

Homemade ornaments my older daughter made for me as a gift when she was in preschool.

My youngest daughter’s “hand”made ornament she made for me in preschool.

An ornament from our travels – The Hermitage; a beautiful presidential home.

Another one of my youngest daughter’s home made ornaments; this one she made in kindergarten.

In memory of my beloved dog of 16 years, Ajax; his stocking with his collar in it and his patriotic bow tie he wore proudly.

The matches from my brother and sister in-law’s wedding.

Another ornament from our travels

It may not look like it, but this is a vintage ornament. It was on my parent’s first Christmas tree as husband and wife. It’s made of glass and I’m lucky to have 3 of these on my tree. I will be giving each of my daughters one someday.

s doll she played with as a little girl in the early 1900’s.

The garter I wore on my wedding day. My husband is a huge White Sox fan and did not want throw it at our wedding – so it has its place on the tree.

The angel my brother and sister in-law gave my youngest daughter on her first communion.