Ornament overload

[KateD]

No wonder I don't enjoy putting up the tree as much as I'd like. I have soooo many ornaments, it's crazy!

We have a 12 foot tree and this year I decided that I'd only put on the special ornaments. Well, I can't even fit all of them on the tree! My mom has been giving me an ornament each year since 1978, and the two boys each of their Christmases (22 years combined). We've bought a family ornament each year that we've been married and an ornament each year for the boys. My aunt gave me a dozen or two ornaments from my grandparents tree a few years ago. Plus we've collected random ones here and there. Honestly, I have enough ornaments for 4 or 5 trees!

After I finished putting the tree up tonight I emptied two boxes and I'm putting duplicates of the regular ornaments (not the yearly ones) into those two boxes and I'm going to seal them up and give them to the boys when they have a tree of their own. That way I won't have to take as many boxes out of the attic and sort through so many ornaments each year. I think I'm also going to take all the extra plain colored balls and donate them somewhere.

I haven't really had the desire to continue the tradition of getting ornaments for the last couple of years and I think I understand why.

[jessica31876]

I am the same way. I have enough ornaments left over to decorate another tree or two. I gave my daughter a ton of them this year too and my 4 foot tree so she would have a tree of her own to decorate. She has a tree but her roommates asked if they could use it this year and she said yes thinking they would decorate the tree together then her roommate started taking the white lights off the tree and put multi-colored lights on it and then told my daughter she could not put her garland on it that she wanted to use her garland. My daughter was upset about it but just let her roommate decorate the tree her way and decided to put the small tree in her bedroom with her own lights, garland and ornaments.

[misfitinmn]

Ornaments really do reproduce over the years, don't they?? I like the idea of having boxes for your kids when they are older though, I know I love the ornaments that my mom has given to me...and my hubby's mom has done the same. I've actually always dreamed of having a "theme" tree so when our basement is finished, I am totally setting up another tree downstairs so I can have my special non-mish mash tree. But I had to leave a bunch of our ornaments off the tree this year because they simply didn't fit!

[nun69]

I have a girlfriend that gives her kids an ornament every year {and they are now 23, 22 and 21} and every year she packed them away in each kids tote {one of those big plastic totes} labeled with their names and when they all eventually have their own place, they will have a ton to decorate their tree So she doesn't take each ornament out every year, it just stays in the kids individual totes and I LOVE that idea!

My sister's tree is nothing but Hallmark ornaments and I love it!!!

[HeatherB]

Originally Posted by nun69

I have a girlfriend that gives her kids an ornament every year {and they are now 23, 22 and 21} and every year she packed them away in each kids tote {one of those big plastic totes} labeled with their names and when they all eventually have their own place, they will have a ton to decorate their tree So she doesn't take each ornament out every year, it just stays in the kids individual totes and I LOVE that idea!

That is a great idea! I need to do something too. We've got a 7 1/2 foot tree, but it is packed full of decorations.

[emmasmommy]

ooh angie, i LOVE that idea. we get the girl's new ornaments every year, so maybe i'll start stashing them LOL

[KateD]

Angie, I love that idea, but the boys wouldn't go for it. They really enjoy putting their ornaments on the tree each year. I don't want to do anything to mess with them wanting to help decorate - for a few minutes, anyway!

[scrapweaver]

What do you get if you swallow all the Christmas decorations?? . . Tinselitis

(very very bad joke off the radio this morning . . sorry! haha)

[*Celeste*]

our tree had not one inch of space on it. totally overloaded with ornaments and my boys would not go for the put some away. every ornament on that tree means something to someone in my family.

[SweetMelissa]

We just started collecting ornaments (our oldest is only 4) so our tree is still pretty bare. I can see how once the kids hit their teens our tree will be out of control (we do one ornament per year for the kids). I like the idea of boxing them up and giving them to the kids once they get older.