One of the traditions I’ve started with my family is that everyone gets a new ornament each year. When the kids got big enough, they picked out their own ornaments. It’s an event now. Going out to the store, picking out everyone’s ornament and then going home to put them on the tree.
A couple years ago, an old boss gave me some little trees she’d used for table center pieces. I’m guessing she got them from somewhere like Michael’s.
I kept one for each of us so that the ornaments from Christmases past could be put on them and then placed in the child’s room. So each kid has their own personal tree, filled with their favorite things.
I’m going to need to find bigger trees soon though, as you can see, this one is already full, and this child has only seen 3 Christmases.
This does add a little more expense to the Christmas budget. One way to keep this down is to find the sales. I’ve found that a lot of craft stores put their Christmas stuff on sale fairly early. For example, we got ornaments this year from Joann’s at 60% off. This can usually keep our ornament cost down.
The biggest bonus for me is the fact that my kids love having their own ornaments and personal tree. They run around declaring who’s tree it is. When they grow up, I can give them their ornaments to start their own family Christmas trees with.
Most of all, it brings joy to our home, and that makes it all worth it.
Dose of Sunshine 