Most of the time each of my sons and daughters chooses a branch and places all of their ornaments on that one spot; over and over until the bough is bent and sagging from the weight of the many baubles hanging there.  At first the OCD part of me wants to move each of them to the most attractive places.  But then I think about how much I love that my children are a part of this tradition and that this will not always be the way of it.  One day they will grow up and will start putting the ornaments in more appropriate spots.  And I know I will miss the days when they clumped them together on my tree.

Photographs are taken, songs are sung and the spirit of the season fills our home.  The children’s anticipation and delight builds and soon they are sharing their ideas for projects to create, treats to bake, things to buy and what to write to Santa Claus.   At least once during the process we are all in tears from laughing too hard, or because of the sweet joy that we feel. 

After all the ornaments have found a home, the last thing we do is put the angel on the top of the tree.  When my dad’s mother passed away, I was the lucky recipient of the angel that always graced the top of her tree.  And now it looks down over my little family the entire month of December, through all of the gift opening, the family gatherings, the snuggles by the fire.  My husband gets the ladder out and helps me climb it.  I set her at the top in the place of honor to spend another Christmas.

It seems like each year the children end up wrestling on the floor under the tree while my parents look on with expressions of concern that the ornaments and lights as well as the evergreen will end up toppling over into a heap. 

~ Ashley

I think I am like most mothers in my desire to create lasting memories for my children.  And there is no better time to make memories than Christmastime. When my husband and I married 11 years ago, we combined lots of family holiday traditions and created some of our own. 
And then the children arrived.

Some of those traditions are now put on hold until our little family grows up.  Some of them have completely evolved into things that are more appropriate for us now.  But one thing hasn’t changed…

Decorating the tree has forever been a celebratory beginning of the Christmas season for our family.  I am fortunate enough to have inherited quite a few ornaments from my own mother as well as my mother-in-law; small treasures that carry with them a million memories.  Some of my ornaments were made by my husband and me when we were small, my children and my great-grandmothers.  Some were gifts from students while I was teaching, some photographs of my sons and daughters from years past. 
And each one a precious jewel.

My children look forward with great anticipation to decorating the tree each year.  My husband and I set up the tree and put on the multi-colored lights and popcorn and cranberry garlands a few days before the decorating day.  My parents and my grandmother join us on a chosen evening.  My husband lights a fire in our fireplace.  We pull out the ornaments one by one and share the stories surrounding each.  My parents and grandma tell their own different versions of memories of the ornaments.

We eat homemade popcorn from my mother’s antique popcorn popper, drink hot chocolate and laugh as the children squeal over who gets to put which ornament on the tree.  This is when the real fun begins.