Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things you hoped for. -- Epicurus
Anyone looking at the photo of my Christmas tree in yesterday's post might think I was the ultimate consumer, filling my tree with ornaments to the point that there's scarcely room for any more. But look closely and you would find that many of them are old, going back decades. Each year, I might have added one or two ornaments. Eventually the tree was filled.
I've never had much money to spend on Christmas or on anything else. Some years,I even got the tree from the dumpsters of local schools. I usually made three dimensional snowflakes folded out of old business letters and and made string of popcorn.
When Chris was young, I thought he should have a decent tree and began to think about collecting over the years. We had lights back then of course. Every year I had to spend hours getting them to work. I usually had to buy six bulbs to replace burned out ones and every evening worked on keeping the tree lit. One year, just before Christmas, I found boxes of "gingerbread men" for ten cents, six in each box. I bought two boxes and that was my big expense for the year. Made in Japan, they were made of painted Styrofoam. The eyes always looked Oriental to me.
When we lived in Schaumburg, Illinois, I found some sale material printed with a Christmas patterns. They were meant to be sewn into six fabric ornaments. A neighbor looked at what I was doing and said if I backed the material in red fabric, I would have a dozen ornaments instead of six. She furnished the red fabric out of her stores. I hand stitched the ornaments and filled them with old shredded nylon stockings.
I only have three of those gingerbread men left, but all the stuffed ornaments have survived. They aren't attractive but they always bring back the time when we had so very little to live on. No matter, we loved Christmas.
Every year, these ornaments remind me of how far we've come since then. They'll always be on the tree.
Anyone looking at the photo of my Christmas tree in yesterday's post might think I was the ultimate consumer, filling my tree with ornaments to the point that there's scarcely room for any more. But look closely and you would find that many of them are old, going back decades. Each year, I might have added one or two ornaments. Eventually the tree was filled.
I've never had much money to spend on Christmas or on anything else. Some years,I even got the tree from the dumpsters of local schools. I usually made three dimensional snowflakes folded out of old business letters and and made string of popcorn.
When Chris was young, I thought he should have a decent tree and began to think about collecting over the years. We had lights back then of course. Every year I had to spend hours getting them to work. I usually had to buy six bulbs to replace burned out ones and every evening worked on keeping the tree lit. One year, just before Christmas, I found boxes of "gingerbread men" for ten cents, six in each box. I bought two boxes and that was my big expense for the year. Made in Japan, they were made of painted Styrofoam. The eyes always looked Oriental to me.
I only have three of those gingerbread men left, but all the stuffed ornaments have survived. They aren't attractive but they always bring back the time when we had so very little to live on. No matter, we loved Christmas.
Every year, these ornaments remind me of how far we've come since then. They'll always be on the tree.
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