Monday, December 18, 2017

A Hallmark Christmas Tradition by Kristin Wallace

Christmas is all about traditions. Every family has one, and it centers around Hallmark. We started collecting the Hallmark dated ornaments in 1976 and bought one every year since. I don't think we meant to start a tradition. My dad picked one up and then we got one the next year...and the next year...and the next. Since I’m not married I still get to decorate the family tree at my parents’ house.
The original 1976 ornament

A more recent addition
It’s always such a treat to open the boxes and take them out every year. There are so many memories to uncover. There’s a Santa carrying an Olympic torch to symbolize one of the Olympic games. Santa is featured is featured a lot, of course. There’s a Santa on a train, in a plane, in a hot air balloon, in a car. Santa is featured with his wife a couple of times, too. There’s one on an exercise bike because someone was trying to lose weight that year. We’ve got a few singing angels because my entire family sings. I have some personal ones featuring books because I’m always either reading or writing a book. There’s a “Baby’s first Christmas” from the year my niece was born.
2017 ornament

It’s my dad’s job to take the ornaments out of each box while my mom and I hang them on the tree. We always joke about how he stops for each one, marveling at how the early ones were so inexpensive, and of course, there are a lot of “Oh, I remember this one.”


A box filled with memories…literally. My favorite part of Christmas. Does your family have any traditions when it comes to decorating?


Kristin Wallace is the USA Today Best Selling Author of inspirational and contemporary romance, and women’s fiction filled with “Love, Laughter and a Leap of Faith”. She is the author of two best selling series, Shellwater Key Tales (sweet contemporary romance) and Covington Falls Chronicles (inspirational romance). Look for her latest holiday romance, LOVING YOU AT CHRISTMAS, part of her Shellwater Key Tales series.

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3 comments:

Sarah Raplee said...

What a lovely Holiday tradition, Kristin!

We like to put a string of little white lights on the hearth in a curving line and set our collection of snowmen among them. We also love to put up a Nativity that we got the first year we were married.

Happy Holidays!

Pippa Jay said...

As a kid, my parents would unbox the decorations but let us hang them as soon as we were old enough to handle the fragile glass ones carefully.
Now they're all plastic but each year we take the kids to buy one new ornament each and they decorate the trees other than the lights. We do it thee first weekend of December, with Christmas music playing and a box of isvuits or sweets to eat as we go.

Judith Ashley said...

This year my oldest granddaughter came over and raided my stash of Christmas decorations. She left with 2 bins but left 6 behind. Those six are still in the basement. I bought a wreath for the front door and a planter/centerpiece for the table. I have balsam and pine candles and if I get to it, I've a place where I can cut a bunch of holly to put into vases for the mantle and maybe a side table.

However, your post brought back memories of Christmas past where we told the stories of the different ornaments as we decorated the tree. Somewhere in the bins is the Christmas village that was my dad's when he was a little boy, and the ornament my parents bought for their first Christmas so I certainly relate to the joy unpacking the reminiscing.