Christmas tree

[Bassett]

Just putting up my Christmas tree (FINALLY) and as I put my angel on top I was wondering "What is the oldest decoration on your tree?" My angel

,10 lights, eight original lights still burning, with a gold lame' gauze skirt, rather getting frazzled, gauze wings of silver, getting rather frazzled but I still love her and will use her until she literally falls apart, was bought the day John F. Kennedy was shot. We were in a small general store in Northern Wisconsin (Cornucopia on Lake Superior) buying our decorations. My husband was carrying our 15 month old son while we looked things over when the announcement came over the tv about our President being shot. All the people in the store just stood there frozen in disbelief. I'll never forget that day. I did have some older than that but gave them to my sons (they were from their grandmother.)

So what is the oldest on your tree? Let's hear your stories.

 

[whitney]

My FAVORITE Aunt that stays with me from TX for the summer knitted me a stuffed farm family, ma and pa horses, chickens, ducks, mice, sheep, dogs and cats about 25 years ago.

 

[Sonya]

My oldest are only 12 years old...when hubby and I first got married, we did not have much money at all. My Mom gave me an old Christmas tree she had in the attic and some lights. We could not afford decorations, so I made bow's and bought some small wood thin wreaths, rocking horses...I painted them burgandy and hubby drilled holes in them, I hot glued small bows on them...and we hung them on the tree with fishing line. I still have them even on my expensive new tree with all my expensive victorian ornaments...I will never give them up.

 

[backwoodsnanny]

My oldest is a porcelain angel bell about 2 inches tall that is an ornament as well the clapper on the bell is gone and the angels wing was broken Oh 20 or so years ago beyond repair but It was given to me 49 years ago by a man my dad used to work with because he had no children and sort of adopted me for several years at Christmas and it means so much to me.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Mine is the star on top. Very poor newly weds in the Air Force 37 years ago. We bought it at Wackers. Still have the box, and all the lights still work. This year we did the tree totally in real bird nests, cinammon ornaments and white lights, instead of the traditional colorful baubles. But the colored, flashing star still went on top.

The JFK story was very interesting.

Marsha

 

[Marylou]

The oldest is a small old fashioned Santa from Germany. My hubby was given it his first Christmas. It wasn't new then and had been brought from Germany by family friends. Arnie will be 68 on New Years Eve.

 

[minimama]

My Grandparents were married 71 years ago and I have the ornaments from their first tree. Little very fragile green glass balls.

I always think of them each year when i hang those little glass balls on the tree.

 

[nootka]

I have some that I suspect are fairly old. A couple that my mother had. The only one I can date is a blown-glass globe w/a mother and child in it. My mom got it the year that I was born, so it is 40. The rest are anywhere from 20 years old (from when I first started buying them for myself) to new!

(Pics would be cool w/this thread)

Liz

 

[Field-of-Dreams]

I have a rocking horse given to me by old family friends, it's made out of wood. I have no idea how long THEY had it, they took it right off their tree and gave it to me when I expressed an interest! I must have been no older than ten.... and I'm 45 now!

Plus my star is identical to the one on my Mom's tree, and I don't remember anything else ever being up there... I found it at an antique fair. Some lady had picked it up and was looking at it when I saw it. All I remember was thinking "put it down, put it down, put it down, put it down, put it down, .... " and she did. I snatched it up so fast... $25 and all the parts were there! It's hard to describe, it's got a gold rim in the shape of a five-pointed star with faceted clear front and back rounded covers, with a colored sleeve inside lit by a bulb, that rotates and throws colored "sparkles" on the walls and ceiling.

Lucy

 

[Connie Ballard]

Ours is a felt bell that Tim made in 1st grade...cut out with a bow on it....lets see...dont tell Tim...but that makes the bell about 50yrs old!

 

[Bassett]

Ours is a felt bell that Tim made in 1st grade...cut out with a bow on it....lets see...dont tell Tim...but that makes the bell about 50yrs old!

For years I had a toilet paper roll on our tree that Randy made in kindergarten. It had a handle on it and was painted green. It finally fell apart. I loved it.

 

[minimule]

I have several ornaments that belonged to hubby's Grandparents. When Grandma passed away, MIL gave everyone all the ornaments. I know some are very old but I have no way of really knowing just how old.

 

[PaintedPromiseRanch]

i have some that were given to me by my grandma too... not sure how old they are but i know they were on the tree when my dad was little and he is 67. i have "tinsel" that is actually hard metal strips about 1/4 inch wide and 6 inches long, and they are twisted, silver on one side and a color on the other, i just love them because they aren't breakable. and some glass balls... i even have a string of lights that have shaped bulbs, but the wiring is so old the plug can't be plugged into sockets we have now...

if we ever win the lottery that is one thing on my list, find an electrician to figure out how to make them work!

and well it's not all that old, maybe 20 years or so, but there is only ONE thing that goes on the top of MY tree... my grandma crotcheted me an angel tree topper, dipped in sugar water to make it stiff

and it's not all that stiff any more but i

it. she also made me a tree skirt and candles (crotcheted over paper tubes to hold their shape), they are all even MORE special since she passed away last summer...

 

[iluvwalkers]

[SIZE=12pt]I have several that where my grandmothers but I had a handmade sweetgrass bell I got about 20 years ago, it was one of my first that was "mine" . I always put it close to the top of the tree to keep it safe...a couple weeks ago one of the cats must have got it down and when I returned home it was shreaded, took me a minutes to figure out what it even was, one of the dogs had a grand time with it

, I picked a piece of it up and said "WHO DID THIS" I have to say thinking back I am smiling now thinking about the look on all 5 dogs faces, I don't know who did it but they all looked quilty as heck, not one could look me in the eye...LOL...Nikki[/SIZE]

 

[Katiean]

My oldest is a very small glass bell. It was on my parents first christmas tree 54 years ago.