Christmas Traditions {Project 365}

Today we put up the tree in the house. Putting the tree up in our home is a walk through time of sorts. When the kids were little we used to get ornaments that represented whatever they were into that year. Thus we have an assortment of Hannay Montana, Winnie the Pooh, Clifford, Barbie, Hello Kitty and various other cartoon characters and toys.

Even though the girls laugh at the red Teletubby, Po, as we hang her on the tree. I refuse to not put her up there. She means something about the family. That stupid red Teletubby convinced us to drop a buttload of money on toys and merchandise back in 1999. It's going on the tree!.

The photo I share today is even older than that Teletubby ornament. This little soldier ornament made out of a clothespin and a ball of cotton was made in the fall of around 1973 or 74. I remember my mom sitting at our dining room table with the floral print chairs, painstakingly painting these clothespins to look like little soldiers. She made dozens of them. Gluing the pieces together with craft glue in the days before hot glue. They were all over our tree for many years. Their numbers diminished year after year as they fell apart or were lost. But a few still remain. I grabbed one of them off my mom's tree a few years ago and brought it home with me to grace our tree. It's a small fragment of my childhood. It's a reminder of the passage of time and the carrying on of Christmas traditions. I wonder which of the ornaments I cover our tree with year after year will survive and make it onto the trees of my children and grandchildren. I wonder if they'll tell the story of the red Teletubby ornament to others many years from now.

I hope so. Twenty-eight down, 337 to go.

Lisa On Location Photography