trip around the tannenbaum!

snowflakes out the window

I love December- it's like we spend the whole month in some delightfully dark and magical place, watching movies by the light of the Christmas tree.  With cuddly cats curled up beside us.

I've been picking up ornaments from Value Village for several years now- I love finding kitschy vintage ornaments, that 'tell a tale of Christmas' past.'  Mostly it's old glass bulbs, many with the colour flaking off in attractive ways.  These have a tendency to incur grievous harm and break regularly, though mainly during the great tree collapse of 2004.  sigh.  Some of those were really pretty...  Actually, we had to stage a tricky manoeuvre last night.  The big cat has been really um..aggressively interested in the tree this year, so we had to gently slide it into the corner where at least he wasn't likely to jump into it!  And then tied it up again, just in case!

The plastic pine-cone girl was one of my early finds- I love how her outstretched arms become boughs, like a variant of the legend of Apollo and Daphne.

The cockeyed cat is a favourite- he's so simultaneously cute and creepy!

In the background is one of the 2 plastic reindeer- they just stand in among the inner branches, leering out cheerfully.

They also have real little bells around their necks!

The teddy bear is actually from a dollar store, but he's lovely- super soft and with  poseable limbs.

A friend was holding a fund-raiser craft fair a few years ago, so I made a bunch of ornaments from a set of galvanized animals from Value Village (I think they're originally from Ikea)  I added ribbons and a yellow glass bead to the heart=shaped ones, but the pigs demanded something special- pearls!  Most were like this, but I made one or 2 bow shaped pearl strands that were pretty awesome.  I think I should tart up this last remaining piggie!

And lastly, the flocked flock of twelve feathered swans.  They're pretty ancient and beat up, and they only really work when the tree is fresh (as the branches start to droop, the swans begin to look a little less...er..'lively'...) 

I think my adoration for these old plastic ornaments can be traced to the only ornament that has remained consistent on my family's tree over the years- we call him the ski-boy, as the red flocked figure has a knit tuque and plastic skis, but the skis are removable, and under the hat is a painted-on football helmet.  Then you have this (this listing is almost identical!  so I'm tempted to get my own football/ski-boy now...)

Ski-boy sans skiis...

 That was fun...now I need to get some carols on...Vince Guaraldi, anyone?