The Romantic.com

Every year I would buy my daughter a Hallmark Barbie ornament. They are dated and numbered in a series. I started this for her when she was 7. I wanted to start something that was a family tradition. At first she liked this because they were Barbie but as she got to preteen years she didnt want them anymore. I knew they were collector’s items and told her that I would still get them for her and when she was an adult she could either sell them all or she could keep them.I kept buying them even though for a number of years, she had no interest in them, she did always put them on the tree herself. Since I didnt think of this earlier for her, she didnt have any baby ornaments, such as “Baby’s first Christmas”.Thank goodness for the internet, I found a Baby’s First Christmas 1988 for my daughter and that ornament is so special to her! Once she turned 15 she became very fond of her ornaments and both of my children hang their separate ornaments on the tree each year. They talk about the Christmas that they got a particular ornament and reminisce about how old they were ,etc.

Our Christmas tree is very personal, nostalgic, and sentimental to my children.

My daughter has since moved to her dad’s and she thought she had lost some ornaments this year. She was so upset, and I was surprised to hear her reaction to this. She was explaining to her boyfriend that her ornaments were one thing that represented something she and I did each year, something that I always gave her and they symbolized a bond between us. They were real things that made her feel like she held each year in her hand and she could remember a year we went through a divorce, a year that we bought a new house, etc.

It made me cry to know that they really meant that much to her. Luckily we were able to find all but one. I would encourage any one to take the time to collect an ornament each year. Before you know it, you have a tree full of meaningful year markers that make your tree very special.