The Grandmother Project: Christmas Version
Posted by in Collecting | Holidays | Home and Decorating | LifeAt this point, dear reader, you must be scratching your head and thinking “What else could she have inherited from her grandmother? Her house must be full!” But, as I’ve been doing since my grandmother passed away in May, I continue to find ways to use, display, and enjoy her belongings with some inspiration from Martha.
It should be no surprise that now I’m working through the Christmas items I got from her. My grandmother’s Christmas tree was always filled with blue ornaments – blue was her signature color. My own tree is pink (which is my signature color!), so her ornaments don’t work on my tree. I do have a lot of blue in my house, so I gathered all of the blue ornaments I received and put them in a Heise glass bowl she gave to me. It’s on the coffee table in the family room and looks very pretty.
Among her things we also found some pink ornaments – mostly hot pink, 
which doesn’t quite go with my tree. So I took these and put them in a glass container to display. They look great in my dining room.
Since everything on her tree was blue, she had a few interesting items you wouldn’t normally find in blue. The most memorable for my kids and me were her blue Santas. She had two blue Santa ornaments she bought in Japan. Every Christmas we would talk about these with her. She was so proud of them. “You never see a blue Santa!” she would say. Since there were two, each of my children got one (and fortunately they 
are identical so there was no squabbling). The Santas are hanging on the kids’ tree in the family room. They’re a bit old and falling apart (after all, she went to Japan probably 40 years ago)
She also had some elves, very 1960s elves, which are of course blue. I tried to put these in my kitchen, but the green color clashed with the sea green of my tile, so instead I gave them to the kids and they hung them on their tree.
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That picture of the elf ornament from the ’60s really took me back! It’s one of those things that I’d forgotten I remember, until you jogged my memory. We had a set of them as well; I remember the way they had their legs drawn up, with their arms around their knees.
There’s a woman selling this book and accompanying elf doll in a kit called Elf on a Shelf – trying to start some tradition of every day the elf is in a different spot in the house or something. I guess the idea is he is reporting to Santa and the kids are supposed to find him. I saw her on QVC talking about and have seen it absolutely everywhere. I guess she’s trying to bring the elves back!
I have some old ornaments from my grandmother, and the paint flakes off a little more every year. It breaks my heart, but some are almost 80 years old!
I’ll bet they look gorgeous though even with the flaking. I think it adds to the charm.
is pink really your signature color? since having daughters i’ve been learning to embrace it but it’s never been my favorite…
i even wrote an essay about learning to love pink: http://www.skirt.com/node/28555
Love the essay. Yes, I love pink!
We don’t have many heirloom ornaments, but my mom has two that are treasures: one, a heavy glass ornament that was my grandfather’s and another clay ornament that my mom made. She meant it to be a sheep, but we laughingly call ourselves the only family with a Christmas aardvark.
The ornaments are so beautiful! I wonder if you should put just one blue one on your pink tree.
I think we have that little elf, but in red. Weird. It’s exactly the same, but a different color. They must have been popular in a different time period.
I can’t decide what I think of the blue Santas … They are certainly original.
I would never have thought of putting ornaments on display as you did. Very festive! And, a nice tribute to your grandmother.
Love the aardvark story so much!
How funny! I remember my parents had a big ball of horrible plastic fake mistletoe with an elf like that sitting on it when I was a kid. You don’t see many elves around today.
I credit Martha, who likes to display ornaments in vases and bowls.
OMG, my mom had some of these elves, which I now have in a box someplace in storage! 🙂
They must have been everywhere in the 70s.
Great post. It brought back so many memories of decorating the family Christmas tree with my mom. We always had–and still have–tons of ornaments made by my very creative and crafty grandmother!
I just love this! Ornaments are such a great way to build family memories. Each year, you get to discuss where they came from, who made them, who gave them, how long they’ve been in the family…I think it’s one of my most cherished of family traditions. My sister is the one who, nearly every year, makes ornaments to send out to family members. When she doesn’t do it, everyone notices. It’s all I ever want from her. It’s that one thing I look forward to each year. Hoping this year she doesn’t divert…
I just love the ornaments on my tree. Many of them were bought on trips or given to me by my mother or grandmother. I love to take them out of the box every year and remember where they came from!
My (former) MIL had elf ornaments just like your grandmother’s, only her’s were red and green. Sure brings me back.