It started with an article in Country Living over breakfast. I love things old and kitchy. So does this woman. She has created a whole blog to showcase a different one of her collections each day this year. I loved the retro colored lights. A lot. They reminded me of Anna's. Which got me off on a tangent thinking about trees of Christmas past.
A big Christmas love of mine growing up was our set of bubble lights. They are available here and would actually look nicer on my tree than the originals but somehow aren't the same. Ours looked like these.
Another fave of mine are midcentury glass ornaments. The German stores still make many like these.
My Gram made beaded egg ornaments from kits purchased through the Herschner's catalog. I may just try a kit myself though it seems like Gram's "projects" which came off so seemingly effortlessly confound me to no end. Yet I think I may try.
Then one link led to another and I found myself face to face with these choir boys. Oh bliss! My mother had similar retro seasonal candles for all the years I lived at home. We never actually lit them.
My little nativity set has not fared well. There is still a stable and a few people. Not many though. It very very like this one – well, minus the action figures….
How about you? What says Christmas to you?
Starry Sky Journal 
My Mom also had (still does) candles like those for Thanksgiving, Halloween, etc. She always decorates with these little things. Her nativity set is the most beautiful I have ever seen. She got it in Germany the year I was born. The figures are beautifully carved wood, not painted. She also has a string of lights held in the hands of little dwarfs, also from Germany. They have been on her mantle at Christmas every year of my life. It seems like everything of hers that says Christmas to me came from Germany – the most beautiful ornaments, even a string of lights for the tree in the shape of stars – 3D, not flat. Those got broken through the years and had to be thrown out.
That sounds absolutely lovely. I am amazed she was able to keep them all that time. How did she run the lights back in the States? I have wondered about that with some of the things I have picked up here.
My aunt made a pile of those beaded ball ornaments back in the seventies. We still have most of them. I used to think they were so tacky but now they are kind of cutely retro.
I used to read your blog a-way back when. And now you are in Germany?! Fun. Is there a post you can point me to that explains how you accomplished this? How long will you stay? I have entertained some thoughts about moving my kiddos overseas for a time as well.
I would not like to order from McDonald’s in Germany–our standard order is everything “ohne brot”–this causes double-takes here no matter how many times we order from the same location.
The same thing happened to me. I posted about it here:
http://havenofhome.blogspot.com/2010/11/christmas-nostalgia.html
It seems like there’s so much on the market today that it may be difficult for a generation to have similar memories of certain ornaments/decorations like in the past.
The important question is: do you remember the bubble lights?