Christmas Tree Tour Stop 6: The McKinnon Family Tree

As much as I love a themed tree, my sentimental heart won and we chose to go a more traditional route with the tree decor. My tree is a humble tree, but what it lacks in size and quality (next year we will fix that!!) it makes up for in tradition. Our little 5' scrawny tree (that is mostly pole!) is covered with memories. We have a family tradition where my husband and I pick one ornament every December to reflect that year somehow.

We also will find an ornament for each of our children that represents something special about them or an accomplishment that they made that year. Then we gift that ornament to them on Christmas Eve along with a note from us explaining why we carefully chose that specific ornament just for them. Our plan is to give all of their ornaments to them when they leave the nest, so to speak. Then they can actually have something to throw on their tree, because the reality is most college students don't have the funds for the trimming of a tree. I love this tradition and it makes decorating the tree even more fun. I will share a few of my favorites with you.

Here are Nora and Byron's 'First Christmas' ornaments. They are twins, so naturally we has to hang these babes together. I hunted for a 'first christmas' ornament that I liked that year and it proved to be difficult. Finally I had found these at Hallmark and had to call a store and put the last two on hold, only to find out after I had drove twenty minutes there and back I had purchased two African babies. They were very cute, but my sweet twins were Caucasian. After some discussion with the store they finally allowed me to return them. Then I was on the hunt again for these two little sweet peas. Victory was mine, as you can see.

This adorable knit reindeer was given to Nora in 2010 because she had taken such a strong liking to stuffed animals in her first year of life. I was excited to see that it is her favorite ornament on the tree this year. I chose well! Yay!

This Santa that is pretending to be a tree is symbolic of the year my husband and I couldn't afford a tree, so we got some garland, wire hangers and a star and made our own tree out of a coat rack. We were pretty proud of ourselves.

I really love my vintage glass glitter star I bought at Pottery Barn many years ago. I am also in love with my big frosted colored lights. They are so happy!

 Obviously, I am heavily inspired by all things vintage. I came across these darling poinsettias this year at Macy's and knew I had to have them. My favorite thing about them is that they are made from fabric, so when the lights in your house are off and your tree is lit, the poinsettias still let the light through the petals instead of creating black holes in the tree.

Maybe someday I will have a grand tree with all the fluff that wows visitors. But for now, I love my little itty-bitty tree with too much pole and nasty pine needles because of the memories its branches hold (barely...those things are weak!).