Advent Calendar - Christmas Tree Ornaments

I have to confess that I am drawing a blank trying to remember any particular Christmas tree ornaments from my childhood, with one notable exception - the ouchy-lights. The coloured plastic coverings for the bulbs on one of our sets of lights had little spikes all over them, presumably to refract the light but also effective in stopping small fingers from touching things they shouldn't. I wasn't very fond of those lights.

I did love Christmas lights in general though, and it was a special treat to actually have them switched on! It doesn't get dark until 8.30pm-ish in December here in NZ so lights don't feature for as much of the day as elsewhere.

A non-commercial approach was standard procedure in my parents' time. Mum remembers making paperchains and various decorations from foil, and the tree would also be decked out with balls, stars, tinsel, lights and the fairy on top.

If it's cold and miserable outside like it is in England then it's more important that the inside of the house be festive and bright. Mum tells me that they had a lot of indoor decorations, particularly balloons, concertina paper ornaments stretched from one corner of the ceiling to the other and those ornaments that store flat but fold out to be clipped into a round 3D shape (there's probably a technical name for those) - now she's said it I remember we had those too when I was little.

When I was little I don't remember any hand-made ornaments, but I definitely made some beaded ball ornaments as a teenager. Perhaps they're still at my parents' place? I do have one hand-made ornament on my tree now though, a piece that I stitched some years back.


I dare say the children of Wing decorated the house with whatever they could find that took their fancy!