Every year my family decorates two Christmas trees.  The first tree we decorate is pretty much like the Christmas trees that you find in everybody’s house – lights, garland, ornaments, and presents wrapped underneath.  The second tree we decorate is the one that I want to tell you about.  I call it our “Love Tree”.  It’s a smaller version of of our big tree and we decorate it with all of the ornaments that my kids have made for us.  I love being able to display these little handmade treasures each year and the kids like that all of their gifts are given a place of honor each year, as well.

I bought a small Christmas tree that we put in the foyer.

The tree is pre-lit but I usually add more lights and dress it up with some sparkly garland.

Then we start laying out all of the ornaments.  We try to keep them carefully wrapped each year since they are pretty fragile.  You can see that poor Mr. Gingerbread man in the picture below has lost an eye!  I think it just adds to his charm.

It seems that popsicle stick snowmen and glittery snow flakes were a popular fad….

I especially like the ones with the little mini-school pictures glued on the ornaments.  The hand engraving is also a nice touch.  It cracks me up that they would put both their first and last names on most of their ornaments, just in case I thought it was some other child with the same first name who made an ornament for me!

One of my personal favorites is our little Rudolph the Red Nosed Moose!

Our tree topper is Grant’s hand angel.  It’s kind of hard to see in the picture, but the angel does have a face drawn very lightly in pencil.  It is hard to believe that the little 4 year old hands that made these angel wings belong to my now 14 year old who is 6’2″ tall !

The ornaments are all placed on the tree – usually by the kids.

I think they look fabulous!  Sometimes simple really is better.

Here is the finished version of our little tree.  This is what greets you as you walk into our home at Christmas.

This is one tradition that I am glad I started.  I don’t really care how old my kids get, this tree will always have a place in our home.  I might have to go out a buy some googly eyes to repair a few of the ornaments and re-glue some of the felt pieces back together as the time goes by, but it will be well worth it.  This tree is full of memories for me — most of these ornaments were presented to me on Christmas morning — little hand made Christmas gifts from my kids.  Any mother knows that there is nothing better than receiving a gift made by one of your kids, clumsily wrapped and probably a little lopsided…but because it was made with love it is perfect! I wouldn’t trade this timeline of my kids ‘magic’ years for anything.

Lori is a content writer for Discount Party Supplies. She is married with three kids and hosts many family gatherings and parties.  In her free time, Lori enjoys taking yoga classes and in her secret life she likes going to heavy metal concerts (but don’t tell the other soccer moms!).