“My mom’s really into Christmas ornaments and our tree’s lavish and beautiful.” ~ Hannah Brown
Traditions
Every year I buy a new skating ornament. It was a tradition that my sister started when we were kids and after she passed I continued it. The only difference is that I now get my skating ornaments personalized with the year.
As a former figure skater, skates and skaters are special, not to mention everyone loves skating around Christmas. It is the quintessential Christmas activity and there is definitely not a shortage of ornaments. I use to go to the outdoor markets in Bryant Park and peruse the ornaments and pick the perfect one to get for that year. And on occasion depending on my travels that year, I would even look for an ornament where I was adventuring.
This year was a little different, as we all know, it was 2020. There wasn’t a lot of traveling, in fact there was nada. I also haven’t been in a mall since 2019 ironically, and the idea of hanging out in a store perusing ornaments just does not appeal to me. The few times I have had to drag myself to a store because the world wide web would not suffice I went with a list, a mission, and spent exactly five minutes before get the heck out of dodge and purelling myself to hand sanitizer stink heaven.
Needless to say I didn’t even know if I would get an ornament this year, nor did I really want too, because this year was a cluster you know what.
But that is exactly WHY I wanted to not only keep traditions going, but remember it. Life is a rollercoaster and there are going to be sucky moments, but those moments make us stronger. When I look back at this year, when I remember the sucky parts, I don’t want to remember the anguish or the grief, but I want to remember how much stronger I became from those moments. That through grief and adversity, I got THROUGH it. I grew and I am better for it.
The Ornament
Thus knowing I would not be going into any stores, the World Wide Web aka Google, became my friend, kinda, albite a very frustrating, slow friend. Because I wanted it personalized it left a lot of Christmas Shops out. I searched on Etsy, but ironically a lot of the ornaments they showed I had or couldn’t be personalized.
I admit I am weary when it comes to new stores, especially web based ones, because you never know what your getting and they could be scams. I know, I know, it sounds weird because this is ALSO my job, but maybe that is why it has made me so jaded.
Anywho I stumbled onto ornament shop which is a very generic, only web ordering store, that had ALL the ornaments as well as ALL the personalization available. While they also had quite a few skating ornaments that I already owned, (the struggles of collecting for years) I struck gold!
The ceramic ornament shows a girl in green and red skating on ice. It is cutesy without being tacky, which is something I notice sometimes with ornaments. While the shop recommended writing a name, I personalized it with the year 2020 and Merry Christmas. I am so happy I was able to keep this tradition going, and who knows what next year will bring!
Do you collect ornaments? Is there a certain type f ornament you get every year?
If you missed it, here are the other Nautical Christmas Links:
Day 2 Tips on Trimming the Tree
Awww, Kate, I love this tradition! Also that skating ornament is super cute… I’m surprised you couldn’t find a personalised one on etsy though. Have you tried DIY-ing one with fillable ornaments? xx
I always buy my mom and myself a new, matching ornament every year.
I love that you kept up the tradition this year Kate! Such a great collection ❤️
I never learned to skate. Every time I see that word it brings back painful memories lol!!
Enjoyed this post!
Thank you!