Experiencing & Sharing admin | 03 Dec 2009
Christmas Ornaments from Around the World
A few weeks ago, I wrote about souvenirs and mentioned my Christmas ornament collection. Well, this week we were able to get the tree up and fully decorate it.
One of my favorite things to look for while traveling is the perfect Christmas ornament. I try to find ornaments that remind us of our travels in a certain place as a family. I have a special place in the closet where I collect all of my new ornaments throughout the year, we gather them up when we add them to the ornament collection. Sometimes I wish my house was big enough to put up two separate trees–one for special family ornaments and one for our travel ornaments! In the past, we have been buying one family ornament, but from now on I would like to start purchasing an ornament for each of my children as well so that when they eventually leave the house they can take them with them. Here are some of our family favorites:
This is the very first ornament my husband and I picked out together. We got this little guy on our honeymoon to New Orleans in 2000. Ever year since, this ornament has a place of honor on our tree. It is the last ornament that we hang up and it is the last ornament that we take down!
Bought at a Christmas Market in Salzburg, Austria:
We bought this ornament at the Yellowstone grocery by Old Faithful (right before I shattered an entire bottle of wine all over the place because I thought that my husband had grabbed the bag from me…oops!).
Bought at our visit to the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN:
Bought in Amsterdam:
Bought in my hometown, Pensacola-home of the Blues:
Bought in Yosemite:
I love how this guy is climbing up the helicoptor. Bought in Frankfurt Germany:
Bought at Hershey’s Chocolate World:
I bet you can’t figure out where this ornament came from…heeheehee…just kidding!
Bought in Jackson Hole (after my daughter pitched a fit in the middle of the park near the elk horn entrance!):
Bought in San Francisco of course!
Bought in Washington DC:
Bought in London:
Kindly stop by Photo Friday at DeliciousBaby to see what other travelers are taking pictures of this week!
on 04 Dec 2009 at 7:06 am 1.Amy @ The Q Family said …
Love it!!! Wow! You have been so many places.
I love the idea of getting the kids their own ornaments. What a great idea! Definitely will steal this idea on our next trip.
on 04 Dec 2009 at 9:52 am 2.Travel With Kids said …
What a lovely post for getting us all in the xmas spirit! You’ve made me excited about decorating our tree this weekend!
on 04 Dec 2009 at 12:54 pm 3.Abi said …
What a wonderful tradition! My mum always made sure we had decorations with a memory (stretching back 4 generations at one point), which I absolutely loved. I hadn’t thought to apply it to travel though.
From now on, I will. I’m sure I have a seashell Father Christmas tucked away somewhere…
on 04 Dec 2009 at 3:57 pm 4.Helly (Travel by the Calendar) said …
We do this too. Christmas decorations are about memories and so are travel, they work so well together. Beautiful post.
on 04 Dec 2009 at 3:58 pm 5.Lora said …
Great idea! Seems like Christmas time is a nice time for reflecting on all the year’s (or year’s past) journeys too. Great reminders.
on 04 Dec 2009 at 5:02 pm 6.Amie from Ciao Bambino said …
Fun … you have me in the Christmas spirit now too. Ornaments are definitely a fun way to create travel mementos.
on 04 Dec 2009 at 5:18 pm 7.annie said …
Loving your collection. I have a few ornaments from our travels, but nothing spectacular. What we have done for the last 10 years ( I started on my trip to New Zealand) is buy a children’s book. (You may know this:)
I always get something that pertains to the area/people that we are in at the time. It has turned out to be a really fun collection…kiwi birds, castles, books in french, Native American tribes, National Parks….
on 04 Dec 2009 at 11:20 pm 8.Sharlene said …
What a fantastic tradition! I love it. I might have to start doing a travel tree!
on 05 Dec 2009 at 7:20 am 9.Wanderluster said …
This is just great. I haven’t been so methodical myself about picking up ornaments from around the world but I’m definitely inspired to start. It’s never too late, right?
on 05 Dec 2009 at 2:38 pm 10.Kymri said …
Our tradition is to collect ornaments from around the world, but only those made of wood, natural fibers, ceramic or handmade. The only plastic on our tree is in the light strings. Love your pics!
on 06 Dec 2009 at 11:39 am 11.MJ’s Travel Favorites 12-6-09 | Traveling with MJ said …
[...] Two Kids and a Map has a great post about Christmas ornaments from around the world. I used to buy an ornament in each spot I visited. When I was decorating the tree this year, those ornaments brought back tons of great memories as I hung them. I think this is a travel souvenir I should start buying again. [...]
on 06 Dec 2009 at 8:27 pm 12.Dominique said …
I love this! We do the same thing, and I wrote a post about it last Christmas.
Makes decorating the tree so much more fun as you’re remembering all those great times from trips past as you decorate your tree each year
on 09 Dec 2009 at 10:17 pm 13.Lorraine said …
What a festive idea for a post! Can’t beat the little helicopter ladder Santa, oh, and the ‘mystery’ Mickey.