Ornamental

Every year I find Christmas ornaments at garage sales, and add a few to my collection. Sometimes it seems there must be a law – probably a federal law since it seems to operate in every state – that you are REQUIRED to have ornaments at your sale. Unfortunately people are not required to have interesting or attractive or even tasteful ornaments for sale. Hence my purchase this year of The World’s Tackiest Christmas Ornament…Santa in the Outhouse.

Hey, it was in a box with several other pieces. I had NO idea I was buying something this crass!

We decided not to have a Christmas tree this year. Zoe, at 13 months old, is a pretty good pup, but there’s no way she would leave those tempting ornaments alone. In fact there are wooden shards under the bed where I can’t reach them, the remains of some small ornament she managed to snag and destroy. I hope it wasn’t one I really loved, but the pieces are too small to identify. I’m sure I won’t lose any sleep over it. But even without a floor-to-ceiling fir in the living room, we found plenty of spots to decorate. And because buying ornaments throughout the year (I picked up the first of this year’s back in April) means I’ve completely forgotten what I found by the time Christmas actually rolls around, it’s a lot of fun to rediscover my finds.

My Danish MCM glass lamp was the first piece to get Christmas-ized.

A bead garland was joined by vintage teardrop ornaments I found back in June, and some of the miniature Victorian tinsel that was originally came from the gift shop at a local historic mansion. My silly tree-topper cat was the finishing touch.

We used more of the mini-tinsel on the wire tree I splurged on (well, a splurge for me, though still under twenty bucks!) back in 2010, along with vintage balls I found at an estate sale this summer (and a bunch of earlier finds).

Some of you may remember the weathered root of a sweet gum I picked up back in August I figured we’d put it in the yard, but a few weeks ago we decided to show off its sculptural qualities on our mantel. So naturally it got the Christmas treatment too – a garland of glass beads and a handful of ornaments, including the two sweet little wood-shaving trees that came in the lovely box.

Actually, I lied…we do have a Christmas tree. It’s a small fake one I bought for fifty cents back in 2009. Lest you think I overpaid, let me assure you it came with several ornaments! We’re enjoy it on the kitchen counter this year, where it can hang out with freshly baked loaves of bread as they cool.

So even though there are no sales to speak of to go to this time of year, I’m thoroughly enjoying the fruits of my garaging. Of course I can’t help wondering what holiday pieces will become mine in the coming year. Sure hope I don’t end up with anything worse than that outhouse ornament!