The advent calendar!!! It was my favorite part as a child and still is as an adult.

The ornaments on my tree..many have a story - hand made by the kids, gifts from friends and relatives and some that we had as children that my mother has passed along to me.

YUP... and it is still trending;) Order right here on Houzz

My 30 year collection of porcelain Department 56 Villages, beautifully made, hand painted is my favorite. Grandchildren (now teens) like them and each has selected one that will some day be theirs, if they still want it. One teen loves helping to organize and display them. The other two limit their roles to bringing them out and putting them away! One village is North Pole, ideal for Christmastime, but all of the villages work for winter. I have ways to have the others (New England, Sleepy Hollow, and most of the Dickens Village and London Landmark buildings, and the East Coast City) be displayed for each season. Seasons Bay is smaller and ideal for a summertime resort, along with the carnival and the large Gatsby Estate. They, too, can change season, though.

I have special ornaments that belonged to my Grandparents and Mom and Dad ( rest in peace Gramma and Grandpa and Mom and Dad ) that make my tree the most beautiful tree in the world because their is a lot of love that shine from those keepsake ornaments.

I have a small collection of Christmas ornaments that were ours when we were young (back in the 1950's and the 1960's) and I have them boxed separately from all my other ornaments and I use then to decorate a small artificial tree. And when I decorate this tree it takes me right back to the moments of helping my father putting on the ornaments, very sentimental moment and sometimes it makes me cry. But they are good tears not bad tears, I like to honor my past. And by far it is my favorite Christmas decoration. And I could leave it up throughout the year and it is the last decoration that I put away. And I also just bought a record player and I have been listening to my Christmas albums that were my parents. Merry Christmas to all from my house in Ohio to yours!

My Santa collection, that I've had for many years

my tree picture does not give the full effect though with the camera flash.

I usually try to set up a tableau that we call "The Drunken Dollies' New Years Eve Bash" . I dress the fashion dolls (Genes, Alexes, Tylers) in their finest and arrange them as though they've had a good party. There are the gossips, the drunks, the star-gazers, the fighters, the one with a gun - out of control partiers amid a plethora of disco balls, small Christmas trees, and occasionally lights . It's getting harder and harder to find enough room to set them up so they come out every other year or so.

my

When I was Very Small, my favorite ornament on my grandmother's tree was this tiny church inside a glass ball. Inevitably it broke. I saved the church and each year we were at her house I carefully placed it on a branch. At some point I must have taken it, because it's been part of my own ornament collection for a long time now.

IKEA!!!!!

LEAVE ME ALONE...