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We bought an Advent wreath yesterday and are going to decorate it this weekend. It's one week early, but I love that the whole house will be smelling of pine.

Edited by aditus
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It's interesting how much we revealed about ourselves to each other while doing this project. Our impressions, fears, memories are the substance in the structure of the calendar. Our dreams are immersed within the tales. I'm humbled, and honored, to be included along with my seriously talented co-conspirators. I hope you enjoy it! 

 

:)

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In the US, a lot of people start decorating for Christmas right after Thanksgiving.  I haven't decorated in a few years, but am thinking about digging out some decorations this year.  Not sure about putting up a tree, though since the cats will just knock it down.  When do you start decorating for Christmas?  What's your favorite decoration?  

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I live in a studio apartment by myself and I do not have visitors. So I don't decorate for the holidays.

 

My favorite decorations are the ones that I've made that others hang on their trees! There might be dozens (possibly more than a hundred) trees out there with at least one of my decorations on them. I've been making and giving away ornaments to coworkers for many decades. Since I used to work in retail, a large percentage of those people only worked with me for a few weeks during the holiday season.

 

When I worked at Target nearly a decade ago, I made a bunch of origami stars out of gold foil paper. I included a loop to hang it from with a wire ornament hanger attached. Quite a few people told me they were going to wear it as an earring, but I quickly made sure they didn't do that since the wire would almost certainly cause an infections in their piercing! (We also had a huge stack of flyers advertising seasonal employment that were just sitting around. Naturally, being Target, they were mostly red. In between customers, I made a rough square out of the paper and folded paper cranes [Tsuru] out of them. When I'd go on a break, I'd take the cranes and place them on the holiday tree they had in the break room. No one ever mentioned them to me, but I often wondered what they thought when they took the tree down!)

 

There are also dozens of refrigerators out there with my felt mice stuck to them with magnets I attached. I've given these out as holiday gifts, thank you gifts, and just-friendship-gifts. (They don't make good e-gifts though.)

 

I'm sure some of the people I've given the ornaments to have forgotten who I am, but that's okay. A part of me is still a part of their life.

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gallery_22891_1489_375981.jpg

 

A tradition here in Sweden. We light one candle each Sunday until Christmas. And then we argue about if it's OK to light the candles everyday or only on Sundays. Also if it's OK to replace or move a candle to achieve the correct slope...

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gallery_22891_1489_375981.jpg

 

A tradition here in Sweden. We light one candle each Sunday until Christmas. And then we argue about if it's OK to light the candles everyday or only on Sundays. Also if it's OK to replace or move a candle to achieve the correct slope...

 

It's a good thing the pessimists in The Pit aren't involved in the discussions!

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A tradition here in Sweden. We light one candle each Sunday until Christmas. And then we argue about if it's OK to light the candles everyday or only on Sundays. Also if it's OK to replace or move a candle to achieve the correct slope...

Same here. And we decided to light the candle every day.

gallery_15065_1021_84196.jpg

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My mother used to have two creches. One was very traditional, the other was much more special.

 

A family friend sent it from Hawaii. The 'stable' was part of a coconut shell with the husk carved away to resemble thatching on a roof and a small door was cut into the side too. The sheep were some kind of burr with legs attached. Mary and Joseph's bodies were made out of tapa cloth rolled into a conical shape. I'm sure there was a baby too, but I can't remember what it looked like. Oh, and there was a tiny starfish on a thin wire that hung over the scene!

 

I'm not sure which sister-in-law now has it. They picked through the holiday ornaments when my parents were moving into an assisted care facility and I got the leftovers (including the felt giraffes I made for my mother).

 

(Just be glad an Agnostic remembered this much information!)

 

 

 

Edit: I think the manger was a nutshell.

Update: When my younger brother was going through boxes a couple years ago, he found the Hawaiian Creche and gave it to me. It’s weird because both of my brothers have much stronger connections to Hawaii (my older brother remembers more about growing up there and my younger brother was born there – they’ve also been back to visit as adults). And both brothers are religious while I am Agnostic. But neither one of them was interested in having the creche.

Edited by Former Member
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My mother used to have two creches. One was very traditional, the other was much more special.

 

There will be many memories and interpretations of Advent ideals. Some are more traditional and some are what inspired us.  I love your openness! 

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In case anyone is wondering what my ornaments look like, I have two galleries with some examples.

 

Miniature Stuffed Felt Animals. The gray-scale giraffes were done just for my own apartment. The giraffes I've made in the past were almost all made of gold felt with brown patches. The textured brown felt is something I only discovered a few months ago. All of the animal, except the walrus, are a Swedish design that my mother traced from a sewing classmate's patterns that she had purchased while vacationing in Scandinavia. (This was back in the '70s when copy machines were incredibly expensive and regular people did not have access to them. Way before home computers with printers and scanners, digital camera, and cell phones. Back when a 'CC' literally was a carbon copy of a typewritten page.)

 

Origami Ornaments. I did not create any of these designs. Some were from books, others I found online.

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I remember when you posted these.  They're lovely.  What a nice thing to be able to give to people.  It's always nice to get things with a personal touch. :) 

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I love hearing about everyone's traditions.  I haven't gone to church in years, but every Sunday during Advent they light a candle on the Advent wreath and do a small reading.  About seven or eight years ago they invited my family to light the candle since we had four generations attending.  My grandma, my mom, my brother and sister-in-law, me, and my brother's kids.  It's a nice memory.  I have a lot of nice memories from that church, especially around Christmas.  

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