Wednesday, December 14, 2011

I love ornaments


I mean, really love them!  Especially the glittery, colorful, festive ones.  So jingly and jangly, sparkly and spangly, like gigantic exotic earrings from the Far East.  And I'm not the only person in my family who likes them.  My mom does, too.  I really like the ones that look like ice.  Some of the loveliest ornaments I have ever seen were fancy, long, hand-twisted, delicate, clear glass icicles that we bought for my grandparents’ tree one year as part of a house present.  I loved those icicles.  I wonder whatever happened to them.

Anyway, each year I try to put up at least a few ornaments on someone’s Christmas tree, or help them decorate.  This year I was quite pleased to have two separate opportunities - at both houses, indoor AND outdoor!  (Although I am totally uninterested in decorating the tree at work.  I am utterly unentranced with that tree.)  This is why I loved decorating the sukkah so much.  The wackier the better!  *smile* I just plain love ornaments.

But since I'm Jewish, it feels, well, wrong to hang ornaments in my home.  Don’t get me wrong - I decorate for Chanukah... with chanukiot, with dreidels, with kachol v’lavan (blue and white, for my readers unfamiliar with transliterated Hebrew), with boxes, with signs and with wonders (heh).

So.  What’s your take on the Chanukah bush?  Or maybe I should get a side job decorating trees for people who actually pay money to have someone else set theirs up.

I have lots of ideas for decorating.  Picture this: all green lights in a green tree with glittery golden balls of differing sizes.  Or all white lights in a green tree with shiny red and purple ornaments.  What about a white tree with colored lights and matching ornaments in tiers, rainbow-like?  Or a tree with all one color ornaments, but different shades of color?  Changing from either the top down, or interspersed.  Or, no lights at all!  Instead, vertical stripes of color!  Or all paper ornaments!  Or all clear glass!  Or!  Or!  Or...

2 comments:

Alexis Clipboard said...

Ahhhh . . . a rainbow tree! I love it! That would be so pretty. But realistically, if I were of the goyishe persuasion, my tree would be just as much a mess as my house -- mismatched ornaments, school projects from years gone by, the occasional shard of broken glass . . .

I have a special fondness for Crate and Barrel decorations, although I would never buy them. They seem awfully expensive for something that you use just a few weeks a year (said she of the $400 chanukiah!). I especially like the idea of an ornament tree to show off your prettiest ones. http://www.crateandbarrel.com/decorating-and-accessories/home-accents/large-ornament-tree/s678573

The Clever Cat said...

Hmm. This "ornament tree" of which you link to... one could make something similar out of floral foam or wire, yes? Would I be perverting the original pagan Yule customs too much if I fashioned some sort of non-tree tree-like thing on which to hang ornaments in my Jew-y house?

Hmm. I think I just answered my own question...

And all this from a friend's Facebook post showing an ugly, clunky-looking menorah ornament from Target! Hahaha!!!