When Karen Stone begins the journey to the attic for her Christmas boxes with her 8-year-old granddaughter, the two walk the same path that Stone herself walked as a child.
She shows her - or any of the other 13 grandchildren who happen to be about - how to carefully unwrap the same ornaments that Stone's mother showed her as a young girl. Peppered in with the memories from decades past are more recent ones, such as the ornaments Stone made as a girl. Or the ones her children made.
Though Stone's children are all grown now, with children of their own contributing ornaments, Stone still preserves space on the tree for the far-reaching memories. After all, she says, that's what a tree should really be about; what the holidays should really be about.
"We cut our own tree each year, too," she says. "We just go right out to the backyard and pick one."
That, too, is a tradition left over from her own childhood, possible thanks to the wooded area surrounding her beloved Signal Mountain home along the brow. Though two generations later, it's her grandchildren helping her select one.
While everyone cannot cut their own tree and preserve all the traditions of old, ornaments are a way that everyone can share in the memories the season brings, something Stone has tried to pass on to the younger generations in her family.
"Ornaments these days, they all seem so glitzy," she says in disappointment. "They're largely plastic or they're extremely expensive. But these, these have got a meaning. Each one has a story."
Incredible stories can be commemorated in the smallest of tree decorations, such as the embroidered star Stone treasures and puts up each year. That decoration came from the au pair who came from Mexico City to care for Stone's two youngest children - and ended up falling in love with her eldest son.
"That girl is now my daughter-in-law," Stone says proudly. "I still have that ornament, that star, that she made when she was probably 17. And she's now 50 with four kids of her own."
Not every memento has to have such an involved history to be appreciated, Stone is quick to point out. After all, she says, her husband's collection of squirrel ornaments has a much lighter history.
"Charlie just loves squirrels, so everyone gives them as ornament gifts," she says, referencing her spouse's collection of an estimated dozen such ornaments acquired over the years. Though, she admits, there are only six or so that she's truly fond of and takes extra care to pack each year before tucking them back into the attic.
Sprinkled in the midst of the woodland creatures, family heirloom ornaments and those crafted to recall childhood memories are the seven ornaments of the Walden's Ridge Guild, a local women's service group to which Stone has belonged for years.
Each year that the guild has released a new Signal Mountain-themed commemorative piece, a tradition started in 2010, Stone has made certain to purchase one. For her, the ornaments combine the cherished sentimentality of a good ornament with the spirit of the holidays: the ability to do good, since the proceeds from the ornaments' sale benefit local groups like Signal Mountain Social Services, which provides crisis assistance to families or individuals in need.
"There's the W Road one, the Little Brown Church, and this year's is the Santa Train," Stone says of the ornaments' designs, which feature well-known mountaintop landmarks and entities.
Her favorite is last year's, the painted glass collector's ornament featuring McCoy Farm and Gardens, the historic homestead of late Martha Bachman McCoy, which the guild has worked with the community to preserve for the public.
"I'm very prejudiced in my favor for the McCoy [ornament]," Stone laughs. "I grew up riding horses at McCoy Farms. Mrs. McCoy was always so lovely with us as children. She would invite us out [to the property] to ride often."
Again, Stone says, it is the memories that make the holidays, both of years past and the promise of those future.
"You've got to appreciate history while you have it," she says. "And when something comes along to commemorate it, people are moved by that. But it's not just about your childhood. What do you want to make the holiday like for the others?"