For many families, some of the most cherished holiday traditions come from the annual unpacking and hanging of Christmas ornaments on their tree. As each family accumulates ornaments throughout the years, they become reminders of special moments-marriages, births, deaths, childhood years-that live on in those porcelain figurines, date-stamped balls and hand-crafted popsicle stick creations made by tiny hands.
Grace Kling
Age: 21
Occupation: Nanny, store clerk at Backstreet Betty’s
“My freshman year at UTC, I was living in a basement apartment in Highland Park. After I moved out, I hadn’t gotten all of my ornaments out of the basement. My roommate called me and told me that someone had tried to break in through the basement and had broken or stolen all of my Christmas things. My mom had gotten me these great ornaments from Neiman Marcus so I could decorat e my first tree by myself. It was really sad. So, the next year I was working with the kids I nanny, Ben and Olivia, and I was telling them that celebrating Christmas was fun with them because they had all these ornaments and decorations, and I told them about what had happened at my apartment last Christmas. The day before Christmas, they gave me a big box with a ton of little ornaments. Once they found out what happened, they had made some every week up until Christmas. They all have different themes and mediums; they went to Ignis Glass and made some, they made some out of paper and popsicle sticks … but my favorite is Mary Poppins. It will always remind me that I was their nanny. It was the best Christmas ever.”
Jay Craig
Age: 43
Occupation: Realtor at Keller Williams Realty
“I have sung at the White House eight different times, always during the Christmas season. During that time, it was for four different presidents. The exciting and special part to me was the opportunity that I was given to sing for George H. W. Bush and then his son, George W. Bush. The reason it meant so much to me is because they are family. I am a big family man. I have built a successful real estate business with a family member, my mother. The connection with the Bush family is the same thing. You have a father who worked and a son helping along his side until one day he became president as well. The ornaments from the White House are always so beautiful, but the years that the Bush men served are extra special and unique for me because of the family bond and connection. It’s special to me to have those ornaments on the tree to remember that.”
Ryan Hutchison
Age: 37
Occupation: IT for US Express
Rona Hutchison
Age: 35
Occupation: Owner of Uptown Art
“I am married to my high school sweetheart. This year was our 12-year anniversary. On our first anniversary, my aunt and uncle gave us a ‘First Christmas’ ornament from Waterford. I love Christmas, so I thought that would be a cool tradition for us. Each year, we have added a new Waterford ornament to our collection. We keep up with where we were when we purchase it and can reminisce as we open each one to put on the tree.
The best of all of them was from a few years ago. We were visiting a friend in New York City and decided that we should get that year’s ornament there in Macy’s. In 2000, Waterford designed a new Times Square ball with the theme ‘Star of Hope.’ Each year, they replace a panel of the ball. Since we were in New York, we decided to purchase that year’s disc ornament (2003/2004 Waterford Times Square Hope for Unity). We walked up to the Waterford counter and noticed that there was a guest there that day-it was the designer himself and we were able to get him to etch his signature into our ornament. We were so thrilled that we were in the right place at the right time to be able to meet him since this tradition is a very special one for us each year. That set is something special we can pass along one day.”
– Rona Hutchison
Tracie Blakemore
Age: 33
Occupation: Co-owner of Backyard Farm Designs
“My son Peyton was born completely healthy. They said he had a heart murmur, but said that most children grow out of it. In July 2003, I was six months pregnant with my daughter, Paige, and we were getting a check-up at the doctor’s office. The doctor was examining Peyton, and he said he heard a heart murmur and wanted to have it checked out. They kept doing test after test, and here I was six months pregnant. My son was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect called coarctation of the aorta, and the doctor said he would have to have heart surgery.
It felt like a bomb went off. All I heard was surgery and heart, and everything else was just noise. Peyton had to have the surgery when he was 4 years old. They wanted to wait until Paige was born to do his surgery, so on the day I was set to have her via cesarean section, I was also setting the date for my son’s heart surgery. We would have six weeks with our daughter before our son’s surgery. It was a very dramatic time in our life.
So the week before his surgery on Halloween, his Pre K class made Christmas ornaments because they knew Peyton would not be there later on to make them with his class. It says ‘Merry Christmas 2003,’ and has his little handprint on it and Paige’s little footprint. It’s a real ceramic ornament that they glazed and fired in a kiln. It goes on the top of our tree every year and means the world to me.
Now I have healthy children-Paige is 10 years old and Peyton is 14. He was told he would never be able to play sports, and now he plays football. He beat that. It makes me so proud to see him out there or to hear his name over the loudspeaker.”
Ariana Schoonover
Age: 14
Occupation: Student at Boyd-Buchanan
Wendy Baubach
Age: 39
Occupation: Employee at Raymond James & Associates
“Ever since I had my son, we’ve done ornaments every year. Each person gets to choose a new ornament that means something to them, and we’ll write the year on it. My Nana did that with me when I was growing up, so I continued the tradition with my children. Over the years, we’ve collected a lot of different ornaments. If someone passes away, I’ll get something that reminds us of that person, my children pick one that they like and my husband and I buy one together for something significant for that year.
We’ve been doing this for 22 years. Some are fun, some are sad. Obviously when I found out I was pregnant with Ariana, I got a little crib that says, ‘Baby’s First Christmas.’ Then one year when Austin, my oldest, was a junior in high school, he picked out an ornament with a huge lady sitting on top of a margarita. That’s just random and hysterical. It’s just funny to watch each person and see their personalities and interests through each ornament. Ariana went through a phase where she loved animals, so we have like 10 dog ornaments because she was obsessed with dogs. Then for the next two years, she picked food items. It was like, ‘What were you thinking at that moment?’ It’s so funny.
All of this has led to a pretty tacky tree, but it’s awesome unpacking them each year because of the memories. Last year we did a pretty, themed tree instead of our normal tree-I don’t know why-and the kids hated it. They were very anti themed tree, so we knew after that that we would always do two trees because Christmas isn’t the same without the fun one.”
– Wendy Baubach
Christina Glidden
Age: 44
Occupation: Jewelry designer, owner of Jewelry by Christina.
“My children, Evie and Matthew, really wanted to audition for Closed Door Entertainment’s production of Les Misérables. I’d never done anything like that before-not theatre or singing or anything-and I had no idea what I was getting into. But their drive to get involved inspired me, and so we auditioned and made it into the cast. On our Saturday night performance of the show, my sister-in-law, Ann Seifert, came up from Florida and surprised us. She gave me these beautiful Christmas ornaments from Etsy that have lines from Les Misérables inside. It was such a beautiful gift.
My Christmas tree is eclectic and multicolored-it represents all the places I’ve been and traveled to … all of my adventures. But doing Les Miserables has been the most amazing adventure because I’ve shared it with my children. We got to do this as a family. It makes me cry just thinking about it. The three of us just got this incredible sense of belonging in that show. If I never do another production again, those ornaments will remind me of that moment that we shared-those three months of intensely studying and learning the words about struggle and poverty together. It was a risk for me to audition, but for the love of your children, you do things you wouldn’t normally do. It was an incredible experience. Those ornaments will be at the top of my Christmas tree every year.”