Do You Have a Favorite Christmas Decoration?

The holiday season is all about traditions, from the traditional Christmas songs we all like to hear each year at this time or those special holiday foods or drinks we enjoy with family and friends. Holiday decorations are like that, too, and can bring back those magical memories of Christmases when we were kids.

We have a lot of cool Christmas decorations at our house, like some whiz-bang LED lights on our tree that seem even brighter than some of the lights on the runway at the Twin Cities airport, or the engraved silver ornament my wife gave me during the first Christmas we were married.

But I've found that this little ceramic Christmas tree has become one of my favorites. While I'm pretty sure you can still buy them new today, based on the stickers found on the light socket in the base of the tree, this one is a vintage-era tree, probably from the 60's or 70's. We actually got it as a gag gift during one of those White Elephant Christmas parties a few years ago, but in the years since, it has come to be one of my favorites.

I love the history involved in the holidays-- from those classic Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra songs, to classic decorations like this little tree. I think I like this one because it hearkens back to Christmases when I was a kid and reminds me of a tree like this my grandma set up at her house. It was displayed in her dining room, on some white fabric that looked like snow, next to the glass Christmas tree candy dish that was filled with Andes Mints.

Along with our big Christmas tree, this little ceramic tree was one of the first things I set up when we got out the holiday decorations this year. Of course, in each of the years since we've set it up, I've become obsessed with arranging each of the colored lights so that there's a balance-- no lights of the same color next to each other. And this year, I was able to put a much brighter CFL light bulb in the tree that really illuminates the colored lights, but uses way less electricity. It's the perfect marriage of tradition and modern technology.

Do you have a favorite holiday decoration you look forward to putting up each season?