Every year I buy a new Christmas ornament and make my husband unwrap it when we open our presents and say it's from "The Ornament Fairy." Here are some of them.
Here's are some I considered this year.
Custom message ornament: Maybe "This Year Sucked." Or "I Cried A Lot." Or "My Mom Died and I'm Doing Just Fine with That." What about "My Relationship with My Sister is Complicated." It was a consideration.
Or maybe this?
Or, hey, what about this?
Okay, fine. I didn't do that. Enough with my pity party.
Serious consideration was these cute snowmen. It seemed even more appropriate after our snowstorm a couple of weekends ago.
A Subaru ornament to celebrate our new purchase? That seemed like recency bias.
I desperately want this custom book ornament. But that would really be about me and not the two of us, so that's a big no, but next year I'm going to seriously consider this as a present to myself. Pick out my top ten books of the year and put them in there. It's a perfect ornament for an occasion that isn't me acting as The Ornament Fairy.
In the end, I went for a fairly safe choice.
Those ornaments made me laugh. I mean...no one would blame you. Although you probably want to wipe this year clean, so you made a good choice. We buy a new ornament every year to represent our year, which means our tree has everything from John Deere tractors to Darth Vader to Roman Reigns. It's wild. Anyway, we bought a ceramic goat AND a hand of Fatima from Fes. Two new ornaments!
ReplyDeleteYou know what? I was at the Winter Market in our town (local crafters) and I bought ANOTHER ornament that has our town name on it. So we have two new ornaments, too!
DeleteI love your annual ornament post! The "survived" ornament is perfect. Although I don't know how I would feel seeing it every year.
ReplyDeleteWe have a recent tradition of buying an ornament everywhere we travel, so we have two ornaments from France and one from Boston.
I really don't think I want to be reminded of how terrible 2025 was every year from here on out, so I tried to focus on the good. We'll see how that goes in the future.
DeleteHonestly I think any of the first ornaments would have been good contenders, but agreed, you might not feel that way in a few years.
ReplyDeleteYes, that's what I was thinking. It would make me so sad to think about my mom every year putting up the tree.
DeleteI have no room for new ornaments! I do have one new one from Florence, Italy, courtesy of Jared and Jordan's honeymoon. Even after Sam and Jared took all of theirs, we still have second- and third-string ornments left in the boxes after we decorate.
ReplyDeleteI love the 2025 Assessment ornaments. They might feel a little raw now, but you'll look on them a little differently (I hope!) in the future. And that book one is so wonderful! I think you need it; it's certainly a nice treat for yourself in a tough year.
We also have second- and third-string ornaments that we don't put out. I guess I could cull the ornaments so it's just the ones we use, but that seems cruel somehow. Ugh. If I don't do it, who will? Now I'm all worried about what will happen to these ornaments when I die. LOL.
DeleteI'd be tempted by the snow-people. We purchased a kind of snow globe, but we pretty well have more stuff than we need or can use.
ReplyDeleteNext year I think I want to do a personalized snowglobe ornament. I could get little paw prints in it for the girls.
DeleteI vote "This year sucked" I might get one too.
ReplyDeleteHa! I feel like every year since 2020 could have been that ornament!
DeleteJust yesterday when I was reading your post (and mentioned ordering ornaments) I was bereft because you hadn't shown us all the options. So I could not click through to this post fast enough.
ReplyDeleteYou know how I feel about language, but the f***ed up one is my favourite ;) Quick and punchy and very to the point.
That book ornament is AMAZING!!!!!
Oh, I didn't mean to dangle it in front of you. I didn't put a ton of time into it this year like I have in the past. I feel some guilt, but not much. I'm keeping The Ornament Fairy tradition alive and that's all that counts this year.
DeleteYou have earned a sour grapes 2025 ornament. I know you have a few friends who would appreciate one as well. You MUST treat yourself to the book ornament. Maybe you could make it your top five and Doc's top five to make it more of a couples gift?
ReplyDeleteI think I'm going to sneakily ask a lot of people for their top 5/10 book lists this year and get them all one of those ornaments next year. They're FABULOUS.
DeleteI probably would have gone for one of the personalized ones. Angus broke his femur when he was two and I was pregnant with Eve. It was hideous and I couldn't bear to have any pictures of him taken during that time, but afterwards I wished I had some, and I would have commemorated it with an ornament if that was a thing back then. I love this tradition, though! I usually buy Angus some kind of Canadian-coded ornament, but I only buy them for others if there's a reason. This is not because I don't like buying ornaments, but because I lose all restraint.
ReplyDeleteI feel like you should just buy an ornament with a crutch on it to commemorate that year, even though it was a long time ago. This one ships to Canada Personalized Crutch Christmas Ornament:
DeleteYou know what, that is a really great idea.
DeleteHi This is Daria from momofchildren.com
ReplyDeleteOrnaments. YES.
Whenever we travel, I bring one from that destination. So, I have a couple from Alsace.
I also make one yearly on Shutterfly and include a picture of the family, the four of us. If it's double sided, Tony and I on one size, the kids on the other. I think I'll do the side with just Tony this year since he got promoted to a VP so that is certainly something to commemorate.
You make a yearly photo ornament? That's fascinating! I bet it's fun to see the kids get older throughout the years.
DeleteI like the one you chose! I think the book one is a great idea, and the Survived one might actually get a rueful nod from you in future years. I know I think back on some years with animosity. Honestly, though, even a shitty year has its good moments. For example, the year my mom died, we went to Hawaii.
ReplyDeleteI feel like this year was the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows. It's been quite a whiplash.
DeleteI used to buy a yearly ornament that we could add a family picture to; but since the kiddo doesn't live here anymore (hence very few family pictures) I generally just buy an ornament with the year on it - it doesn't usually correspond to the year we've had though. Although, this year, I could easily use a Survived...just barely 2025 ornament.
ReplyDeleteI definitely try to make it correspond somehow to the year, although sometimes those links are quite tangential. Let's hope 2026 is better for everyone.
DeleteI think the "this year can bite me" has enough of a holiday vibe! Maybe you'd want an acknowledgement of how you clawed your way through this year in the future, you know?
ReplyDeleteI think that one is so funny because it IS holiday-themed. Very funny!
DeleteThose few at the top made me chuckle. So funny. The book ornament is inspired. What a genius idea. Love it. I hope you do that one next year. Love the one you chose. What a fun tradition.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad I did start this tradition. It's fun and my husband looks forward to it every year and asks for hints about what the ornament will be.
DeleteOne year I bought an ornament for my husband that I thought was really sweet but I was actually really dense. He looked at it weirdly - it said “ I’ll hold you in my dreams until I can hold you in heaven”. He said “this sounds like I died??” Well at least we got a laugh out of it and I laugh every time I put it in the tree.
ReplyDeleteHa! It does sound he's dead. Funny!
DeleteHa ha, I like your first few options. The custom book one is AMAZING- I clicked on the link and it says it's sold out for 2025. I'm not surprised- it's so cute.
ReplyDeleteI like the one you picked out, and I'm glad you did this post. It's a fun one every year!
It's sold out, but wouldn't it be a fabulous birthday gift for a reader? If you could sneakily get them to list their top books, you could make it. I am...seriously considering this as a present for all the readers in my life next year.
DeleteI'm pretty sure there is more than one artist who makes them. I got mine from a woman who only lives about an hour away from me, fortunately, so I could get it even with the postal strike last year.
DeleteOh these are brilliant. I'll take them all, but mostly, the 'I Survived 2025' one. It feels more appropriate. I also like the idea of personalising a decoration, I mean, how much fun is that? And what a great tradition.
ReplyDeleteWe actually ended up with three new ornaments this year: Split Rock Lighthouse, Mars Cheese Castle, and a free cardinal ornament from the FA Club that was practically shoved into our hands during the holiday market. "Please take one! We're trying to get rid of them!" they said. It's a pretty nice ornament that I happily would have paid for.
ReplyDelete