What's the deal with your ornaments?

A friend asked me this the first year Ryan and I put up a Christmas tree as a married couple. We had trekked out and picked out our first real tree. We put it up in our apartment, all green and bushy and larger than it looked on the lot, and wondered about ornaments. Well, we had one little box from my dear Aunt Bonnie. I think she had included it with our wedding present. It had about 9 blue and green shiny glass bulbs. So we hung those. It still looked big and green and bushy and mostly empty. I considered my friends question,"What's the deal with our ornaments?"

Hence, the first Westphal Christmas tradition was established. We decided that we would not buy ornaments for our tree. No, not just because we were newlyweds with little extra money, but because we truly wanted all our ornaments to be gifts. We wanted each one to be special. Although we didn't start soliciting ornaments from our family and friends, they had been to our house. They had seen the tree and they wanted to know, what's the deal with your ornaments?

That first Christmas we also put our Christmas cards in the tree, along with Aunt Bonnie's bulbs, and we liked it. That year, when husband hauled the tree out, a small bird's nest fell out, and we kept it. I like to think of it as our ornament from God. As the years passed, we received more and more ornaments. My mom put them on our Christmas gifts with the tag. My mother-in-law would give out ornaments to her family every Thanksgiving. Finally, the year came when I picked up an ornament and couldn't remember who had given it to us. That was the year we started labeling them. I put little tags on each one, including the year and the giver's name, sometimes a description. There was "Handmade Bell from Dave and Annette, 1996", and "Christmas Tea 1997 with Sandie". Each of our beloved ornaments had these cute little tags. Interested guests would want to know, "What's the deal with your ornaments?"

Then we would get to share our little story, our first tradition, and they would start to peer at the tags and ask questions. "Yes, that ornament was made by some missionary friend in Papua, New Guinea." "Yes, that's another one from the Dosenberries." "Yes, we received that when we were Children's Church leaders." "A student made me that snowman when I was tutoring at the Homeschool Building." "Yes, my mother-in-law loves snowmen, aren't they cute?" Now, my children ask me, "Mom, what's the deal with ALL these ornaments?"

They are gifts of love, I tell them. Each one has a story. I love to sit and look at the tree and think of all the wonderful people God has placed in our life, and how He has cared for us through the years. "Baby's first Christmas 2001 from the Bible Study girls" catches my eye. "Walnut Phillips 2000 made by Kristin" "Tim's first ornament made with Ellen 2003" "from your Dad 2009" Every now and then, I can still find one of those original blue bulbs, and smile, thinking back to how it all began, "What's the deal with your ornaments?".