MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Updated December 25, 2020.
Starting the year I was 12 (which was even before I learned needlepoint), my mom bought me a new Christmas ornament. This had many consequences: I love ornaments and collect them, I do the same thing for my kids (and my DH), and our tree is very eclectic and stuffed with ornaments.
This year, while trimming the tree, I realized my son had the best ornaments of all of us. That’s because I really had to stretch to find great ornaments for him. But the tree is exceedingly eclectic. We have sharks (3), penguins (4), a Hershey’s Kiss, and a yak, among other oddities,
But it also had the consequence that my favorite needlepoint to stitch is Christmas ornaments. I make at least one for each child each year, have dozens of mini socks that trim our railings, and for many years stitched almost nothing else.
I did this because my DH said he was tired of pillows, and asked if I could stitch something he didn’t have to see all the time. The answer was ornaments. It turned out they are the perfect needlepoint for a busy life. I stitched while on the bus commuting and later, when I traveled for work all the time, in many airports, planes, and hotel rooms.
When we trim the tree, many of these homemade ornaments bring back so many memories. There is the needlepoint of the Alamo (bought oddly enough on my first trip to Houston). There is the set of Mika Partridge snowflakes in metallics, which were my first real chance to use Kreinik’s threads. There is the simple needlepoint Madonna and child, which was finished as a tree topper and sits on our small Jesus tree (I put that up last night). There is my son’s Buffalo from Petie – about 2/3 down the page, which I made for him one year as a remembrance of his favorite stuffed animal, Animal.
And when I go through the ornaments, I think of all the ones which aren’t on the tree because I gave them to my daughters when they moved out on their own. Because of the legacy my mom gave me in those ornaments every year since 1968 when I was first married I had enough ornaments for a very small tree. It meant so much to me; it’s a tradition I’m so glad to pass onto my kids.
Trimming the tree and house for Christmas always fills me with memories. Making ornaments helps bring them and the people I made them for to mind.
About Janet M Perry
Janet Perry is the Internet's leading authority on needlepoint. She designs, teaches and writes, getting raves from her fans for her innovative techniques, extensive knowledge and generous teaching style. A leading writer of stitch guides, she blogs here and lives on an island in the northeast corner of the SF Bay with her family
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