Christmas Ornaments From Around the World

The red sphere is from Las Vegas

The embroidered fish

from China

A few years ago I did a post about my Christmas ornaments.  Whenever we travel I purchase at least one Christmas ornament from each destination.  Those are my favorite souvenirs.  I only see them once a year when the tree is up.  But when we are putting them on the tree I remember where I bought it and I remember the trip.  I originally wrote the article in 2012.  Since then we have traveled to many more places and I have added to the decorations.  I have to say that my tree is running out of room for many more.  It is a 10 1/2 ft. tree, but it is getting very full.  The decorations are not all from my travels.  Over the years friends have given me ornaments and I have some that I made.  I also put glass balls on the tree because they reflect the light and fill in spaces.  But my favorite decorations are always from places I have visited.

Below is the posting I did in 2011.  Then below that is a new posting from this year with pictures of some of the ornaments I have collected since then. 

Christmas ornaments are one of the best ways to express the cheer and meaning of the holidays in one of the simplest ways. The different themes and feelings can be conveyed merely through Christmas ornaments. A history of love and connections spoken in ornaments, hanging upon the boughs of pine-scented greenery.

Capiz Shell Angel from the PI

In a recent posting I talked about buying souvenirs.  I always tell myself I will not buy more stuff on my next trip, and inevitably I end up buying something.  My biggest weakness is Christmas ornaments, which I have collected for years, from every place I have ever visited.  It started in the Philippines when we lived there in 1979.  Up until that time my tree always just had lights and the standard balls hanging on the tree.  Then I discovered the capiz shell and hand-embroidered ornaments of the Philippines.  They were beautiful.  And my collection started.

Since then I have added to my collection.  I have a very eclectic assortment of ornaments.  I never buy something that says where it is from.  I don’t want a tree that screams tourist shop.  Even though the ornament doesn’t say anywhere on it where it is from, I can tell you where each came from.  It is part of my memories of my trip.

Silk Elephant from Thailand
The Celtic horn is from Ireland

It has sometimes been difficult to find an ornament to bring home.  Quite often we travel during the summer months, and most places do not have Christmas ornaments out in the middle of summer.  And then there are the countries where Christmas is not really celebrated.  For instance, I had a hard time finding a Christmas ornament in Thailand.  But I did find some small silk elephants in a shop, and they hang on the tree quite nicely.

Camel from Turkey
The feather ornament is a Dream Catcher from Alaska

In Turkey, last year, I was looking
for an ornament, and ended up buying a small camel which has an opening on his back, which can be a small compartment to hold something.  It is metal, and fairly heavy.  It does not have a hangar, but I was able to rig a ribbon through the magnetic opening on the back.

Nutcracker from
Germany

When we were in the Canary Islands in September 2003, I kept looking for an ornament.  The last week we were there I found a small frog with lights wrapped around him.  It also doesn’t have a hangar, but I wire him onto the branches. 

Quite a few of my ornaments are from our trip to the Christmas Markets of Germany, Austria, Hungary and The Czech Republic.  We did a cruise down the Danube, stopping at different Christmas Markets along the way.  I bought ornaments at every stop. 

Some of my favorite ornaments that I put on the tree each year are:

My angel from Rome, Italy

The pewter wreath from Athens, Greece

Straw Angel from Hong Kong

Straw angels from Hong Kong
Victorian girl on an old fashioned bicycle
     from London
The Cloisonné heart from Beijing, China
The fur clad bear paddling a canoe from Alaska
The alligator from New Orleans
Red glass bauble from Las Vegas
     (it's Las Vegas gaudy)
My pickle from Germany – it is a tradition
      in Germany that whoever finds the pickle
     on the tree first, gets to open a
     special present.

As I have said, my tree is very eclectic.  I also have glass balls, and lots of lights, and I have had friends give me ornaments over the years, so those are mixed in as well. 



Mozart Bear from Salzburg

Panda from China

The goat is from Slovenia

Frog from the Canary Islands, Pewter Wreath from Greece
Reindeer is from PI

In the 4 years since I wrote this article we have traveled many places.  And even though my tree is getting very full, I am still buying ornaments.  They are the best souvenirs of my trips.  Some places have been easy to find Christmas ornaments, others not so easy.  We were in Africa in April 2013.  We were on safari and not in any big cities, so I wasn't sure I would find anything. Then while visiting a village in the Masai Mara I found 2 very different ornaments for sell.  Here are those ornaments.

The ball is hand carved with animals.  The other is beads on wire. They were both made as Christmas decorations.

Gulah
Australia

We visited Australia and New Zealand and had no problem finding decorations there.  I had to have a koala, since I was actually able to hold one while there.  And the bird is a galah bird which we saw many of while in Australia.  In New Zealand I had to have a Pukeko, which is a blue flightless bird, which we also saw many of.

In Costa Rica we saw so many butterflies that I decided my ornament had to have a butterfly on it.

And a few other places we visited in the past few years,  From Portugal - the seahorse, Barcelona - the mosaic lizard, Paris - at the Opera House I got the Mouse King and from Amsterdam, a small windmill.  

Next year we have trips planned to Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Italy, so I am sure I will be adding to my collection in those places.  Merry Christmas, Happy Travels to everyone in 2017!

"One day you will wake up and there won't be any more time to do the things you've always wanted .  Do it now."

Paulo Coelho

"Traveling.  It leaves you speechless, then turns you into a story teller."

Ibn Battuta

I want my life to be more than just long

Some people are happy to spend their lives doing ordinary things.  They have their family and their homes and their routines and they go about living their lives doing the same things everyday.  And if they are happy doing that, then that is great.  I also have my family and a home, and I love my life, I wouldn't change it for anything.  But part of that life is the fact that I can't just spend my life doing ordinary things all the time.  I get restless.

I have had that restless streak in me my whole life.  I don't know why.  What made me this way?  It probably has something to do with my childhood, which was a fairly average childhood in a small town.  I had loving parents and siblings, and it was very average.  But I was in a small town, and I knew there was a big wide world out there.  And from a young age I yearned to see more of it.

I loved going into the city, which for me was Portland.  It was the closest big city to us, and my grandmother lived there.  There was so much more to do and see there.  I went as often as I possibly could, even managing to live there with my grandmother during my high school summers.

But Portland, though better than the small town, was not that exciting.  There was still a huge world that I desperately wanted to explore.  I dreamed of traveling the world.  For a long time that was just a dream.  I went to college for a couple of years.  Met a man, fell in love, got married and had a child.  So travel wasn't that easy.  We were young, and just getting by financially, with a young child to raise.

My husband was in the navy, so that did help some.  He got stationed in San Diego, and then on the east coast for awhile, and then back to San Diego.  So I got to see a few new places.  I met a lot of young navy wives who were not happy about moving around so often.  They didn't like being so far from their families, etc.  But I always looked forward to where our next duty station would be, and hoped it would be someplace exotic.  But for many years we stayed stateside.

Finally, we got stationed in the Philippines.  I was so happy, we were finally going to a foreign country.  It was the great adventure. I loved being in the Philippines.  It was so different from the states.  I loved roaming the markets early in the morning.  We purchased a car, and I would go exploring the local areas.  We took trips into Manila and Bagio and to Pagsanjan Falls. 

We also were able to take trips to some nearby locations.  Our daughter was on the base swim team and they competed against the Hong Kong team.  I was able to go along on the trip.  George couldn't go, he had to work  But I went along to watch the swim mete and then Kim and I stayed on for 5 nights after everyone else left, and we explored Hong Kong together.  I felt I was finally seeing the world.

From that trip my hunger grew.  I booked a trip to Singapore and Thailand for the 3 of us.  Then I took Kim out of school and she and I caught a navy flight to Japan.  We spent 10 days over there, mostly in Tokyo, but a few days in a small town by the navy base, waiting for a flight back,  We were on standby for 4 days, but between waiting for flights we were able to do a little exploring.

While in the Philippines we also took a trip to Taiwan - all 3 of us.  And we all went back to Hong Kong two more times.  I loved Hong Kong.  It was a quick plane trip, and so much to see and do.  It is a city I could have lived in.  I felt safe there, even walking around the streets at midnight.  So many people out and about all night, it felt as safe as during the day.

But for many years after coming back from the Philippines, we were unable to travel outside the country.  We were both working, and we did not have the money to travel.  My husband was still in the navy, and he got sent places for work, but I was unable to go with him.  I was envious when he went to Australia, Sri Lanka and even Okinawa.  Places I longed to see.

I lived an ordinary life, like so many.  Going to work, coming home, making dinner, cleaning the house and reading about places in the world that I wondered if I would ever see.  I wasn't unhappy, but I did long for more sometimes.

I'm reminded of the play Pippin.  In the play the character of Pippin is always looking for more.  He doesn't want to live an "Ordinary Life".  He felt he was destined for more. In the song "Corner of the Sky"  Pippin sings - "Don't you see I want my life to be something more than long.... Rivers belong where they can ramble... Eagles belong where they can fly... I've got to be where my spirit can run free... Got to find my corner of the sky."  But then at the end he discovers that the ordinary things are enough, and he finds happiness in love and just being an ordinary man. But as much as I love my ordinary life and my family, there is a part of me that has always yearned for an occasional adventure.  A chance to explore, a change in venue.  And so now that we are retired and have the financial means to do it, I have been exploring as much as I possibly can.

I find that as I get older I want to go more often.  I fear that old age will catch me before I see all the wonderful places in the world that I have yearned to see.  And I find my self wanting to do more challenging things.  Like in Costa Rica, I went ziplining, and then found myself climbing a tower and doing the Tarzan swing, by jumping off that tower.  I want to try more adventurous things, although I know that I have to be careful.  I have had knee replacement surgery and there are some things I just shouldn't do if I want to keep on traveling.  But I don't want to just watch, I want to participate in life.  I want to push a little and get out of my comfort zone and try new things.  I want my life to be a little exciting, and more than just long.

Our next adventure is Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, in the spring of 2017.  And I am looking forward to the adventure.



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