Ever since I bought a wooden Christmas tree with small hanging wooden figures in Bratislava a few years ago, I have started buying Christmas tree decorations when we travel. Certainly not to the same extent as my collection of dirty mugs, but it has definitely become more embellished over the years. It should not be marbles with the city's name in writing style and small glass angels, but rather slightly kitschy figures with a lot of color. As our tree is a really porky Disney tree with lots of snow, it is fitting to fill the tree with lots of Christmas tree ornaments. Actually, I want the tree to twinkle a little more, but the hundred little lights that make the snow sparkle will have to do instead.
I have selected five favorites from the tree, which make me dream back to previous years' Christmas trips. What does your tree look like? Have you also filled the tree with memories? Maria's memoirs has made a flag garland with flags from the countries she visited. Very nice I think! Maybe it would be something for me to tinker with for next Christmas?
Favorite memory 1: London, England
From London I have two Christmas decorations from Harrods. A glittering golden Big Ben and a glittering red double decker. They are incredibly heavy though, a little tricky to place them in the tree without the branches bending a little. But what do you not do with such beautiful ornaments?
Favorite memory 2: Tallinn, Estonia
In Estonia we found these lovely wooden soldiers. There were two of them, in different colors and with different weapons. It only cost ten kronor each, so I probably should have bought more.
Favorite memory 3: Krakow, Poland
No one who has visited Poland can have escaped this folklore pattern. It really is everywhere. Almost a bit of a kurbits, isn't it? I only bought one bauble with me from Poland, both because my hand luggage was starting to fill up and because I wasn't really sure the bauble would fit on the tree. A little too much pink and light blue and a little too little red and gold.
Favorite memory 4: Tallinn, Estonia
Even more baubles from Estonia are you thinking? Yes, quite a few were purchased in Tallinn. This little red and gold snowman is part of a set of eight different figures. Super nice little wooden figures hand-painted with flowers and patterns. Christmas trees, matryoshka dolls, towers with onion domes and old men with hats.
Favorite memory 5: Great Ocean Road, Australia
The funny thing about our koala ball is that none of us remember when we bought it. We can't remember buying it in Australia, so it's probably bought in Sweden. But it doesn't really matter at all, because when I see it, I still long to go back to the wild koalas we met on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria. These adorable little fur balls! Love koalas!
Thanks so much for the link! ? And the koala was as cute as could be! I've actually only bought a Christmas tree ornament abroad, a golden beer stopper with sparkling foam from Bavaria?
Haha, wonderful! But why don't we also have a golden beer stop from Bavaria? Also want! My husband's family is from there, but the fact that we've only been there in the summer could be a reason why we didn't buy any Christmas decorations from there... ?
What nice Christmas tree decorations! The koala is incredibly cute. After this weekend's quick visit to Dublin, I now have a Christmas tree ball with Irish sheep :-) I have a lot of Christmas decorations that were bought in the USA, but since we have a cat, it has to be hidden in boxes and unfortunately cannot be hung on the tree. Made that mistake once at my parent's house and their cat managed to knock over the tree so some of my nicest Hallmark Christmas tree ornaments got smashed. (Fortunately, I managed to find similar ones on ebay later.)
Can't you hang the decoration high up on the tree? So sad to have it in a box in the attic! Saw a joke picture of a plastic Christmas tree for cat owners, where you don't put the lower branches in the tree, maybe it would be something for you? ?
Lucky you got your hands on the Hallmark ornaments again!!! But I guess it didn't come cheap... ?
[…] of Eva's post about travel memories in the Christmas tree, the Christmas tree ball in the picture above got to come home to be hung in [...]
What nice things you brought home! :) I'm bad with gadgets and also bad with Christmas trees... When I was little, however, we always had flags on the Christmas tree. They descended from my grandmother and grandfather, so super old :)
Thank you! ❤️ I may have a minimalist home, but when it comes to the Christmas tree and Christmas lights on the balcony, I'm all in!
Are the flags still in the family? It would have been fantastic to have such a memory in the tree!