Btw, I didn't put up very many decorations last year, for much the same reason. Just one or two things. I looked through the box feeling sentimental, thinking "this is pretty and I like looking at it. It reminds me of when we had so and so over...". Last year I was having questions about the symbolism, i.e. Christian or not Christian? I questioned the borrowing of pagan symbols (and I got over it) as well as the ethical questions about where I buy stuff--because like most, in the past I have bought things that are on sale, inexpensive, without a whole lot of thought to where they were made unfortuantely--but then they became part of my memories, my nostalgia and I couldn't bring myself to get rid of them. So, they stayed in the box and went back down into the storage room. People have given me things, and I have not questioned where or how they were made either. I attach memories to who gave them to me.

This year, especially after this article, it dawns on me that--if someone gave me a hand made ornament, or I made one, the symbolism of which had nothing to do with religious Christmas--but was made in the spirit of Christmas--is much more meaningful than buying just stuff, regardless of the symbolism, than the symbols themselves.

This overlaps into religion and faith. I think it's still relevant.

We recently put up the trees at work and every single decoration is handmade, with care, by the children in our room. The only thing that was not made by the children is the lights. I have to say that the tree looks fantastic! I agree with you, Kimmio - I'd much rather have handmade, far from perfect, ornaments than ones that I suspected were made in inhumane conditions.

Me too. I regret that, in times past, I rushed out to buy stuff that I could afford  on sale to make the house look pretty for guests. Now, I do have memories of those times with those guests. But I have a box of decorations that were made who knows where or how. I have a few things hand made, but I have to say, most of it is not. I'd rather not have much up at all than stuff, now that I am more aware, doesn't feel right to have up.

I don't know if we'll be spending Christmas there this year, maybe not, but my mom has a whole bunch of decorations that she puts up that were handmade. Some made by her. Some she bought at craft sales, some I made as a kid. That was many years ago. It seems to me people took more time to do "Christmas crafting" then. At least in my experience. Maybe it's different in church circles (that I wasn't part of for a long time) and schools and palces that realy value community activities. I think now, my mom also has quite a bit of  "junk" that looks pretty but was likely made in a factory under far less than ideal conditions--stuff she bought at the dollar store or London Drugs.  I imagine most people have some of that in their homes.

When my wife and I got together we decorated a little pine bough (a woodlot trimming) on Vancouver Island with sea eggs we found at Wiffen Spit: we still hang them up. And some small pine cones touched up with the last of my wife's nail polish. Still have those too. Then there were some horses my dad helped us cut  out of cardboard a few years before he died; we made dough decorations with friends one year, and a dear friend in Italy got matching bagpipe decorations in Glasgow that go on his tree and our tree each year… our daughter made some when she was a kid. And so it has gone. Now, after more than 30 years and many moves in three countries, we have quite a collection, more than we can get up every year. But it's a collection that's made many, many Christmases truly wonderful! 

That's wonderful Mike!

We used to make decorations out of "baker's clay"--basically homemade play-dough that we cooked  varnished after painting. My mom has those. They're heavy and make the tree branches droop, don't stay on, if you don't set them far in enough on the branch--part of the reason my mom prefers a "Charlie Brown" tree, so she can display those prominently.  We made ginger-bread houses too. My mom has the same "blue-prints" for a gingerbread house, and still tries to get my step-nieces and nephews together every year to do it, but they're teenagers/ young adults now and not as enthused about it for now. They wilI probably miss it later, the way I do now. I might attempt it--that's not a bad idea, come to think of it! I'll see if any of my girlfriends are interested, and their kids. We have a very small apartment kitchen, but we could make it work.

The memories and kitchen table stuff is a whole heap more fun (certainly in the longer run) than bought glitter and glass… it just may not look as "nice" but, if you heap in on a bit on and string some tinsel around the place no-one seems to notice or react. And those who do think something looks a bit odd tend to really look and then start asking questions… don't worry too much about the uninvoved teens, Kimmio: they very often have a  way of drifting back to it a few years later.

My daughters express missing my mom putting up a tree - as she does as our family always did during the "fat" years ( 50s - 80s) get really big fat trees that smell good and put up all the glass decorations and a few feathered birds from the 50s. 

I used to think of those decorations as standard, and when i invested, got some weirder and fun ones and lots of birds ( we never had enough for my liking) ANYWAY, my kids did the whole house this year. going minimalist and putting away what they didn't want - totally geniius, I think BUT both want to see GRANDMA's tree with all the "antique" ornaments. 

Maybe next year.

When I was a kid, the cheap ornaments came from Japan. but we couldn't usually afford those. Most of the ornaments were made from garbage. The tree came from a lot late on Christmas Eve when the price really dropped.

My proudest Christmas was grade two when the teacher chose me as the one to take home the tree on the last day of class. So we had a tree even before Christmas Eve.

We stood it, as usual, in a bucket of coal. Paper chains were made by my sister and me with coloured paper and/or strips of newspaper.   "lights" were old bottles and light bulbs from the garbage, usually covered in coloured tissue paper

a treetop angel was made from the cardboard core of a roll of toilet paper. (That, too, came from neighbours' garbage. We didn't have toilet paper in the house until I was 14.

My grandmother had an old string of popcorn that she hung on the tree every year. but she was rich.

I remember those trees fondly and vividly. I have no memory of any of those trees from the 'better' years.

That is truly awesome, Graeme.   The creativity, and resourcefulness that made for such special memories, even though times were tough.

I grew up well off, I suppose--not as well off as some, but all in all well-off--middle class, typical. The making ornaments was by choice rather than  by circumstance. We kept  and re-used it year after year--homemade or not. We saved the tinsel for example and ribbons and bows and paper that was in good enough shape. And my later memories, it seems to me, we started to make less and less of an effort--both my "sets" of parents, and later, myself too--people around just got too busy to bother to make things (although my mom still bakes a lot and makes the gingerbread house--but she is retired now and has time--less so when she worked full time), and it's sad. Part of it is I grew up in two households, split my time between the two, so the memories I learned to attach value to, and the "norms" at Christmas were, and in some ways still are, conflicted. At one house I was taught to value the making of things, at the other it was all sparkle and shine. My mom recycled far more than my step-mom. She doesn't tend to save paper and bows like my mom--she buys everything new every year. My step-mom also, it seems to me does their home up a little differently every year, with store bought Christmas " fashions", decor--whatever's "in style".  I learned to appreciate the "style" part--maybe too much. I care little about it now if it can't be done resourcefully--but it's a process of dettachment from some of the things I attached fond memories to. They can afford that luxury, of buying new things, and it does look beautiful. I can't and don't want to. Expensive ornaments (even if made cheaply) are a cheap substitute for taking the time to make them with creativity and loving care. And it is, as I highlighted in the OP, very important to consider where all the sparkly store bought stuff is made. I don't think most people buy that sparkly stuff with ill intent, but out of ignorance--my own experience is case and point of that..

I think threads like this can be very useful, and should happen on a regular basis. Very little that we buy was made in Canada. We should know where things are coming from - and under what conditions. A thread like this every month or so could be a big help.

And let us not forget tinsel, tinsel,tinsel

falling apparent icicles from the tree

and shining! transcendent! psychodelic!

reflected in the triangular christmas lights

( as they begin to lose their painted coatings)

and the spectacular fall of he tinsel as it trailed so delicately across the carpet

into the kitchen doorway, just hanging out

of the cat's behind.

Hm... that's a good question Kimmio. I don't really know where all of our Christmas decorations came from.

Some my family made over the years. I still have a wood and yarn "God's eye" decoration that I made back in kindergarten for example.

Some of our decorations are antique and date way back to the time when such things were actually mostly made in America and England and such places.

I suppose some were made in places outside North America and western Europe. Probably many of the most recent additions were made in China. Many of them are from the local dollar store, and it seems just about everything that store sells was made in China, including the Canadian souvenirs.

The way those children were treated in India was horrid. I really like that they've now been set free.

Rich blessings.

I've had luck checking the sale table at 10000 Villages after Christmas. All their merch is ethical.

Almost all of the ones here, with the exception of a few recent gifts would probably be made in china as they were from a dollar store.

Most of mine are actually still at my parent's house though.  Of those, many of them are homemade and while yes, there are the less than skillfully made ones, some are quite beautiful.  I like the silver and gold sprayed macaroni angles, the reindeer candy canes, and the wreaths with the translucent beads that catch the lights on the tree.  I have no idea where those beads came from.  Many are also from gifts over the years, which tend to be made locally.  Some are probably made overseas, but not.  Also, just because they are made overseas doesn't mean it's in poor working conditions, although it can be difficult to determine.

LOL - those reindeer candy canes never lasted more than one year at my house! They came off the tree and straight into my mouth!

My mom, like I said earlier,  keeps the handmade ones I made as a kid, as well as the ones she made which I remember fondly lying under the tree and looking up at. And some table-top/ fireplace mantle angels she sets out every year for the past 30 years, that she made out of paper mache some fabric,  twine and twine and burnished gold spray-paint that are quite lovely.

I have a few things at our place now that I have "made", if you can call it that, using a collection of bought things disassembled and reassembled, and added to with craft supplies--re-purposed, is more like it.. Most of my things also come from the dollar store or London Drugs (a BC chain I think--a bit like Shopper's Drug, but bigger).  I have made cards. But most of the stuff I have now was bought off of the shelf and I don't know how it was made.

My step-mom, although she likes the "posh" and fashionable looking ornaments, probably bought it atWinners/  Home Sense or Urban Barn--she has some really pretty things, every year, some new addition it seems--but I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of it is made in the same factories as the cheaper stuff anyway. 

You're right chemgal, we don't know that just because they are made in factories that the working conditions are really bad--but it would be helpful to know where our things come from. Maybe the address of the factory should be on all labels. Usually it's just the address of the distributor, if it's mentioned at all.

We had two glass ornaments on our tree - my mother treasured them, hanging them high so that excited children or the cat couldn't knock them off.  We also had a string of eight lights - the kind when one bulb went out, they all did.  All the other ornaments were homemade. 

Remember egg-shell Santas.  When cooking, or for scrambled eggs, my mother would put a pin-hole in one end of an egg, a slightly larger hole in the other end.  Then she would blow out the contents, and set the intact shell to dry.  We decorated these.  Scraps of crepe paper for hats, cotton batten for trim and a beard.  A pen to colour on the blue eyes.  We children thought they were just wonderful. 

Mom carefully saved them from year to year.  She also placed Christmas cards among the branches (they filled in the bare spots on our 'wild' Christmas tree. 

And yes, we had tinsel icecicles.  Each strand hung carefully from the tip of a branch.

After Christmas each was plucked carefully from that branch, wound around a piece of cardboard and saved for another year.  As was the tinsel star from the tree top.

Our tree was always wonderful. 

My tree is beautiful. 52 years of decorations. The tree is loaded. Some of my mom's (especially birds that clip on), all of the ones my kids have made over the years. I have kept every one. I never noticed until  this year how many hearts I have. Some were gifts . Working at the church, I could not resist Xmas decorations from 10 years of Rummage sales. Someone elses treasures.