Goodbye Christmas.....but not quite yet!

 Traditionally Christmas trees are taken down on 6th of January here in Ireland on what is known as "Little Christmas" or "Nollaig na Bán" (Women's Christmas).  However, I'm not ready to see the back of my tree or lights just yet so still have mine up.  It's Sunday the 8th today and am considering taking it down this afternoon - will see!

In this blog I will show you 3 new Christmas ornaments that I added to my tree this year.  All 3 were thoughtful gifts and so appreciated by me.

The first one is this oh so cute wooden ornament that was given to me as part of a larger gift from my sister who had travelled from The Netherlands with her baby for the New Year (having had to cancel Christmas travel arrangements due to Covid).  This ornament means so much to me being a regular cyclist but I love how it connects my sister and I - her living in such a cycling centric country while I cycle in the beginning to change Ireland with a push towards active travel.  As I hang it on my tree in future years, I'll also always have the memory of meeting my sister, her baby and her husband for the first time (again Covid being the reason why we never met before with travel being off the cards for so long and all of the hassle that it entailed when it started again). The baby was a little ball of fun and energy and had us all captivated. I look forward to seeing her again!

The next new Christmas ornament is this sweet crafty one, gifted to me by a colleague. How cute is it?! It's a knitted Frida Kahlo! It's made by "Knitivity" who you can find on Instagram and Etsy. It made a great addition to my tree and encompasses a lot of what I love - including my love of art and handicrafts, As you probably know from having seen past tree blogs, my Christmas tree is full of a brightly coloured eclectic mix of decorations (some might say a little kitsch) so this one fits in perfectly.

And then the next new Christmas ornament is an interesting one. It's a glass boot and there is an interesting back story to it.

This one was also gifted to me by a colleague and I love everything both about it and all that I got involved in through it.

This boot part of the Tyler Hynes Boot Shot Tradition. Tyler Hynes is an actor that has started an annual boot shot event with his fans. It involved a facebook live event where he chatted to fans and answered questions and then everyone joined him in taking a shot of whatever they fancied - he took Whiskey I went with champagne because that was was what I was drinking. It was on the 23rd of Dec and for me it felt like the real start to Christmas as I had just finished work that day and had my Christmas Eve lunch event planned for the next day.

At the time of taking the shot, all participants took a selfie of themselves and then uploaded it to a Tyler Hynes fan page. I was wearing my Key West "It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere" Christmas Santa hat for fun!

I loved being part of this event as I love being involved with things like this that connect people all across the globe, with a common interest, through the use of technology (a bit like my sister's "Christmas Portraits" project).

Here's the photo of me just before I did the boot shot. 

Christmas to me is all about traditions, memories and the feelings that are evoked throughout the season. Hanging particular ornaments on my tree always reminds of different things such as travel or people - if you search back on my blog you will see lots of blogs on this subject matter.

Thinking back to my childhood I remember when we were putting up the tree there was always a big clamber to see who would get to hang the favourite decoration which was the "granny on the swing" - my older sister Faith tended to get the honour. The granny on the swing, as far as I can remember, was a not very Christmassy ornament of a plastic white swing with a little old lady sitting on it (again she was plastic).  I must ask my mother about this and see if she can remember the granny on the swing and where it came from!

Hope you had a lovely Christmas where ever you are reading this blog from. Let me know in the comments below and let me know if or when you will take your tree down.