Memories Around the Tree

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The Holidays for my family, are the celebration of two different religions, Hanukkah and Christmas. When my husband and I had our three children, holidays became the blending of family traditions that had been passed down to us growing up and the creation of new traditions unique to our family!

  One tradition that I started when the children were small, happened when I went out to look for a christmas tree skirt and couldn't find one I liked.

So, like any crafter I decided to make one! I chose Snowmen as a theme since I have always loved them!

Never having done a patch work quilt before didn't stop my determination to dive in and create a family treasure that would be updated every year.
With a rough sketch I set out to pickup the materials I needed.  I sewed the skirt without much trouble but decided to use fusible webbing for my Snowmen!  I divided the skirt into 8 sections, one for each child and one for my husband & I, the other four sections I created christmas trees to be placed between each of the snowmen sections and used velcro to close the skirt.

This section of the tree skirt represents my oldest son. Growing up, he played all types of sports, baseball, hockey,soccer, and football.  Our first family dog was chosen by my son from the local animal shelter. This dog was always grabbing his hat, gloves & scarf! In H.S he was the Captan of his hockey team and his varsity letter was added. The buttons represent his college PSU.  The cute guinea pig was his pet that he received from his middle school gym teacher!

This snowman is my other son. He has always been willing to help, even at two years of age he alway had a shovel in his hand. The wheel barrel represents his desire to help me in the garden. It's filled with a truck, soccer ball, paint brushes, hockey stick, and our cat that loved following him around!  He had a hamster(on his hat), has a bearded dragon(on the shovel) and did all the leg work to find our beloved husky online!

For the past two years I've forgotten to put his varsity letter on maybe this year I'll remember!

My daughter's snowman is wearing a big floppy hat, because as a baby she had no hair for a long time so I used to put all these cute hats on her. Teddy bears were her favorite stuffed animal. She picked out our current cat from our neighbors litter and was an irish dancer for several years. Her snowman is holding her irish shoes. She also rode for quite a few years, represented by the riding helmet. All my children played soccer for years, but she is the only one that is playing for her high school. I will be adding a varsity letter onto her snowman after the holidays also!

Her Chinchilla!

This cute snowman couple represents my husband and I! An avid soccer player, my husband coached all our children's soccer teams and little league teams when they were young. That's why his snowman is holding a soccer ball, wearing a coach's whistle and a baseball bat nearby! Buying an older home he is always busy working on something which the tools represent.

My snowman has three hearts running down the front, one for each child. My love of gardening is reflected with the pot of three topiaries. Each topiary represents one of my children, and the pruners sitting nearby, show how I carefully need to shape and prune them as they grow into happy, healthy, mature adults!

The kids love this tree skirt and my daughter already asked if it could be passed down to her! It's funny how traditions start! Every year I love to add some new detail to our snowmen, it truly is our special story told around the Christmas Tree!

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday! I would love to hear about one of your traditions if you would like to share it!