 Tree Topper Denied! Posted by Caren Crane Dec 18 2012, 12:13 am Every year, I look forward to putting up our Christmas tree. It’s artificial, so it’s just a matter of removing and sorting limbs, fluffing them out and sticking them in the pole. But still, it’s a wonderful time for me. I love the lights and all my ornaments: the shiny, the sentimental, the store-bought, the handmade. They are all special and beloved. When the lights are on the tree – and I think there were 8 strands this year – and the poor thing groans with snowmen, Santas, bells, angels, doves, crosses, candy canes, mice (which, for some reason, we have lots of on the tree!) and reindeer, I am blissfully happy.
But… But. This year, I find myself with no tree topper. Since the tree in question is artificial, we have only a bare branch sticking straight up at the top. The benighted branch has been bent over on itself to accomodate various toppers over the years. And there have been toppers. All beloved in their day. All tossed aside when the new kid came to town.
First there was a STAR. No lights, no shiny bits. Just a gold star with a conic base. It was my first tree topper and I enjoyed it for years. It happily adorned the top of the live trees I bought when my son was little (despite the fact that I was allergic to them all). Then the top of the artificial tree we bought when it became apparent that the baby (my second child, older daughter) was allergic as well. Eventually I grew restless, though, and was eventually lured by…
The ANGEL. The angel was sweet and, well, angelic. She had lovely blond hair, rosy cheeks, a flowing white gown (covering a conic base, of course). She was slightly shinier than the star but, alas, she could not hold my affections forever. She lacked…color. I’m afraid I was after something a bit more spicy than my angel tree topper provided. Several years ago I was shopping in one of those Christmas stores that pop up like mushrooms at the mall in what used to be a shoe store or a card shop. At the Christmas store, I found the greatest tree topper of all time…
The SHINY, LIGHTED STAR WITH REFLECTORS! Oh, how I loved the shiny, lighted star with reflectors! It dazzled the eyes at the top of my tree, practically blinding in its Christmasy glory. Stare at that puppy too long and you’d come away with singed retinas. It really gave our tree some extra pizazz, a little KA-POW! for the holidays. Alas and alack! The star was, perhaps, a bit ambitious in all its shininess. It was, for all its handsome reflectivity, cheaply made. It stopped lighting up after 3 years and no tweaking, bulb replacing, cussing or fiddling would make it light up again.
This year, I gave up on the shiny, lighted star with reflectors and threw it in the garbage can. Which left me with no tree topper at all. The top of my tree is a bare, bent limb so far this year. But I feel the newly-sprouted Christmas store at the mall calling to me. What I need, though, is to approach my purchase with a cool head and a firm idea of what I want before I get there. So tell me, Banditas and Buddies, what adorns the top of your tree? Have you been faithful to a single topper or have you been seduced by a series of increasingly-flashy toppers as I have? And what would you recommend for the Crane tree topper, to augment our panoply of ornamental goodness? Help a sister decide! And never forget, we are deep in the throes of the 12 Bandita Days Of Christmas! Every day, the cabana boys are pulling the name of a lucky commenter to win Bandita treasures. On Christmas Day, there will be a HUGE grand prize awarded, including books from Banditas and favorite authors like Sabrina Jeffries, Liz Carlyle, Deb Marlowe, Marquita Valentine, Lydia Dare (who are all friends of mine, btw, and sweethearts!). So check back each day and keep on commenting! And while you’re thinking, enjoy these EASY DATE DROP COOKIES
1 cup butter, softened 2 cups brown sugar, packed 2 eggs 1 tsp vanilla 1/2 c. water or buttermilk 3-3/4 c. flour 1 tsp salt 1 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp. cinnamon filling: 2 c. chopped, pitted dates 3/4 c sugar 3/4 c. water 3/4 c. chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Cream the sugar and butter until smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla and blend. Combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl and add them alternately with the water or buttermilk. Boil the filling ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat until thick. Drop a spoonful of dough onto a greased cookie sheet. Top with a slightly smaller spoonful of filling and then top that with about half the amount of dough you used on the bottom layer. Bake for 8 – 10 min. Let cool on a wire rack. Yummy and they look like you worked really hard on them! Posted in 12 Bandita Days of Christmas, angels, Caren Crane, Christmas tree toppers, Christmas trees, cookie recipe, date cookies, easy date drop cookies, prizes, stars Comments88 thoughts on “Tree Topper Denied!” |
   
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Hi Caren,
We used to a have a star with lights at the top of the tree. We replaced that star when the lights blew out and now we have an angel. I’m always on the lookout for another star.
Jane, my sister in shiny starhood! Don’t let the Golden Rooster around the tree. Remember what destruction he has wrought in the past regardless of tree topper!
I really loved my lighted star, but my husband preferred the angel. I think he found the lighted star a bit…tacky. I know, I know. He doesn’t appreciate a great light show, though, when it’s in the library. It seems like once those things decide to go, they are gone!
I should probably find a sweet angel to top the tree again. But…I still want shiny lights!
I’ve got an Angel – I picked it up years ago at a bazaar or craft show – it’s handmade out of muslin – very sweet, a bit old fashioned but I’ll stick with it.
Diane, maybe the key to being content with an angel is how much you cherish it. I’m afraid I didn’t cherish the one I had. I should seriously look at the Village of Yesteryear at the NC State Fair. I’m sure they have something I would adore and want to keep forever on my tree. *sigh* But part of me really wants something flashy. It’s a conundrum!
Enjoy your angelic tree topper and may she ever reign!
I think you need to do two trees – one flashy & one sweet or traditional.
Diane, that’s a great idea. Of course, I would have to find a place for it. I have three trees downstairs already. Still, if I rearranged the dining room, I could put it right in front of the window. Perfect! I think that will be the “traditional” tree. Hm. Maybe I should put the flashy one in front of the window.
Man, I haven’t even done it yet and its already a dilemma!
make your plans for next year & be sure to show us pictures!
Those cookies look way yummy! Thanks for the recipe, Caren!
As for the tree topper, our current one is a little angel, made out of cut-up paper plate and some silver pipe cleaner. DS2 made it a couple years back, and it replaced the garish silver snowflake that used to top the tree before it…
Fedora, I hope you like the cookies! I love date cookies, but making date pinwheels involves all that refrigerating dough and rolling and cutting. I wanted something easy! These look like you did something major, but they are easy-peasy. Win-win!
I love that DS2 made your tree topper. See, if any of the kids had made me one, I would insist on slapping that one on the tree. Heck, you could even shove lights up its hoo-ha if you wanted to. It would be perfect! Why do I have 20 (or more) kid-made ornaments and no tree topper?!?
Lucky, lucky Fedora. Enjoy the majesty of your kid-made angel!
I grew up with an Angel on the top of my Christmas tree, so that is what we have too. It would not feel right to have anything else. Our Angel is incredibly beautiful and sits there all serene.
Mary, that’s such a wonderful tradition! Come to think of it, my mother has a glorious, radiant angel atop her tree, too. Wonder why I got fixated on lighted stars?
I’ll blame the Charlie Brown Christmas special for that. I’m sure that’s where the star obsession took hold! I know it was responsible for us going to the abandoned rock quarry, cutting down a small pine, bringing it home to our bedroom and decorating it with construction paper ornaments and strings of popcorn.
Mama was less than thrilled when she found out about all that.
Caren
We have a star exactly like the one in your picture except ours is silver and we have had this one for about 4 years now I think we had an Angel before that but sadly she fell apart so I bought the star for a change and when I pulled the lights out and we got them on the tree they don’t work and everytime I have been to the shops I have forgotten to buy a new set so our tree is lightless at the moment must remember this week.
Love the receipe thanks
Have Fun
Helen
Helen, isn’t it the worst when you have loads of lights and none of them work? This year I was ruthless with the Christmas lights, Many of them, for some reason, ended up with half the lights not working. Seriously, like exactly half the string.
I knew my husband had probably been shoving those back in a box and putting them back in the attic every year for who knows how long. So, I got rid of all the ones with lots of burned-out bulbs (or severed electrical connections, or whatever). Toss!
This year, almost all the lights actually light up and the tree is gorgeous. Oh, and the two strands of lights around the mantle and hearth as well…Did I mention I tend a bit toward the tacky?
I haven’t had a tree for a few years now but when I did I had an angel, she was lovely with a very fancy robe and feather wings.
Prior to the angel I had a Mother Mary topper, I still have her in fact, since she had the conical shape to go on top of a tree she also sets up on a table.
Ooh, Dianna! I would be tempted to put up the tree just to have that gorgeous angel on display! Feather wings, you say? Hm…if she disappears, please don’t come down to NC looking for her. I’m sure she will not find her way to my house!
I love that your Mother Mary does double duty as a table decoration. How thoughtful of her! That’s Mary for you: give, give, give. I hope you enjoy having her on display this season!
We have a fibre optic tree and there is a star at the top with the fibre optics round the edge lighting it up
Barb, I am dead jealous of your fiber optic tree with pre-lit star! My mother bought, quite a few years ago, one of those Martha Stewart pre-lit Christmas trees. She simply puts the pieces of pole together and plugs it in. I have been horribly jealous of that thing!
Of course, she said that this year, she and my oldest sister noticed that quite a few of the lights have burned out. Apparently, they are a size or shape that is not commonly available anymore. So she will have to abandon Martha sometime in the near future. Still…so jealous!
I do have a small, multi-colored fiber optic tree sitting on my hearth. Under the mantel with the two strands of multi-colored lights. And Santas. And fake snow. And stocking hangers and stockings.
Did I mention I might have a tendency toward the tacky?
The tree topper we use has adorned our tree for close to forty years. I can’t remember what came before- if indeed anything did. THe topper came from Hallmark (I still have and use the original box it was purchased in). It’s plastic but made to look like a stained glass depiction of a colorful angel stroking a lute. I’m sure it would be much more striking if we could manage to get a light behind it to emphasize the stained glass quality – but as it by definition tops the tree, there’s no room for lights behind – only beneath. It stands near the ceiling, above the windows so even daylight cannot shine from behind. But I love the possiblity that one day the topper will blaze with angelic beauty and grace.
My daughter commented that it was time for a new tree topper, but I suggested she was welcome to purchase one for her own tree when she established her own house/apartment. For now, the stained “plastic” angel is as dear to me as the artificial tree – which is of the same age. It’s all part of the tradition.
Donna, your faux-stained glass angel sounds beautiful! I really need to look until I find something that I fall in love with. Preferably without lights that will burn out, but possibly with the potential for at least having lights shoved up its hoo-ha. *sigh*
I am quite envious of you and everyone with a beloved tree topper. I am so happy with all my many (many!) decorations and traditional and flashy bits one and all. I can’t figure out how I ended up with this tree topper dilemma. It makes no sense!
Okay, part of the reason might be that I’m really cheap. I did splurge a few years back (when the DH and I could afford it) and bought a gorgeous tree skirt. I love that thing! Even then, though, the amount I paid for it, even at the half-off after-Christmas sale, made me cringe.
So, yeah, I may have to keep scrounging through sales tables on Boxing Day a few more years before I find tree topper bliss!
I’ve had the same tree topper for the last 10 years; and I don’t think I could replace it as it’s the most far-out star you’ll ever see. It’s a bronze/gold star with a plain side, and on the other side, there’s spirally metal bits and mixed media attached and they’re also bronze/gold too…. very cool… and it sits off to one side a little as it’s all on a strong little spring that makes it all look like the star is shooting off the tree!
And to make it light up, I position a light in front and behind it, so when I turn on the lights, it looks lovely.
Oh, snap! Mozette, now I know why I haven’t found my perfect tree topper. You have it! It sounds like a shiny, artistic, mixed-media, quirky piece of Christmas tree heaven!
I probably need you to send me a picture of it so I can flash it around when I’m shopping for a new topper. “Got anything like this? No? I am done here!”
Man, that tree topper bar has been raised very high now. I’m afraid nothing else will compare! Especially since it tilts to the side. Perfection!
Enjoy every moment with your incredibly wonderful tree topper! *sniff*
Caren,
I’ve just e-mailed you some photos of my tree topper… I hope you like them. I haven’t been able to find another just like it; but then, I suppose, that’s what finding an original is all about… finding just the right one!
I used to have a muslin Angel–I’ll bet it matched Diane Sallans! I got it at Lazy Days 20 years ago. But she never fit very well and finally last year she just refused to stay up there. I was at a loss, so I just stuck one of our Santa hats on top. The boys liked it so much, we did the same thing this year!
Nice! Deb, I think the Santa hat is a briliant idea. I may have to pick one up today! Actually, there may be one in the youngest’s room. She has all kinds of things stashed away in there. It’s like Aladdin’s cave!
Did you toss your angel in the trash (as I would have, sadly) or did you resurrect her for another use? She sounds lovely. I adore muslin!
Now I’m seriously considering a Santa hat, since I can’t have Mozette’s star…
Caren–I donated the angel. She was still in amazing condition and I figured she could fit on somebody’s tree!
Aha! So there is one angel out there (besides mine) that did not end up on a table top! I’m sure someone was very happy to find your angel. Muslin!
We had a shiny reflector star and I replaced it years ago with an angel which caused my children to complain. I like having the angel on top of the tree so she gets to stay.
Maureen, what Mama says, goes.
Heck, we cater to the kids for so many things. Did I ever really want to have Super Mario Brothers plates or Barbie bowls? No. Do I have them? Yes. My kids are grown and I still have them and they still use them. Ack!
So, yes, you should have your angel, by all means. Enjoy every moment of each Christmas when she serenely adorns your tree! (By the way, you won a prize from the 14th. Contact Joanie!)
Your tree sounds lovely, Caren! We have an angel as a tree topper now, but I’d like to go back to having a silver star. When my husband and I were first married he would make a star out of cardboard and tin foil to use as our topper *g*
One year when my son was a teenager, he pasted a picture of his face onto an angel’s body and put that on top of our tree. I have to admit, that was my favorite topper
Beth, I love both the tin foil star and your son’s face on the angel! I would have a hard time not using either one of those, actually. Although knowing my kids, they would keep stealing the angel and putting their pictures in place of the face. Like, multiple times each season, in rotation. That could get dangerous for the integrity of the tree. Hm…
I’m leaning back toward the shiny stars, I think. Mozette hooked me!
Traditional angel topper here – and one that has been in the family for at least 25 years. It’s our tradition to have lovely hubby put the angel on the tree as the final decoration – and to make sure she has one of the lights up her skirt!
We also have a handmade tree skirt – made by the most un-crafty person ever … me … from felt and tinsel Unfortunately, one year it got swept up with the tablecloths and washed, so it’s a little battered, but I get told off if I even think about getting a new one!
Anna, I love that you put the lights up your angel’s hoo-ha! See, if I had an angel, she would have to be okay with that sort of thing. I think it takes a special sort of angel.
I also love your homemade felt tree skirt! I actually have a homemade felt tree skirt around my fiber optic tree. It was made by my husband’s great aunt Ivy. She was at least 90 when she made it (decades ago), so the red felt Santa looks a bit like a cavorting goblin. She made truly horrid-looking crafts, even when she was younger.
But she was the sweetest woman and made them all to show her love. So, the tree skirt comes out to enjoy its moment in the fiber-optic sun every year. It makes me happy and adds to the hodge-podgy goodness!
Good morning, Caren! I love your tree topper struggles. I’ve been struggling with my own for years. We had a light-up star when I was a kid–nothing as fancy as yours, just a lightbulb sandwiched between two star-shaped plates–but I wanted to branch out once I was on my own. I’ve had numerous variations on stars & snowflakes ever since but never an angel. I’m vaguely dissatisfied with my star now & am jonsing for something new but…nothing’s grabbed me yet. Perhaps this is the year I find something that’ll stick with me forever? I’m inherently monogamous, so I think I’ve just been waiting for Mr. Right. We’ll see. But good luck on your search! I’ll wait to hear what you’ve found…
Susan, I think you and I need to take a road trip. To Australia. We need to visit Mozette and check out her quirky star all up close personal-like. THEN, we can proceed to hunt all over Australia until we find our perfect stars. Then and only then shall we return home, triumphant.
If we just so happen to run into, say, Fo or Christine or Helen or Barb or whoever, that will be entirely coincidental. Also, this trip may take up to 6 months. We wouldn’t want to rush anything, you know.
So, are you with me or what? Susan…?
Since some point before I was born, give or take, to just a few years ago, it was this gold angel. For a long time I just didn’t really like it because it felt too 70s or whatnot, but, you know, tradition. Luckily, we did replace it a couple of years ago with this large, country-ish star, that doesn’t do anything fancy but sit there and look good and Christmasy. Love it.
Lois
Lois, you were brave to abandon the lifelong gold angel and forge ahead with your lovely, Christmasy star! I think abandoning something traditional is really hard for most of us to do, so kudos to you!
If I had something that was a family tradition, I think I would be tempted just to stick with it. I’m so boring!
Oh Caren, I have had the shiny star as a kid as a tree topper, then a not so perfect star when the kids were little, and then the Angel dressed in Christmas red, (which my daughter bought me as her present one year.)
A number of years back I bought this lovely red, green and gold plaid ribbon to use as streamers down my tree. I always have a homey tree, with loads of homemade ornaments and special Hallmark ornaments, and ornaments I’ve gotten in travels, and ornaments my kids have given me. So now for my tree topper i have an over-sized plaid bow. It looks lovely.
And that special angel? She has a special spot on the decorated entertainment center.
Suz, I’m seeing a trend here with the angels moving from tree tops to table tops. I love the sound of your gorgeous plaid bow!
I would like to believe I could make something like that, but I am not terribly crafty. I did, just the other night, learn to make a bow from wire-rimmed ribbon. Only I didn’t have quite enough ribbon, so it turned out too small to be as lovely as it should have been.
Also, the people who make craft videos make a lot of assumptions. Like, they assume you know how the heck you are supposed to secure the bow to the package. Or, in my case, I was trying to secure the ding-dang ribbon to the package first (you know, a ribbon across the package long way, then one across it). How the heck are you supposed to do that? Mine ended up coming completely off the package before the gift was even opened. But the bow looked nice!
Not quite an epic craft fail, but close. I need a bow-tying beginner’s class!
Caren, I feel your bow tying pain! I was forced, FORCED, to learn to tie my own bows a few years back when a certain critique partner, **coughSandyBlaircough*, decided to move out of Texas. Alas, my bow-tying savior left me high and dry. She had patiently shown me more than once how to tie the perfect bow. Mine aren’t quite so perfect, but they aren’t too shabby now!
So did Sandy leave you detailed instructions or did you find it on YouTube or buy a book or what? I need Bow Making 101!
I get the allure of the lighted one. *LOL* Hope you can find a good replacement. I use a silver star that I put at the top of my tree that I bought the first year I got a tree, when I did my tree in themes of silver and blue. For a couple years, I did tie a stuffed Grinch to the top of the tree, but he’s become lost and I’ve gone back to the star.
I’m not so much into the top of the tree as I am with all around the tree–the more lights and silver tinsely stuff I can hang off it, the better.
Hellion, my sister in excessive ornamentation!
My girls looked at the many, many boxes of different sorts of ornaments when we began decorating the tree and said (with a measure of incredulity), “Are we putting all these on the tree?”
They are all on the tree. In fact, I have added a few more since then. After I go shopping and actually find a tree topper (okay, if I go and find one), I will probably be tempted to buy even more ornaments. And put them on the tree. I may need an intervention before Christmas is over.
Good on you for being strong and resisting the temptation to keep changing up the tree topper, though. If only my son hadn’t broken the old star!
My husband is the Clark Grisswold of the family clan. We have an entire section of the basement just for his Christmas stuff. I would gladly donate a topper for your tree, however I think he may have a booby trap or two to protect his stash. This year he pulled out my favorite topper…a powder blue (with white trim) robed angel. She has feather wings, also like Dianna described.
Deelynn, I’m sending you a “bless your heart”! I can only imagine the mayhem if my husband were into decorating for Christmas like I am. There would be no part of the house unadorned. The outside would be one of those electronically-programmed, set to music fiascos that people drive by and ooh and aah at. I love those!
It’s probably a good thing that you are much more sensible about these things than your husband. It’s nice that he keeps things like the tree toppers in rotation, too. That way, nothing is abandoned, but just deferred to another year.
Your angel sounds gorgeous. I have seen the angels with the feather wings before. They are magnificent! Jealous of both you and Dianna. I am still in denial that her angel is in storage!
We have a Tinkerbell topper because my daughter loves her. It’s shinny and it’s not too bad since it makes her happy!
May, that is so adorable! I’ll admit, I have a number of Disney ornaments on my tree. A Simba. A Hunchback of Notre Dame. A big Mickey tangled up in Christmas lights.
I also have a couple of smaller ones: Minnie with a yule log jellyroll on a pan and Mickey on skis. There may be more, but they sort of blur together!
Those are still some of my kids’ favorite ornaments (although the “baby” is 18). Your daughter will probably expect to see Tinkerbell atop the tree forever.
Caren,
Seems we’re facing a lot of the same issues this season. I too, could not put up the usual topper, as I was certain the kitten would manage to knock it off the tree. So no light up star for me this year. The this is too heavy for an artificial tree anyway.
Instead, we went with the tried and true… Woodland Santa, aka, Grim Reaper Santa. He has a staff (no, not the elves) that he carries, and a hood. Not sure what I fell in love with about him 15 years ago, but I haven’t been able to get rid of him. Apparently, I knew subconsciously, there would be a year with kittens when we would need a cone based topper that would stay in place. Or not shatter when knocked down.
But don’t drink too much in my living room, because he’s a little creepy up there!
Kimberly, I am dying to see the Grim Reaper Santa! He sounds far more interesting than most Santas. He may get a bit creepy after a few glasses of eggnog, but he’s got interest, which is a very important factor!
I’m afraid I’d be inclined to make up stories about Woodland Santa, though. They would probably be dark and involve tragedy. Come to think of it, that would be a fun Christmas game! Probably mostly for writers, though.
We don’t celebrate Christmas so we’ve never had a tree
Sandy, be glad you’ve been spared the agony of angel vs. star vs. creepy Santa tree topper. This is the sort of thing that all those well-meaning advice columns tell you not to stress about during the holidays. As if!
I think we all do a great job of manufacturing stress for ourselves, whether it’s a holiday or not. I hope your rest of December is joyous and stress-free!
Since we retired, my husband and I have cut back on the Christmas decorations so I don’t usually put up a tree. However, I’ll bet a great tree topper would be a big photograph of your family. Wouldn’t that be different?
Connie, do you miss the tree or is it great not to deal with all the ruckus? I can understand the appeal, believe me. I flirted with thoughts of what it would be like to not decorate. But then, once I dragged everything out, I got into it again and it was insanely fun. Come Epiphany, though, I’ll be grumbling about how to get all that stuff back in the boxes.
I love the family photo idea! I would have to trick them into it, though, or get everyone to take a picture of her/himself and text it to me so I could print them and collage them together. I could round up the DH and my girls, but my son would never come by if he knew a picture would be taken. He has refused to go for a family picture for several years now. I like the collage idea, though. It has lots of potential!
Our first tree topper was given to us by my sister’s then-boyfriend who was Indian. It was an angel done in red velvet and gold brocade, and she actually ties on to the top so she hangs sideways like she’s flying. Given that she was made in India she looks rather like a kruti dancer making a fantastic sideways leap.
Later we got an angel with porcelain head and arms done in gold and white robes over that plastic cone base. However we’ve used her so much that the wiring in the robes doesn’t straighten out well anymore and the plastic base tends to show if we don’t twist it just right.
This year we only have a table top tree so we used our Victorian Santa topper who usually sits among the rest of the Santa collection. He’s dressed in tapestry robes with a mauve cloak trimmed with white fur. Smaller than the angel so he’s just the right size and matches the drapes nicely.
EC, you made me laugh with the vision of the kruti dancer angel!
I understand exactly how your second angel looked after years of use, too. I have a few things that must be placed or hung just right or they are not at all presentable.
Your small tabletop Santa topper sounds gorgeous. The fact that he matches the drapes is just butter cream frosting on top!
For our first Christmas together, my husband bought me a beautiful porcelain angel to put on top of our tree, but I liked it so much, I kept it out, and have done so for the last 14 years, She now sits on top of my grandmother clock. Our tree this year is new and a 7-footer, so there isn’t any room for another angel. My daughter wanted a star, but I never got around to buying one.
Deb, my sister in naked tree tops! I recall in the live tree days, we had one that was just too tall. So tall that no amount of branch surgery was going to allow us to stick a star on top. It was tragic!
Now, though, you get to take your time and hunt for a new topper. You can hit the after-Christmas sales, as I’m sure I’ll be doing! I don’t know why it’s so satisfying to buy ornaments at 50% or 75% off, but it is! I’m sure you’ll find the perfect star. I’m just warning you, though, those lighted ones will break your heart…
Caren, Margaret Maron has a wonderful, true story in her Christmas collection about her first Christmas as half of a married couple and a disagreement about tree topper traditions that made her question if she had married the right man after all. The ending is a sweet, romantic moment that involves an angel.
I collect angels. So did my mother, and I now have some of hers as well. So there are angels everywhere at my house all year round but more so at Christmas–from a three-foot, golden haired angel who turns her head to gaze benevolently from one side of the room to the other to a red-haired Irish angel about the size of my little finger merrily playing a harp. But the angel who graces the top of the tree is a bit bedraggled with a lop-sided halo and one wing that looks as if she got caught in heaven’s door. She’s been our tree topper for 42 years, and some of the heart would be missing from our Christmas celebrations if she didn’t reign from atop the tree.
Janga, I love Margaret Maron! I didn’t know she had a collection of Christmas stories. I will definitely have to hunt that up! It’s funny how seemingly benign things like tree toppers can become such items of contention when you’re adjusting to married life. My husband and I are still in negotiations about a few things after 20 years of marriage!
Your angel collection sounds wonderful! We have a dirty Santa ornament exchange at my Sunday school class’s Christmas party every year. We had the party last Sunday night and one of the most-desired ornaments was an angel. I ended up with that one and only rubbed it in a little bit.
But the woman who really wanted that angel took the last unopened gift and it was also an angel! It was a simple design in silver metal and it was a bell!
I was one smidge envious that it was a bell, but my own angel ornament was so pretty I couldn’t begrudge her the bell.
Oh, and I meant to say that after 42 years, your angel tree topper has every right to look a bit bedraggled. She has done hard duty for a long time! I’m sure she is very beloved, though. I have a few things I keep resuscitating year after year. There is only so much you can do with Super Glue, though. I may have to give it up on a couple of my own bedraggled angels soon!
We’ve used a variety of toppers over the
years, lastly a gorgeous angel. Our tree
is not up , so we’ve not yet had to decide
if the angel will again reign from atop
our tree!
Pat C.
Pat, the ornaments only made it onto my tree on Sunday. For some reason, Christmas feels like it sneaked up on me this year! I think it was because Thanksgiving was earlier than usual, so I felt like I had extra time. Well, that evaporated in a hurry!
I hope you get to enjoy your lovely angel topper in years to come. She will be there waiting when you have time for her!
When I first got married I bought this shiny tree topper and I used it for more than 15 years. Then we had our girls and each of them made an angel in preschool. My oldest’s was made of wallpaper and she gave it these large red lips and thus it got dubbed the “hooker angel” (I know lol). Then our youngest made one out of a paper plate. She is our artist in the family. We use to take turns putting one on the top (so as not to hear “you like hers best”) but we finally decided to put them both there. It is our highlight of decorating the tree. We have joked about these angels now for over 20 yrs.
Catslady, I love the “hooker angel”! LOL That’s the kind of thing that really lodges in your heart and mind. If ever the day comes when the paper plate angel or the hooker angel has to retire, it just won’t be the same!
We joined the pre-lit gang.. and have gone thru several tree toppers over the past 30 years… This year I have lovely gauzy bows… came in flower arrangements over the past few years… ps.. if you still have the bulb lit star? check the fuse in the plug?
CateS, I should have consulted you before I pitched the star! Who knew there might be a fuse? Oh, well.
I love the gauzy bows idea. Maybe I can con some people into sending me lovely floral arrangements with bows rather than trying to make them myself. ‘Cause let me tell you, bow making is not for the faint of heart! I don’t know if you saw Suz’s comment, but she made a big plaid bow for her tree. It sounds wonderful!
I would love it if I could just pluck one off something else, though.
I gave up the flashing stars a couple years ago in favor of pretty ribbon at the top of the tree. It looks pretty with my pre-lit tree.
Thanks for the cookie recipe. I ♥ dates!!!
PJ, the bows are getting a lot of play, suddenly. I had a friend tell me tonight that she went with a big bow for her tree topper. I think if it’s very shiny, that could work!
I hope you love those date cookies. They are for lazy bakers like me!
My tree doesn’t have a topper. I haven’t come across anything that really screams “Pick Me!” I just keep looking. Maybe I’ll make one someday, or maybe I’ll find one. We shall see!
Heather, I don’t know why it’s so hard to commit to a tree topper, but it seriously feels like a commitment, doesn’t it? As if you’re marrying it and will be stuck waking up next to it for the next 60 years if you choose badly. Why, oh why, can’t we just shrug and move on??
Posh, great post! The tree topper dilemma is a big one. We have an angel, who fell down from Heaven once (hmm…) and tore part of her dress. Husband refuses to get another one, so out battered angel still tops the tree. She holds the Christmas disco ball ornament my SIL made in kindergarten.
Merry Christmas!
Christina, I’m so glad to hear that I don’t have the only disco ball Christmas tree ornament. Actually, I have more than one. What can I say?
And your somewhat bedraggled angel has lots of company, apparently. Those fallen angels seem to tumble hard and their hair and dresses seem to sustain lots of damage! It’s too bad no one has managed to come up with really great doll hair that can take a tumble off a Christmas tree, get stuffed in a box, sit in an attic (or basement) for 11 months and come out looking decent. They all look like Morning After Barbie after a few years! :-0
We’ve always had a star on our tree.
Minna, has it always been the same star or have you mixed it up? I’m really interested in people who have managed to sustain a tree topper for decades. That takes some doing!
We haven’t had a tree for the last 3 years. Four years ago we found a kitten in the backyard, adopted him, and he destroyed the tree. Now He’s a whopping 24 lbs. and we don’t dare put one up. Can you just imagine the damage he would do now? As for toppers when I was 5 I made an angel. The body is an old yarn cob painted white with lace wings. It’s head is a round piece of styrofoam painted with a golden halo made of pipe cleaner. It graced our family tree every year from the moment I brought it home. My mother gave it to me about 10 years ago and it graced my tree when we had one. That thing is 41 years old now and loved just as much today as it was the day I made it.
Leah, your angel sounds adorable! It would also be a great match with the styrofoam and rickrack Christmas tree-inside plastic-windowed ornament I made in Brownies in first grade. My mom still puts that on her tree every year and I still think it’s fabulous!
Yes, I can well imagine the damage your 24-pounder would do to an innocent Christmas tree. It’s astonishing that cats try to climb our decorated trees when there is so very much to discourage them from even attempting it! But, cats will be cats. Someday he’ll be too old and fat to even try. Until then, best leave your adorable angel in storage!
I have a very small tree that sits on a table, and I don’t really have a topper – I just have a Santa and a Snowman that cling to the top – that’s about all the tree will hold.
Barbara, I think the table top tree is a wonderful thing. Lots of people don’t have the room or the inclination to fool with a big tree. Plus, you get to find those tiny little ornaments to decorate it – so cute! I have a tiny tree in my kitchen on the counter (this is different from the big tree in the lbrary and the fiber optic tree in the den). I found a bunch of precious tiny Santas at Tuesday morning one year and I loaded that tree up!
I had trouble settling on a topper for it, though, until one of the kids brought home a wreath made at YMCA afterschool. It was bent twigs with a green bow made from wadded-up tissue paper. I hung the wreath from the top of the tree and it has adorned it every year since. Perfect!
Enjoy your Santa and snowman this year!
Good night, everyone. I am giving up and going to bed! Be sure to come back tomorrow, though. Kimberly Hope will be with me to talk about her new book, The Billionaire Bachelor’s Revenge and to share a recipe for Butterscotch Shortbread – both yummy things!
Oh, Posh, sorry I was late!
We had company today, and he just left.
Great blog though!
Hi Caren! *waves*
This is a good subject.
The tree topper, to me, is sort of holy.
Not holy with a capital H, but holy with a small h.
It’s so holy, I don’t have one.
*hangs head in shame*
When I was growing up, our tree was a hodgepodge tree, with ornaments collected over the lifetimes of my parents…and I was born very late in life to my mom and dad. So my whole life, the tree was the same. We carefully unpacked, hung, and repacked the ornaments each year, and we even carefully hung the foil icicles and then folded them gently over the packaging. I think they were from the 1930s. And they were still shiny in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.
The topper was a Santa face centered in a big silver star. The Santa face was the biggest part of the topper, with only the points of the star sticking out the edges like rays from the sun. But Santa had a fluffy beard of silky stuff, that hung in little white, ringlet curls. Over the years his beard got a little ragged, but we still stuck him up there.
His support was a big, conical spring. Finally the spring gave out, and Santa sort of flopped.
In hindsight, although I was very fond of him when I was a wee little thing, he wasn’t a very good topper. His cheeks were rosy, and there was a definite twinkle in his eye, the jolly old elf, but he was one-sided. So if you walked around the back, you just saw the back of the plastic and the way he was put together. Kind of like seeing Santa’s underwear, only with holes. I didn’t like him much as I grew older, and after he flopped, we stopped using him. Our tree went topless.
And I’ve never had a topper since then.
It’s like, the topper has to be perfect, and I can’t find one that is.
That’s lame, isn’t it?
I see some absolutely stunning angels out there, but I haven’t found the one that calls to me.
So the top of our tree is just…the top of our tree.
:0(
Cassondra, I think it’s best to leave it bare if you can’t find the right one for you. Matter of fact, I’m getting used to our bare treetop and it isn’t so bad. Just…bare. I fully intend to hunt as I have opportunity, though. I would love to find something when I’m traveling, maybe in the mountains, and not expecting to find it. There is nothing worse than going out looking for something and coming back empty-handed!
The search goes on. Maybe we’ll each find our perfect topper one of these years!
Caren, sorry I am so freaking late! The boy came home today. I love your stories about the various toppers.
We use a cloth angel made by the dh’s sister. The tree is up now, and she perches atop it.
Nancy, I’m so glad you have The Boy home! It feels more like Christmas with the kids around, even when they’re mostly grown.
Many people seem to have toppers with which they were gifted. I think that takes the pressure off and makes it easier to use the one you cherish because it was a gift from a beloved person. Lucky you!
My tree topper is an angel that my younger brother refurbished for me. My parents bought it in the 1940′s and It holds so many memories for me that I couldn’t ever replace it.
Kaelee, how wonderful that your brother was able to spiff up your old family treasure! That is the best of both worlds: the comfort of the old with the shine of the refurbished!
I’m sure you’ll enjoy your angel for many decades to come!
I don’t have a tree at home … but when we did the topper was usually a tinsely star or an angel
Lianne, I hope you have many trees in the future for which you can agonize about which topper to use. One of the joys of the season!
Hi! Great post! The tree topper at our house is an angel. Shes pretty! She has those sparkle things in her wings. And awesome cookie recipe! Definitely gonna try it! Sounds yummy! Thanks!
Happy holidays!