Today’s guest post was written by Fred McPeek.
Pap, Tipper, and Steve
Well, about 50 years ago after my dad retired from the steel mill he and my mom had an opportunity to live on an old apple farm and kind of oversee the place as the owner who was an elderly lady spent much of the year traveling to Florida and Europe. There was a big old farm house on the farm and that was were my parents lived. And I was still at home and I lived there for about a year as well.
So my parents lived there about 18 years before mom’s stroke when they moved in with me. Those years at the Wells Farm turned out to be some of the best of my large family’s lives. Mom and Dad had 15 grandchildren and our family kinda swarmed that farm. The owner, Mrs Hamilton, loved hearing all the noise and laughter of children and kind of adopted my family. Her home was built by her parents and consisted of 19 rooms and 7 baths. A far cry from my earliest memories of our one outhouse.
My oldest nephew Tommy, who was about 14 and staying with my parents, came in with a spark plug in his hand that he had painted the top of red. He said it was his contribution to the tree. For the last 50 years that spark plug first hung on Mom and Dad’s trees and since then has hung on mine.
The other Christmas decoration memories that we have are of homemade ornaments. By the time the grandchildren had grown and married and started families of their own Mom could no longer give gifts to everybody. She was living with me by then and so we started a new tradition. The entire family always came to Mom and Dad’s on the holiday and my Mom had no intention of stopping that tradition. By then there were more than 40 of us and they were all here in my house which could barely hold them.
But somehow we managed. So each Thanksgiving when the family came we drew names to see who each family member had to either buy or make an ornament for that person. And then on Christmas day when they all arrived they found a little bare artificial tree in the middle of the dining room table and each of them hung the ornament they had on the tree. That poor little tree was burdened with ornaments of every description. One I received from my oldest brother Tom who is no longer with us was a hand carved Santa face. Another time my oldest niece Crisi who is the most crafty had one of my Dad’s old snuff cans she had taken the label off of and made it look like a little garbage can with miniature pop bottles, soup cans etc. to look like trash. She even placed a little tiny mouse at the base of the can.
I always tried to give homemade ornaments too. One year I made everyone a little white mailbox with a piece of holly at the base and a tiny cardinal, our state bird, on top. I had carefully put their names on each mailbox. And one year I helped my Mom with some that were a major hit.
My two oldest brothers and my oldest sister were all born during WWII. Mom had kept their government ration books which still had most of the tickets in them since they never had enough money to use them. We laminated each one and punched a hole in the corner and tied it with a red ribbon. It was so sweet to see my older siblings’ cards which had their ages and names and even their weight on them. It was such a great way to use those old cards.
I hope you enjoyed Fred’s memories as much as I do. I helped Granny put up her little tree yesterday. As usual, I found myself marveling at the handmade ornaments Granny has produced over the years. I even found a handful I’d forgotten about making out of old canning lids. I’m sentimental all year long, but it seems extra special to study on those old memories during Christmas.
Last night’s video: Decorating for Christmas in Appalachia – Vintage & Handmade Treasures.
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Hello Again Tipper When our children were small, I decided to decorate our Christmas Tree with miniature toy like ornaments. At first it took quite a bit of hunting to find enough to make the tree look good. After the second year of this theme, they were everywhere, I couldn’t believe how much was actually out there for sale, especially at Walmart’s. I gradually accumulated over 150 ornaments of this nature. When the kids grew up and had homes of their own, they divided the lot by their favorites and took them for their own trees. We still have a few, and every time I look at them, I remember the look on the kids’ faces when they saw their tree decorated with little toy like ornaments. They have long since adapted their own tastes in decorating. But they still remember those toy ornaments. I like to think they made their Christmas a little happier knowing those ornaments reminded them of the love given to all of us with the birth of Jesus. Still so precious.
Tipper I am really enjoying the snapshots of you and your family from days gone by, I am sentimental too.
What a joy to it was to read Freds memories of living on the apple farm. My favorite was how they made ornaments from those rationing cards!!
My husbands aunt still has one of her rationing cards.
Sweet, sweet post. Thank you for sharing. I am fortunate to have many ornaments from growing up. They are better than any of the new ones.
I have many ornaments from my childhood that are special to me. We have a tradition of collecting them & they were/are treasured items with a story for each. In my husband’s family, physical items never lasted the destruction of 4 wild kids & adults that broke things when mad. He only came to me with a few ornaments in very bedraggled condition, but we still put them up. Our favorite is an angel made out of a pleated paper plate and his little kid drawing. One of our daughters asked when we were going to hang the Christmas Moth. We couldn’t figure out what she was talking about, for the life of us. Come to find out, it was his handmade angel! Her little kid eyes told her it was a moth. We now don’t consider the tree complete with out the “moth” front & center. My hubby is very embarrassed by it, but we make it a point to hang his lowly ornaments, because it is all he has from his childhood. Christmas for him is associated with a lot of pain. We had a good friend tell us, “The lights that hung on your childhood Xmas tree aren’t the same lights that are on it now.” Meaning; Let go of the pain of the past & try to enjoy, cherish, & make new memories. Hope you all “Hang New Lights” on your tree this season.
Christmas memories are some of the most precious of all. When I read the part about the spark plug ornament it made me think of the one I saw on your video. 🙂 Christmas ornaments can be so sentimental to us because of the people who give them to us and the memories they envoke.
The first year my husband and I were married we lived in a little shoe box apartment and didn’t have room for a big tree so my husband found us a small one that reminded me of Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree so that’s what I called it. One year I had him an ornament made with the scene of the Charlie Brown Christmas on it, and he loved it. Christmas lights, ornaments, and snowmen are my favorite decorations. 🙂
This was beautiful Tipper. Every year we put a new orienment on our tree. I was thinking when I was a child how we would go out along the hill side a cut down a cedar tree and put it in a bucket with rocks so it wouldn’t fall over. We would decorate it with this and that. The lights always made it look better. Loved this Tipper. Thanks for getting to back down memory lane.
Well Tipper, you really surprised me with this posting. I started reading and my first thought was “Gee, this persons story is similar to mine!”. LOL
Thank you so much for posting my story. These memories are so special to me. And like you I am very sentimental. And I’m always ready to share a family story with anyone who will listen.
I sat here reading all of the responses from other Acorns with teary eyes. Thanks to everyone for the sweet comments and wonderful memories of your own.
And a special thanks to you Tipper for sharing my story.
I want to join others who expressed their enjoyment at watching last nights posting where you shared your special Christmas decorations. Your Granny is sure a talented crafter. What wonderful gifts to pass on to your girls some day. I could have watched you all evening and wished at the time that you had more to share.
And thank you for the book “The Doll Maker”. I can’t wait to read it.
Here’s wishing everyone a beautiful Christmas with old memories to share and new ones to create.
Please click on the e-card link below:
https://www.jacquielawson.com/ecard/pickup/r4eb20ff8f36b4581b5669dd6bbfe9226?source=jl999&utm_medium=pickup&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=receivercontent
Mr. Fred…what a beautiful Christmas card you gave all of us. Thank you. May you have a most blessed and merry Christmas
I love hearing people tell their Christmas memories and traditions. Great post! Merry Christmas!
Tipper I truly love your videos and all the wonderful stories you tell us. After reading Fred’s Christmas memories and you telling us how you help Granny put up her tree and reminiscing through your mother’s ornaments it gave me so many good feelings. You see I put up my little 5′ tree on a table so I could wrap the partially made quilt top tree shirt my mom was working on before she passed in April of 2018. Unfortunately we lost my dad this past July ( he moved in to live with me & my family after mom died) and this Christmas will be tough for my family but I wanted to honor our parents! We lost my mother-in-law May of 2020 during COVID.
Instead of putting up my Christmas ornaments I went into the basement and retrieved the medium storage tub of my parents ornaments. There are many ornaments my mom has made through the years and she loved angels so there are homemade ones she’s made or those she’s received as gifts. Mom made these beautiful ornaments that she created from old thread cones, some of the cones use to be her mother’s and she decorated them with beautiful fabric along with trims and lace. She use to fill them with wrapped Christmas candy and give them to the grandchildren as part of their gifts. In front of my bay window I have an angel mom created about 15 years ago out of window screen spray painted gold sits between two large poinsettia plants my mother-in-law’s favorite flower (it was her birthday flower since she was born on Christmas), on the quilted Christmas table scarf I made my mom as a present a few years back. Over my fireplace mantle hangs a quilted Christmas wall hanging I made my dad last year with many of the fabrics that was in my mom’s sewing stash. The tree was made with a Dresden design and dad use to call it his “tie” tree because the branches looked like little men’s ties. I decorated the tree with mom’s old costume jewelry of clip earnings and pins she loved to wear. My daughter even helped by making “Merry Christmas” red lettering from her Cricket to iron on it. The quilt’s name is “A Christmas Card from Heaven” but who knew that this year it would be for me to cherish with them both spending Christmas in Heaven. I have another angel that mom made that use to sit on the top of the tree but it is sits now new her butterfly that shines a light in honor of her memory.
On my hearth sits Mr. & Mrs. Clause all in red made from stockings mom made back in the mid 1980s. This year I made a snowman about 3′ tall so he could wear dad’s winter hat and buttons from my grandmother’s button stash.
We will be celebrating all the fond memories we’ve had and the fond family gatherings we were able spend with our parents, but we know they will be spending their time in heaven together with our Lord and Savior this Christmas season.
I love your photo of you, your brother and dad. I have some of myself at that age sitting on dads lap. My childhood memories of Christmas are so special. It is the one time of year my dad went all out on us 3 girls. He would save lead, steel, copper all year long and whatever it all sold for that would be the amount spent on Christmas. I remember making the homemade ornaments, stringing popcorn, the ice cycles. Precious Memories!
This story today brought a tear to my eye. Our Christmas tree is also full of memories. Some made by tiny hands and other family, friends, coworkers. We have some bought ornaments that hang in memory of parents, grandparents, my brother, and husband’s sister. One of our most precious ones is the first year we got married and that was 46 years ago, we bought a little green wreath with some red berries on it, probably didn’t cost more than a dollar but it means the world to me. So much so that a couple of years ago, our son gave us a Santa Claus that is holding a wreath identical to the one we bought. The wreath is even made out of the same material ours is. I keep that Santa in my curio cabinet where I can see it all year. I am also so sentimental. Tipper, last night I enjoyed you sharing your Christmas things. I loved everything you showed but Granny’s trees are just beautiful, what a treasure!! You are so blessed to have all those precious things made with loving hands but even more so, you still have her.
i still have the old red boots granny and papaw would fill with candy that hung on their tree, there’s ornaments from my kids, ones i made or bought for mom, some from my husbands brother and so forth…this is first Christmas with my brother in heaven with my parents leaving me as the sole survivor of immediate family…i’m sure if i dig around long enough i can find one of his to hang on the tree…or maybe i can make something in remembrance of him…
Our Christmas ornaments, like the ones you and Fred described, are an eclectic collection of things. Each one has it’s own special story that adds to the overall beauty of the Christmas tree we decorate each year. Fifty Christmases together and three children have produced so many wonderful memories.
Oh, I just loved this post! Now you have my creative juices flowing, so I am going to have to dig around in my collection of found objects and make something festive!! I am busy baking Christmas cookies for my neighbors and family, and a lovely handmade ornament will be going on the top of all the filled tins. God Bless you and your family this Christmas season!
Wow! What a great guest post, Tipper. Kudos to the writer; and to you for sharing…….
Tipper, please let Granny know I’m awishing her a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I like the idea of homemade, hand crafted and personal thought out into the ornaments of this story which captures the Christmas spirit in my humble opinion. We hillbillies do the best we can with what we have to work with and there’s no shame in that game!!! I mean stop with complaining about stuff we cannot change and let’s get to working and persevering!!! It’s a Wonderful Life!!!
Thank you for this sweet story! Take care and God bless ❣️
Such a sweet post, great memories from Fred. At first glance of your Christmas past picture, I thought it was Paul. Then I saw it was Pap with you and Steve. Paul looks a lot like your Pap.
We didn’t have many Christmas ornaments when I was growing up, as a matter of fact, I don’t remember having any except strung popcorn and a star mom cut out of a Prince Albert tobacco can. I do remember the bright lights mom put on the cedar tree dad cut from behind the house. She was afraid of starting a fire if she left them on too long so they were turned on just long enough to get the scent of the heated cedar to fill the house. We had silver icicles that mom saved in a bag to use year after year. My aunt had angel hair on her tree that I thought was the most beautiful sight. I never use clear lights on my Christmas trees as they would not help to bring back the memories of some of the most exciting times of my life.
A heartwarming story of family for sure by Mr. McPeek. I wonder, between the McPeeks and Mrs. Hamilton, which one thought the other was the greater blessing. Somehow I think maybe they each thought it. That is God’s kind of arithmetic and the kind of thing He delights to do, make us a better blessing.
This will be mine and my wife’s 58th Christmas. We don’t have many handmade ornaments but we still have the strings of lights from that first year and they still work. The color is gone from some of the bulbs. We use one string and replace non-working bulbs from the other string.
We will probably put up the tree this weekend. We’ve used artificial trees for the last 40 or so years and bought a new one this year. We laugh each year about the time I brought in the live tree and spiders crawled out of it. I won’t decorate the outside of the house as I don’t do well on high ladders now-a-days.
On my daughter’s small tree hang a few handmade ornaments. My first granddaughter & I made one of them 25+years back. It’s a wooden head the size of a marble, with store bought lace and a glittery bit of pipecleaner. All held together with a thin bit of copper wire. We made that angel at church and it is still looks as good as the day it was given all those years back.
I think of all the little ornaments my sister & I made over the years now hidden from my eyes, existing only in my memory. Breaking up housekeeping (divorce) has a way of letting keepsakes fall by the wayside. Then, those who also shared those memories also pass away. Those are the true keepsakes. All we/I can do is help build new ones with the new generations. Guess that’s all any of us can do or be trapped in the past.
I still have some old and homemade ornaments. Each year I look at them, and enjoy their memories. I don’t have a big tree any more, but just looking through them is a wonderful deja memory!
Well I done went to bawling whilst reading this post. I sold my home 5 years ago and brought 29 years of memories to Daddy’s. He’s gonna be the king of his own castle as long as I have a breath on me. Our treasures from the years were passed on to my sons but a few old handmade ones are displayed in my little room at Daddy’s. I long since laminated the paper art to keep it intact. Hallmark has nothin on these precious ornaments!
What a sweet post!
My Grandparents always used homemade ornaments. Couldn’t afford store bought ones.
How I love listening to Christmas memories! The memories of 71 years, well when I was old enough fill me with love ! My earliest is standing in my Grandma Dalrymple’s den where the piano sat looking up at an Angel painting, and then asking where Uncle Ed and Daddy was? I believe I was 3. My twin sister couldn’t figure out where they were either. We remembered several years later all the grins on our older cousins faces❤ When we got home guess what! Santa had come! I remember all the hand drawn ornaments and crafts that decorated our tree! many great memories. Thank you and God bless you and yours❤❤
Beautiful memories and even this stranger enjoyed them. I adore handmade ornaments, especially by the hands of little children. I saved their creations from school each year and decorated the tree with them. Torn pieces of paper with a scratched out deer, a red boot from Santa out of construction paper. The biggest hit and is still used is some I made one year when we couldn’t find out own decorations after a move – we didn’t want to know the truth – they had mistakenly been thrown out with garbage. I took a whole package of kids colorful construction paper (probably $4 total) and folded them into fans and hung them on the poor naked tree. Instantly, the color brightened our thoughts and when the white lights were added, it made the room so much more happy. We laughed to see it but left them on and we kept them and still bring out the few stragglers than remain. Your story is a beautiful reminder of family values and shared times.
I don’t remember any special homemade ornaments, but the star at the top was as old as me it was red and probably as old as I was or even older. the tree was always glorious to me. I still love my trees and put them up right after Thanksgiving.
Such wonderful memories and traditions! We should all take a page from Fred’s book where Christmas is concerned! What lovely memories!
Merry Christmas to all of you there at Stamey Creek! Thank you for opening your home and hearts to all of us!
I want to to ad this to my first comment, sometime in the last few days I read a story about a father holding onto a gift his 7 year old son made for him because he had no money to buy anything to give his father for Christmas. His son called it a pencil holder and the father said even though it was many years ago he still had it sitting on his desk at work and would hold it for comfort when he was stressed out.
We are all so different but also so much alike. We too have special ornaments for our tree that mean so much. Ornaments our son made in kindergarten, and elementary school, and he will be 42 in five days. Nieces and nephews have made us ornaments over the years and they are on the tree also. Coworkers and friends gave ornaments as gifts and they are all precious to us. Thanks for the memories, again.
Handmade ornaments or gifts are always the best because someone cared enough to take the time to make it and it also came from the giver’s heart It is easy to run in a store and pick something up. I made a mechanic friend of mine one of the Deer Hunter’s spark plug ornaments and some fishing friends ornaments with the red and white plastic bobbers or floats used for fishing. They all seemed to truly like them. I am also sentimental and will keep things that have no meaning to anyone but me.
I love the old ornaments and just old things in general too, I have a picture of me at about 4 I guess on a Christmas morning with a baby doll bed (I still have) and other things with the tree behind me and I can see some of the ornaments on it and several I have today. I keep those separate from the others wrapped extra carefully I found some of them in the insulation in the attic years ago. Can’t put a price on those or the memories they hold. I received the Appalachian wildflowers book yesterday I love it thank you so much!
Merry Christmas to you all at the blind pig!
Good morning Tipper, I always enjoy watching your video’s but last night was special. I also collect alot of Christmas ornaments and decorations. Please try to label your treasures, who made them and the year. The girls will be happy if you do this for them, trust me. My in-laws were from Macon and Sumner Co’s Tennessee so alot of things you talk about I’m familiar with. Have a great day. Maggie
Homemade Christmas are the best to have! Our tree is loaded with ornaments that our kids and grandkids have made over the years and the remaining ornaments were given to us by friends and other family members. I guess you could say our tree has lots of history tied to it.
We have so many traditions (that my husband and I started since our families had none) and it was the best feelin in the whole world to find out our youngest son was gonna carry on some, when he had his first baby last year. For 36 yrs we have played Alabamas Christmas album when we get up and we will literally change the radio to keep from hearing any of these songs on any day other than Christmas. And for 31 yrs, the song Thistle Hair the Christmas Bear is the song we play as deddy goes upstairs, ringing jingle bells, to wake his boys, at 4:30-500am Christmas morning. Santa gifts are always wrapped in paper with Santa’s face in it and Santa name tags are always pink bubble gum colored paper. Before any gifts are opened, 2 candles are lit, one for Jesus and one for those that are no longer with us. Then stockings are looked through, one person at a time and finally the gifts are opened one gift at a time, taking turns with each family member. All of these traditions my son has vowed to continue at his house!
Christmas in always a sentimental time, thinking of Christmases past. Yes Tipper, you have a very tender heart and that is always exaggerated at Christmas. That is just one of the many things I love about you!
Your vlog on ornaments and decorations was so well put and made me want to do more…my daughters have already done my tree and some decorations. I would love to get lessons from Granny on the pattern that she used to cover those little trees. Awaiting tomorrow for our next ‘reading’.
Loved this! thanks for the wonderful memories
Our kids always say you can’t see the tree for all of my ornaments. Store bought and homemade, they all have a story. Now our children and their children have started the same tradition of the ornaments. There were years that were just too lean to purchase one, so we would find something to make one. We even have some from our elementary school years that are 50 + years old. They are all precious!
I am a 1960’s kid, so my family had a live tree with the screw in c7 lights. Every year I went with my dad to the store to buy packages of c7 replacement bulbs one of each color in the pack, red, green, blue, gold and white. Also, my dad let me pick out a new Christmas ornament each year which made it extra special shopping trip and a wonderful memory now
What a moving post this was, I am especially touched by the fact that most of rationing coupons were unused because the money wasn’t there. I am awed by the spirit of happiness that can pervade the most strained circumstances.