We always had a fur balsam tree because of the great smell. My mother started a Christmas tradition when I was very young of making a homemade tree ornament every year. When anyone visited our home during the Holidays, they got to take an ornament home from the special tree. We kids each got two. I now have enough homemade ornaments to decorate the entire regular Christmas tree. This is a tradition I continued after she passed on. I have made angels, reindeer, skiers, snowmen, sleds, elves, stockings, etc etc. Last year we made trains and this years special ornament tree has airplanes with packages to deliver and Santa pilots. Here is a link to a picture of a few past ones and the ornament tree. We put it up around Thanksgiving and build about 50 new ones every year. (tree is nothing more then a dried azalea bush) The one in this photo is from the year we made snowmen.
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/j...d/IMG_0174.jpg
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/j...d/IMG_0171.jpg