Just before the decorations come down (we were always a 12th Night family) I’ll feature a topical object. I’ve had this tiny tinsel Christmas tree (matchbox shown for scale) for over 40 years. My birthday is shortly before Christmas and at my party when I was about 8 or 9, the Spearman sisters from up the road brought me seasonal gifts in the form of two Christmas decorations: a blue glass bauble in the shape of a swan, and this tree. The bauble got broken somewhere along the line but the little tree (along with a fairy my Grannie made in 1957, who still graces my brother’s family Tannenbaum) has survived the dusty decades in the attic of my parents’ home. It now lives in the cupboard under my stairs for most of the year, and I’m always very happy to see its battered branches and tatty star every December.
The Usmeum of Ordiments: A history of my family in 200 objects (plus) 
You’re right: the best Christmas decorations are the ones with a story behind them. Forget the seasonal tat in the latest “on trend colourways”, it’s the stuff the kids made, or the little man with the wonky legs you’ve had since you were wee that counts. Tinsel-adorned puppy wrapping paper, now that’s another story…
Thanks Helen, the family wrapping paper will feature in a future post, when I can find it!
As a postscript to this post, a man I didn’t recognise greeted me in the Lost Vagueness field at Glastonbury some years ago. He knew the street I grew up on and it turned out he had mistaken me for one of the Spearmans. I had known him in childhood, however, and was amazed he recognised me at all!