Every year when we put up our Christmas tree, I get excited. We don’t have that many Christmas decorations or items since Chris is very anti-clutter, especially considering that we live in a Manhattan apartment. While we do have more space now given we upgraded units, the storage space has quickly been overtaken by the endless baby items we’ve been gifted, handed down, or bought, and so this has increased Chris’s frustration with clutter. But hey, like Marie Kondo says, if an item is seasonal and “sparks joy” the way our collection of specially curated Christmas ornaments do, then they are worth taking up space even though they are only used at one time during the year.

When I look at all our ornaments every year, I remember all the stories and travels behind them: the Pike Place Market handmade ornament I got during my second trip to Seattle with Ed and our cousin; the handmade ornaments my friends have made for me over the years when we had a DIY gift theme; the handmade and hand painted wooden ornaments from Germany, the mouth blown glass nativity scene ornament from Vienna that I guarded with my life in transit back to the U.S.; the $3 hand knit potato ornament we got from the Canadian Potato Museum in Prince Edward Island; the endless Macy’s ornaments that Ed would get 80 to 90 percent off after Christmas for me because he knew I loved ornaments and Christmas so much. Christmas is nostalgic for me, and our tree’s ornaments are symbolic of many happy moments for me. While it would be great to have a fresh, pine-smelling tree every year, it’s not as great for the environment, and plus… they’re a lot harder to maintain and keep the house clean with. So I’m happy to have a fake tree with my lovely ornaments.