"The Spirit of New Year's Eve," made by Geraldine George after Lady's design.
E VERY YEAR since I can remember, my brother T and I adorn our Christmas tree with strings of cranberries and popcorn and with ornaments made of paper snowflakes and dough. We learned these thrifty traditions from our mother, who had learned them from her own mother. Always laboring to make ends meet, my grandmother (whom we affectionately referred to as Lady) decorated her tree with popcorn and cranberries and dozens of handmade egg characters. (My favorite design, left, is “The Spirit of New Year’s Eve” complete with faux lashes and blond bouffant.) Her trees and ornaments are a mainstay in our memories of Christmas.
When her children, my sister-cousins Heather and Jennifer, were young, my aunt Gerry (sister to my mother) remade some of Lady’s original designs for her own tree. T and I used to make our own egg ornaments, but they were more like pastel-less Easter eggs on pipe cleaners and less like intricate faces decorated with yarn and felt. Maybe next year, along with my mother, we will follow in Lady’s and Gerry’s footsteps. But for now, we are slowly coming down from our candy-cane sugar highs, and our thoughts are fixed on New Year’s Eve–dreaming of yellow yarn beehives and luscious silver lashes.
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Lady (Edna DeCaroli Salem) also used wax which she saved from wax which wrapped cheeses, to form facial features – check out the noses! The characters were modeled after our favorite storybook/movie characters like Peter Pan, The Tin Man, Lion and Scare Crow, Hans Christian Anderson, Kookla, Fran and Olie (spelling?) and of course, various witches.
Oh my, so goo!
Deborah, is that why you’ve taken to saving all the cheese wax as well?
I am happy to have been included in on the cranberry and popcorn tradition this year. also, you two’d be happy to know that the tree adorning skills you taught me came in handy when i was put to the test at the demarest household.
My friend’s mom (who is Jewish) was telling us today how much she enjoys going to her girlfriends’ houses and decorating their trees with them. Usually I’ve just helped my grandmother -who didn’t have anything like these ornaments- though I’ve helped a few friends before and they had some pretty cool heirlooms like Lady’s work. The pirate is so cute!
The egg pictures came out great. Maybe next year we can make some modern eggs as well. For example, we can have a Tom Brady egg, maybe a Little John egg with extra bling, made from gold sparkly wax, and a Ben Wallace egg with a huge frizzy fro? Any other suggestions for egg heads?
The two i’s in my last name on the last posting were intentional. Really, I swear.
Do you still get your tree from the place with the farm animals?
yes we do, Chris. We brought Kate with us this year, but she didn’t want any of the animals licking her hand, city girl.
I like farm animals. Unrelatedly, today is your dad’s birthday.
happy belated Peterosa!
Let’s do a barack egg!
i still have a few macaroni plates that i made in montessori school, and my mother always insists on putting them up.