Adding Nostalgia With A Ceramic Christmas House
By now it should be no surprise that I prefer to decorate our home with the things that matter. No shade against Target, it still fills the void for the very specific decor I’m looking for. But given the choice, I would much prefer to display something that holds sentimental value over a mass-produced item any day. The same is true for Christmas decor.
My most treasured piece of Christmas decor in our home…drum roll please…is this vintage ceramic Christmas house.
It’s the one piece of Christmas decor I will not let my children remove from the box out of fear of breaking it. Bottle brush trees and carolers? Have at it, just don’t touch my house.
And it is the one piece of Christmas decor I would run into our burning house to save. Well, I might not go that far but the house is important and right up there with birth certificates and baby books in the sentimentality department.
The ceramic house was my grandmother’s and a Christmas decor staple in her home since I can remember. I’m so grateful this item was passed down to me because it comes with a story. In the words of Taylor Swift, “are you ready for it?!”
The Origin Story Of The Christmas House
My recollection of the house’s background story is pretty vague and I’m sure I’ve remembered bits incorrectly but they’re still precious to me. Here it goes.
WAY back when in the beginning of time, when my mother was pregnant with me, she and my grandmother used to go to ceramics class together. It was like their version of what paint ‘n sip events are to us now. It was social hour while you got your craft on.
They did not make pottery or mold anything. The class involved taking a basic, white, unfinished ceramic piece and painting it. That was it.
But boy did they acquire some pretty special ceramic pieces. From garden gnomes (so many gnomes!) to a Halloween candy bowl, even Mr. and Mrs. Claus. By the way, for the record, I’m staking claim to the Halloween candy bowl. To my brother who will never read this, I will fight you for it so watch out!
One of the pieces my grandmother painted was this ceramic house with Santa coming out of the chimney. Every Christmas it would find a special place in her home. Whether on a side table or a shelf, it always had a spot.
My Childhood Infatuation With The Ceramic Santa House
You know how they always say the things you do in childhood are telling of what you’ll enjoy as an adult? Or that you should look to your childhood activities when picking a career because those were the things are true selves enjoy?
Let’s just say I used to “play” with this ceramic house in a way that’s very telling of my personality.
One of the hallmark elements of the Christmas house was that it had these little plastic pegs of various colors that would slide into the house and the tree to look like Christmas lights.
As a child straight through to my teenage years (who am I kidding, throw in the college years too), I would cozy up to the ceramic Christmas house and pull all of those light pegs off the house. Sometimes I would sort them. Other times I would make patterns. Or maybe I would just pull them all out and put them all back willy-nilly style.
Long story short, I would meticulously remove and reinsert those “lights” over and over and over again.
To this day, I am a person who loves to do meticulous, mundane, and repetitive tasks. Give me a bunch of handwritten data that needs to be put into an Excel document and I’ll be happy as a clam putting numbers in boxes for days.
So while many kids would play pretend with the house, just picture little Angie sorting Christmas lights.
The Passing Of The House
Somewhere along the way, years before my grandmother died, she passed along the Christmas house to me. Out of all the grandchildren and great grandchildren, she thought I was the one who should have it.
The ceramic house and I were tight. After all those hours readjusting the “lights” together we were like peanut butter and jelly. We just went together.
I’ve displayed the Christmas house every year in whatever location I’ve lived. From apartments to my first house to its current home in Vermont. It’s the only piece of Christmas decor that’s held constant.
Somewhere along the way, my grandmother passed away. So now when the ceramic home comes out, I recall fond memories of not just the house in her home but the time we spent together, especially during the holidays.
It also brings up fond memories of tiny cocktail sausages wrapped in Pillsbury dough she would serve on Christmas day along with the punch. Oh, the punch!
Missing Pieces
Over the years of playing with the ceramic house a few pieces went missing. 72 missing pieces to be exact thanks to the note my grandmother put on the plastic baggie when she passed the house along to me.
That little bag of light pieces is just as precious as the house and lights themselves. It has her writing on it which reminds me of her.
A few years ago, while shopping for dollhouse parts to make tiny Rowan a mouse house for Christmas, I found replacement pegs for the lights. They were EXACTLY the same. I scooped them up immediately and meticulously sorted and placed each light on the house. Just like the good old days. I could not tell the new ones apart from the old ones.
Here are the mini ceramic Christmas tree lights on Amazon.
At last, the house was lit again! The most nostalgic part of the Christmas house lives on!
The Ceramic House’s Pull On My Children
This year in particular, I noticed that Rowan has an infatuation with the Christmas house that I hadn’t seen before. However, there was the year she pulled off all the leaves of my string of pearls house plant and tried to feed them to Santa in the chimney.
This year, Rowan was asking me questions about the house, where it came from, why it was special, and to tell me stories about my grandmother. She has a bond with her grandmother here in Vermont that reminds me of mine. It was such a sweet moment to tell her the stories.
Like mother like daughter, Rowan placed all the lights in the ceramic Christmas house and I’ve caught her on more than one occasion rearranging them and making patterns.
I truly hope the house lives on and someday passes on to Rowan, officially becoming a family heirloom with many generations connected to it. The stories and memories make me want to fill our home with the things that matter.
Pssst…So tell me, do you have any special Christmas decor that you pull out each year? Please feel free to share your stories in the comments.
