history in the holidays: decorating with family treasures...

For me, the most important part of the holidays is family. Admittedly, I am super sentimental. I save everything that I deem "meaningful." Cards, furniture, pillows, ticket subs, clothes... if it has a memory attached, I save it. So when it comes to the holidays, if I can decorate with things that have family meaning, I am all in.

One of my favorite memories of Christmas is my Grandma's Christmas Village. When we were little, every year we would drive to visit her in Cleveland and get in late at night. Even at that late hour, my sister and I would race to get into the house and start playing with the village. It was pretty elaborate. It had multiple levels, ice rinks, skiers, all kinds of shops and houses, fake snow... the works. So it was with great honor that I inherited the village -- well, parts of it. No one knows what happened to the houses but I got all the people.

Santa no longer has reindeer and the horse is missing a leg, but it makes me so happy to see this Village in our front room. It reminds me of that magical feeling you would get as a child during Christmas.

I added some new houses and trees, a blanket of snow, and I even gave the Village their own version of the Rockefeller Plaza Christmas tree. 

This year, my mom and dad found some old ornaments from my other grandma, and I jumped at the chance to decorate with them. 

The ornaments have a great patina to them that make the pearl and silver ornaments look like mercury glass. My mother-in-law gave me three faux mercury glass decorations this year for Christmas so I filled a vase with some of the ornaments to create a "vintage" vignette. 

Our tree is full of ornaments from our families and childhoods mixed with some new ones we've acquired since we've been together. 

I know that decorating with a theme is popular around the blogosphere but there is something about decorations that evoke fond memories that puts me in the holiday spirit. 

What are your holiday decorating traditions?