Hydrangea, Burlap & Pearls Christmas Tree

I finished off the last of the burlap roll on this Christmas tree.

I originally had only flowers on the top of the tree -- hydrangeas & faux liatris (hard to find--I bought them about 10 years ago). While pawing through a box looking for the muted pink glass balls, I came across this pink Hallmark Father Christmas that I bought about twenty years ago and I decided to use him on the top. I surrounded him with the faux liatris and some other faux flowers.

I do love my felt mice that I made over twenty years ago so I added quite a few of them.

They add a bit of whimsy to the tree.

I made dozens of them in red, green, pink and white. I only used the pink and white on this tree.

 I have had these mice longer than I have had my husband and we will be celebrating 23 years in May.  We both wish we aged as well as they have. :)

In the sled I added some old Christmas toys. This is my son's first teddy bear circa 1977.  I use this cute bear almost every Christmas. Some years he tops the Christmas tree and some years he sits under the tree.

I have a heart-framed pic of my son at 4 months old opening this bear hung near the teddy bear, as well as a pic from each of his first few Christmases hung in different areas of the tree.






 This lady bear  was a gift from my son to me when he was just a little boy.

These white bears are the Kmart bears from about 20 years ago.  I removed the red/green hats & scarves  and added my own hats.  The male bear has a Russian grey fur hat.

 The lady bear has this lovely vintage Christmas hat, probably from the 1940's.

She also sports a lace collar that I removed from a blouse of my late former  (very fashionable) MIL.

I do love a Christmas tree that evokes memories of years gone by.  This tree does exactly that which makes me quite fond of it.

The big main tree is still sitting exactly where DH put it a week ago.   It is much bigger (7.5 ft tall) and takes a lot more work, so I have not done a thing to it yet. I may begin to work on it this week.........then again maybe not until next weekend.  I am in no hurry.