The Royal Tannenbaum

Oh, I know Christmas is over. Some of our neighbors have already thrown their dried-out trees out on the sidewalk with the trash. But in our household, some years we've kept our tree around until February. I just keep plugging in those lights and vacuuming up the needles.

We got this tree from Ricky's Flower Market over in Union Square. When we picked it out and the guy came over to trim the trunk, he paused to admire it, congratulating us for our selection as though we'd actually known what we were doing. "Aw, now that's a good tree. A nice little Nova Scotia balsam. Good job." I don't often have a piece of Nova Scotia in my living room, unless it's on a bagel. It's hard to let it go.

This sparkly little mushroom was new this year. I picked it out during a feverish Christmas shopping frenzy at Black Ink, a quirky little gift shop in Harvard Square. It spoke to my "enchanted woodland holiday" aesthetic.


Fat Baby was modeled many years ago by my mom, before I was born, when she and my dad were trying to fill the branches of one of their first Christmas trees. Fat Baby is surprisingly heavy, the way some babies are. I love the way he (she?) dangles from that slender thread like a yellow-haired little blimp. There's something ever so slightly menacing about that baby.


This charming composition was intended to be, believe it or not, the face of a beautiful ballerina. And it was rendered quite successfully, in the opinion of my three-year-old self. See the classic ballerina bun on top of her head? She used to have an entire body, too, but that snapped off and disappeared long ago. She was made out of homemade flour-and-water play dough, and baked and lovingly shellacked for me by my mom.


I begged to buy this pompon ice cream soda at one of the annual Holiday Bazaar fundraisers my grade school put on in the school gymnasium. The event was one of the highlights of the school year, with the locker room, usually a chamber of pre-gym-class dread, transformed into a cotton-swathed Winter Wonderland, and boys to be chased giddily amongst the craft tables. (The boys school was in a different part of the building, so on the rare occasions that we saw them, things got a little out of hand.) I also got an awesome crocheted Oreo cookie ornament from there one year.


There's no story behind this little teapot - I just love it. A family friend gave it to me one year. I love how it's almost a typical blown-glass ball ... except with a few extra flourishes, it became a teapot.


Help, I've been baked in a pie! Who says it's a merry Christmas??


Sexy Bambi lives on the mantle for the holidays. She is teal colored, and flocked with an appealing velvety texture. She has great legs.


Oh, and Happy New Year, too!