What ornament or other Holiday item takes you right back to childhood?

[grannylib]

For me there are two: one is a really old Advent calendar that belonged to my grandma; it's very old-world looking and opens to a multi-dimensional village scene and I just love it. The other is the angel from the top of the tree when I was a kid; that too was Grandma's. I saw one similar to it in a Country Living magazine a few years ago.
Mom gave me the calendar for Christmas a few years ago; she still has the angel.
My memories of childhood Christmases always include those two things; I loved being the one to take them out of the boxes of stuff and put them out.

What holiday stuff takes you back??

[asjr]

1. Bubble lights

[VelmaD]

2. The angel on my parents' tree

They've had the same angel up there since I was a baby. She got a little makeover (new dress and wings) a couple of years ago but she's still the same pretty little girl. :-)

[tigereye]

3. advent calendars and a set of little wax Dickens- look carolers

I think my parents still have them

[HEyHEY]

4. the light up santa for the top of the tree

It's about 60 years old

[trof]

5. A green glass dill (I guess?) pickle.

About 3" long.
I remember it from childhood trees.
We still have it.
I think it's German in origin, but have no idea how it connects to Christmas.
Anyone know?

[Nay]

9. It is German, and it is a lucky pickle.

Brings you luck for the new year. I have a lucky pickle, too. My husband thinks I'm nuts.

[thom1102]

6. The Carpenter's Christmas Album

Reminds me of my dad doing the Christmas Lights...

[commander bunnypants]

7. Copper ornaments

I think one or two still exist

DDQM

[corarose]

8. Bubbling Candle Lights, Big Bulb Light Sets, & the old ornaments

With the glitter on them.

[Shakespeare]

10. The smell of canned spray snow!

We used to spray it all over our (real) tree. One whiff of that stuff brings so many Christmas memories rushing back.

[bobbieinok]

11. strings of flattened milk bottle caps and colored metal 6" icicles

The metal icicles hang on the branches with thread and move gently, reflecting the lights.

In the 40s and early 50s milk and cream came in glass bottles with some sort of metallic cap smoothed over the cardboard stopper and the raised glass edge. They were red or green on the outside with silver or gold on the inside.

My 2 younger brothers and I saved a lot of them, smoothed them out flat, punched holes in them, and strung them about 2-4" inches apart. They also move gently, reflecting the lights.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

12. Ridiculously fragile colored glass balls. And food.

Now they look the same but they're plastic. The balls, not the food. Unless you're a soldier in Iraq.

[geniph]

13. Those frickin' ugly aluminum trees

with the color wheels. <shudder> My mother had one when I was a kid; it was all the rage then. UG-LEEEE. And for cripessake, don't touch it and a loose wire at the same time! What horrifies me is that those have become a nostalgia item - people are paying GOOD MONEY for those godawful monuments to extreme tackiness. UGH.

and being taken back to MY childhood is NOT a good thing, take my word for that...