🎄✨ Our Christmas Tree of Memories (And Why You Should Start One Too)
I love Christmas. It’s easily my favorite holiday of the year — it screams the 5 F’s: Family, Friends, Faith, Food, and Festivities. I start decorating my house in mid-November, and by the time December rolls around it looks like Santa’s workshop. On top of the usual festive chaos, we have a whole lineup of traditions passed down from our German ancestors. Think:
🥾 St. Nicholas Day (Dec 6): where the kids leave their shoes out and wake up to treats… or a potato if they’ve been questionable.
🥒 The Pickle Ornament Hunt: winner gets a prize and lifelong bragging rights.
🍖 A full German Christmas dinner: markklößchensuppe, cucumber salad, rouladen, semmelknödel, red cabbage, hot potato salad — basically a parade of carbs and glory.
But somewhere along the way, we accidentally created a new tradition — and it’s become everyone’s favorite: reliving decades of travel memories while decorating the Christmas tree.
Before Bryan and I ever had kids, we started collecting ornaments from every destination we visited. We even picked up ornaments for big milestones — our wedding anniversary, our first home, the birth of each baby. (Nothing says “new parents” like a tiny glass onesie dangling from a branch.)
But once the kids came along? The ornament collection became a full-blown scavenger hunt in every new city. The kids got to help choose something that embraced the spirit of that trip — which is how we once came home with a London phone booth, a Venetian mask, and a tiny moose wearing sunglasses.
Now that our kids are teenagers and young adults, we have so many ornaments and so many stories — and Christmas decorating has turned into a full-on storytelling event. Here’s how it works: We each grab an ornament, one at a time, and share a memory from that trip before hanging it on the tree. It’s like speed-dating our own travel history.
And the stories? They do not disappoint.
🏛️ Bryan’s Favorite Ornament - Italian Landmarks
Bryan’s favorite ornament is the one we picked up in Italy — a little masterpiece featuring tiny paintings of the Colosseum, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and the Duomo in Florence. That trip was pure magic: so much history, so much food, so much walking, and so many hilarious “only-our-family” moments. His favorite memory? Exploring the underground chambers of the Colosseum where the gladiators and animals once waited. It was one of those days where the kids were equal parts fascinated and starving… but mostly fascinated. A top-tier family core memory for sure.
🌺 My Favorite - Hand-Painted Hawaii Ornament
My favorite ornament? The one we picked up in Hawaii when the kids were just one, four, and five — the trip that changed everything for us. If you’ve read our blog post Hawaii with Small Children: Goldfish Crackers, Sandcastles, and Sippy Cups , you already know D5TravelTribe origin story: Hawaii was the moment we realized we could still explore the world, make big memories, and take actual vacations… even with three tiny humans in tow.
It was one of our very first major adventures as a family of five, and it was pure joy from start to finish — sunny smiles, sandy toes, and more ice cream than any responsible parent would admit to. That ornament doesn’t just remind me of the trip; it represents the mindset shift that opened the door to everything that came after.
We loved Hawaii so much we went back a decade later, when the kids were 12, 15, and 16 — older, taller, way hungrier… but just as happy. That little Hawaii ornament is basically our family’s “before and after,” the symbol of the moment we decided that adventure was going to be our thing.
☎️ Callan’s Favorite Ornament - London Phone Booth
Callan’s favorite ornament is the little red phone booth from London — the one we earned after standing in a TikTok-fueled line for 30 minutes to get the “perfect shot” with Big Ben in the background. We laughed at ourselves the whole time, but honestly… the photo was pretty iconic. When she hangs that ornament, she retells the story like it’s our family’s own Londontown legend.
🎭 Jake’s Favorite Ornament - New York Cityscape
Jake’s favorite ornament is the one we picked up in New York City. Every year he loves retelling the infamous Broadway story — how we thought we were getting Wicked tickets but ended up at Rock of Ages instead because the ticket guy swore it was “just as good.” Cut to my teenage boys wide-eyed and gawking at the… let’s just say enthusiastic female performers on stage, while Callan and I sat there wishing we could melt into our seats. Awkward in the moment . . . but funny five years post-trauma.
❄️ Max’s Favorite Ornament - Québec Maple Leaf
Max’s favorite ornament is the one we brought home from Québec, Canada — the trip where he discovered his true life passion: snow… all of it. Skiing? Loved it. Snowboarding? Obsessed. Tubing? Hilarious. Snow rafting? Absolutely. And did I mention the snow? Because he still does.
But the real family legend from that trip was our curling lesson — something we booked as a joke and ended up loving way too much. Who knew that furiously scrubbing a brush across the ice to steer a sliding stone could unleash everyone’s inner Olympic athlete and expose our competitive streak? Every time Max hangs that ornament, he launches into the story like he’s reliving his own personal Winter Games highlight reel.
So as we hang these little pieces of our history onto branches of glowing lights, the room fills with warmth, laughter, and the retelling of our family story, one ornament at a time. It’s one of my favorite nights of the season.
And because the kids love this tradition so much that, for the last five years, we’ve started buying one ornament for each of them on every trip. When they move out (😢) and decorate their own trees, they’ll each take a full starter-set of memories with them — ready to hang on their own trees with their own families. I imagine that someday they will tell their kids our stories: “Here’s the ornament from the time Grandma and Grandpa made us climb the 296 steps to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Sure glad they did though - the view was amazing.”
🎁 A little suggestion from our family to yours:
The next time you’re on vacation, pick up an ornament. Or let your kids choose one. Or surprise them with one under the tree. They’ll treasure it more than you think — and you just might start your own sparkle-filled tradition.
Here’s to a lifetime of memory-filled trees. 🎄
