We gave our first child a Christmas ornament for her first Christmas. It was a rocking horse. A year later, when we were shopping for another ornament for her second Christmas, we found another rocking horse that was especially cute. And tradition began.

Then her brother was born, and when Christmas came around, we hung a third rocking horse for our daughter and the first of many Teddy bears for our son. Since our son was a Valentine’s Day baby, we often combined the bear with a heart theme.

After a few years, we discovered Teddy bear ornaments were a breeze to find. Most years, we had our choice of a dozen bears of all sorts. But rocking horses became a rare commodity and so we substituted carnival horses, carnival horses, and “zebra” horses.

Our third child was born in the year of the eighth rocking horse and the fifth bear. We added the first angel.

Every year after that, each child hung their collection of special ornaments. That was a fun tradition in itself.

A couple of years ago, we gathered our now adult children together on the day before Christmas Eve, and presented them each with a box of ornaments.  After all, there aren’t many trees large enough to graciously hold thirty rocking horse ornaments, twenty-seven Teddy bear ornaments, and twenty-three angel ornaments, plus all the other ornaments collected over thirty-five Christmases.

Now the family tree is a little bare, and each child’s own Christmas tree has a large collection of a specially themed ornament. It was a fun tradition while it lasted, and each year everyone anticipated the presentation of the ornaments made from all sorts of materials – dough ornaments, silver ones, porcelain ornaments, glass, wood, ceramic, and even macrame ornaments were a part of our tree.

Traditions are a big part of meaning making for holidays, and the tiny ornaments added an extra dimension of connection for our family. It was our special way of saying “Merry Christmas” to each other.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.