What's the oldest Christmas tree decoration or other Christmas decoration you have?

My parents inherited ornaments from both of their parents. The oldest ones are probably from the early 1900’s and are most likely from Germany. They are glass ornaments with concave areas that are painted differerent colors and look similar to these and we have some others that are probably from the 1920’s that are glass birds with some type of celluloid-like “feathers” for tails. They have these nifty little clips on the bottom that you attach to your tree branch and the clip is attached to the bird with a little tiny spring so they kind of jiggle. They look similar to these

I love Christmas ornaments and always scour the thrift stores for new “old” ornaments. Some of my favorites are from the 50’s and 60’s, but the ones from the grandmas are just gorgeous!

@Kardamom : What beautiful ornaments. (Just so you know, the links are the same.)

I have some ornaments from when my mom was a child, so almost 50 years old. Some might be older than her though, but I’m not sure.

Unfortunatly mi ne are not that old! My hubby and I have living been together for 14 years… so mine are that old!
My mum has some from when she first got together with my dad… about 30+ years old!
I’ll have to ask my grandma if she has any older ones!

Ooops, let me try the bird ornament link again here it is. Thanks for letting me know : ) @hawaii_jake

My mom has some glass ornaments from the late 19th century; they belonged to my great-great grandmother and they were made in Russia.

I have some that are approaching 100 years old and I think one silver Angel that is over 100 years old. They look it too!! My favorites are the hand blown glass chili pepper ornaments my brother made for me.

I have my grandma’s menorah, I assume it is ok to Jewish on this Q. I am not sure how old it is. Easily over 40 years, but I would not doubt that it is from when she first got married, so more like over 70 years old. I’d have to ask my mom if they had this very same menorah when she was growing up.

I have a couple from my grandmother’s childhood. She was born in 1885 and these may have been passed down to her. I’m terrified of breaking them, but I try to put them on the tree every year.

I have two that are 100 years old, but my favorites are 3 ornaments that survived the year my brother accidentally knocked over the Christmas tree two days before Christmas and tried to blame my sister.

@JLeslie : Jewish ornaments are also welcome. I’m sorry I wasn’t more inclusive with the wording of my question.

My heirloom decoration box got lost during a move in 1975. I only have a few that I have saved since then. I do have a silver candelabra/menorah that my MIL gave me which is apparently from the early 1900’s.

I have some outside Xmas lights that are about 40 years old.
I haven’t put them up since 1980. :-p

@Kardamom I grew up with those exact ornaments (both kinds)! We even had a tree topper that was very similar to the non-bird ones you linked, but instead of a depression in the middle, there was an actual opening, and in the opening there was something my family called “angel hair”. I suspect is was actually fiberglass filaments… white stringy stuff.

The oldest I personally own date back to the year I was born, so 43 years old. My parents started a collection of Santa ornaments for me, adding to it every year. So I had a pretty good assortment of my own ornaments the day I moved out of my mother’s house. I’ve done the same for my children (though not Santas, specifically). Now that they’re teens, we always pick them out together, a new one for each child every year.

We have three angels from the late 1800’s passed down for at least 4 generations. The body (or dress) is made of tissue paper (faded to pale yellow); the head is an embossed picture (like on old valentines); the wings are stamped out of thin gold painted cardboard; and there is a button made of lead with a stamped decoration in the middle on each chest. They are very fragile. We carefully wrap them in tissue each year when we put them away. They make me think of a time when they used real candles on a tree. They must have had to keep the candles and the angels well apart.

@augustlan : I had none when I started out, so I had to amass my own. I’ve given Katawgrey at least one a year, others have, too, so she can have a full tree when she starts having her own.

@augustlan I remember that weird angel hair stuff from the 60’s! My friend’s mother had some that was loose, not inside an ornament, and she had it on their mantle as kind of a little snow scene. But I remember the word amongst us little kids back then was that we were NEVER allowed to touch the stuff because it would cut you. I remember getting the incredible urge to touch it, though because it was so beautiful. Luckily I had enough self restraint as a 5 year old not to touch it. : )

@hawaii_jake not a problem, I was not offended in any way. I figured it was ok to answer, that I shouldn’t feel excluded.

One I made in preschool. I call it “yarn dipped in glitter.”

I had so many antique ornaments that I loved, but they were all lost in a fire 5 years ago :( . So all I have now are a few handmade ones that I made in school in the 80’s. I have one I made in kindergarten(83) with raisins as buttons on the gingerbread man and they are still intact.

I don’t have anything old. Half of our decorations are about 23 years old, from our first Christmas after moving in to the house. The other half are about 4 years old, from the year my daughter decided that the tree was going to be decorated purple and silver instead of the usual red and gold.

I have some from the tree in the farmhouse so 50ish years. Might not put them on this year as I have a 11 month old cat.

My personal oldest would have to be the ornament purchased for my daughter’s first christmas. She is now 25. It’s a large pink ornament, just the silky ball type, but it has her name and year on it. I tried to get a new ornament each year with the date. Craft fares are good for this. Other times just the “family” ornament with the year on it. I need to get into my mom’s stuff which is packed away at my sisters. There are ornaments probably 60 or more years old there. Those hold the memories of my childhood, decorating the tree year after year with those. Those are more fragile as they are glass, but much prettier then stuff sold today. My other keepsakes are the ornaments my mom made. Lace and beads made into wreaths or candy canes. These I will always cherish. I think they’re quite nice to be handmade. She was crafty like that. She also quilted.

Transparent rose (used to be red) ornaments from my grandmother