Then it hit me - to my kids, these ARE the real things. And they will always have the memory of the specific decorations we put up each year. There is some overlap - the little felt wreath hanging in a doorway used to be in my parents house, as did many of the ornaments on the tree from my childhood. But even the magnetic-mitten-on-the-metal-picture-of-Santa Advent calendar we have is now a "real" decoration. My kids don't know I picked it up on a whim a couple years ago when I saw it at a Hallmark store. It's now something that they will remember doing every day leading up to Christmas.
It made me very happy to stop for a minute and remember that we are every day making memories for our kids. And the tradition of putting the same things out every year is part of what makes our house a home, and becomes what our children will remember long after they have moved out and created homes of their own.
