Well, maybe not quite 8o, but still rather a lot. Whenever we go on holiday, hubby and I do our best to buy a Christmas decoration from the palce we're visiting. It's a great reminder when we unpack the deccies each year of places we've been, and it makes for a very pretty (albeit very mis-matched) tree. So, here's a little run down of some of the little beauties which have made it home with us and which help to transform the tree from this:
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by way of this:
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to this:
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Most of our decorations come from the USA because it's somewhere we've travelled a lot and also because the Americans know how to do decorations (even if most of them are actually Made in China...). Anyhoo, here are the US batch, starting with a rather fitting globe
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A pickle - who could ask for a more Christmas-y decoration?!
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Unless you count the hamburger?!
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This is one we picked up (and had personalised) from a Christmas market in Central Park the weekend we got married
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I got this one in Chicago this year because it made me think of our move to the countryside where we are constantly getting stuck behind tractors driving along the road
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Pug dog - next best thing to having a real one.
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From the Disney Store in Chicago, because DC loves 101 Dalmatians
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Pilsbury Dough Boy, from somewhere in Vermont, if I remember rightly - hubby bought him for me as a surprise
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Now, a quick hop over the border to Canada:
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Then moving on down Mexico way, with a cheeky little number in the shape of a pinata
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And a little further south, we have this somewhat startled-looking snowman from Guatemala (startled that he hadn't melted in the heat, perhaps?)
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And here's a little 'sorpresa' (surprise) from El Salvador
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Now, let's hop over the Pacific to Australia
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Then a little shimmy up to South East Asia, starting with Cambodia
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Moving on to Laos
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And on to Vietnam, where we found this little charmer in an airport gift shop
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Then lets shuffle a little further east to India
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Now, let's move much closer to home with a whole batch (which seem to be mostly bell-shaped) from Europe, starting with Switzerland
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Hungary
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Serbia
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Portugal
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Czech Republic
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Germany (terrible photo, sorry)
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Oh, and here's a little card we picked up at a flea market in Poland - it's one of those 'moving' pictures where you get two different images when you move back and forth in front of it
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And finally home - the first two are vintage baubles
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Whereas this one is a tasteful little elephant poo number (yes, you read that right) from the Natural History Museum in London
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And here's this year's addition, all the way from John Lewis in Bristol
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And last, but not least for this tree, here's poor old Rudolph who gets shoved up as our tree topper each year, looking none too comfortable, poor chap
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Oh yes, and I did say 'this tree' because we've actually got three trees this year - did I tell you we love Christmas?!
Here's the Starbucks tree. Sad. But true.
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And here's our little fake tree in the hallway
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And here we have, new this year, my incredibly twee but somehow growing on me, Department 56 Dickens Village
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Merry Christmas to you all!