Decking the tree with antique ornaments
For Jane Gallant, Christmas really is the most wonderful time of the year. Leading up to the season, Gallant excitedly awaits the day she picks her tree and adorns it with ornaments. But not just any old ornaments — well, actually, they are old. Gallant uses vintage ornaments with a history.
“I’ve collected a ton of ornaments over the years. I'm more into the things that are special. But collecting vintage glass ornaments is hard. They’re very difficult to find,” she says.
Gallant hit the jackpot one day while helping her brother Marc move into a home he had recently purchased. The older house on Granville Street in Summerside, P.E.I., has ties to the city’s old days.
There, in the house’s attic, was a box of neatly and wellwrapped glass ornaments with a distinct 1970’s vibe to them.
“My first thought was, ‘I hope he’s going to let me have them,’” said Gallant with a chuckle.
“You’re probably the best person to have them. Use them and be happy,” Marc replied.
Now it’s her third Christmas with the ornaments.
“They came from the home of Llewelyn and Audrey Rogers. My brother bought the home from their son Gordon, who moved into the house after Audrey’s passing in the 1980s. But we think the ornaments were wrapped up by Audrey sometime in the 1970s. That could have been the last Christmas tree that house saw with those ornaments.”
And she cherishes them. “When I take them out every year, I always think of Audrey. How she went about collecting them, what the holidays were like for her. Even though I never knew her, I feel some connection to her through these ornaments,” Gallant says.
“There’s nostalgia attached to them of more simpler times. They were cherished pieces taken out every year as a tradition.”
The same feelings ring true to the ornaments she’s been gifted and collected over the years.
Since her mother’s death in 2016, Gallant and her siblings have been gifted the prized ornaments from their father, Clem.
“My mother was never one to have precious ornaments in the monetary sense. It was the funny ones we loved the most. She just didn’t care about that kind of thing.”
She said the ornaments are a mismatch with the funny ones and the very special collections on her tree.
Of the Rogers collection, Santa and Mrs. Claus are her favourite.
“She just looks like she’s up to something. And the detail of them.”
For those interested in starting their own antique or vintage ornament collection, the first step is to realize they are hard to find, Gallant warned.
“You have to recognize that it’s not easy. Maybe you’ll get one, two, three a year, and that’s OK with you to build the collection, which might make them even more worthwhile,” she says.
“I love the hunt of looking for them. There’s something to it. It’s not always a good time to look around the holidays.”
With the 2020 Christmas season looking different for Gallant and all Canadians, she’s taking comfort in decorating her home and making it work with what she has.
“I always try to introduce fresh greenery into my home. It’s not really Christmas without a real tree.”
This is the first year Gallant can remember that her sister won’t be home for Christmas, and it’s been tough, she said, with a feeling that it’s not really Christmas.
“Focus on the simple things. Be thankful ... Especially this year, home is best. Don’t worry about fashionable things. Just do what feels right to you.”