I will probably never have a magazine picture-worthy Christmas tree. I just won’t and that’s okay because my tree is a tall, green memory.
When we were little, my mom would take us to the after Christmas sales and let each of us pick out a new ornament. “Someday,” she’d say, “when you leave our house, you’ll take your box of ornaments with you and you’ll have something with which to decorate your own tree.”
Flash forward a couple decades and one old musty banker’s box sitting on the floor [For this is how most Christmas decorations are stored in the Poole house … numbered banker’s boxes that correspond to 3×5 index cards listing the contents … which might have something to do with my obsessive-compulsive organization tendencies … a post for another time … I digress … seriously … hey, is that a goldfish?] and the tree is decked in front of me.
There are small wooden hand-painted ornaments from early childhood (some picked out before I was born). 
My “baby’s first Christmas” globe.
Ornaments that remind me of all that is good (the Marshall Field’s Chicago clock, in case you can’t see it):
And now my own children’s firsts: 
The thing I love the best about this tradition is that it’s a “pass me down and hand me off to the next generation” kind of a tradition (as many are, but there are some “blog about it sheepishly and hope it never comes up in conversation ever again” traditions like not having a Christmas tree for Christmas…I’m just sayin’ …).
What holiday decoration do you hope to pass on to your kids?