Do you hang soldiers on your christmas tree?

There was a time when it was not uncommon to find ninja turtles and power rangers sitting on the branches... I don't think those count as soldiers, though, and they were not hanging.

I remember gettng my mom to hang a My little pony from the tree..

that was either a really little pony or a really big tree

Christmas Tree??

In the lobbies of Manhattan office buildings one will see a nicely decorated Christmas tree, oftentimes stylized in some modernistic manner, and a little aways, or perhaps near an adjacent wall, a Menorah on a table.

Christmas in Manhattan has become The Holidays in public places.

But, no toy soldiers. The holiday represents Peace On Earth. The question should have been asked, I believe, regarding Menorahs, since that holiday represents a military battle with the Assyrians.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menorah

these would look pretty cool on a tree... they have lights and everything...

Who was the first to decorate a christmas tree. I remember hearing a storie years ago, which tells Martin Luther saw the moon light shining through the branches of coniferous trees. He found that view so beautiful, that he decided to decorate a pine with candles..

Don't know, whether this is true...

Any other stories related to the first christmas tree????

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_tree

Soldiers and Christmas. The words remind me of this happening in WW1.

http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/christmastruce.htm

Yeah, we found that one too looking on Google Images!

Who knew indeed.

So, learned something new.

We dont hang soldiers in our Christmas trees in Holland. That I know of (but who knows). When Anastasia mentioned 'em, I was kind of flabbergasted...

I mean, think about it! You know.. is it like, what better to celebrate the birth of sweet Jesus with than ... soldiers of war?!

Like, as in the three military men who came to Jerusalem? Soldiers of Christ?

But - there you go, apparently so it is. Thanks to the Nutcracker, Christmas soldiers galore - not just in America but in Germany too, and who knows where else...

Odd odd odd!

Told her, and she says Hi back!!

Little bit of back story.. :wink:

That's a moving story.

I remeber seeing it recounted in a film, a touching, English animated film, it was an episode in it, otherwise a very dark film.

Yes, definitely a moving story.

It is when you think about it!

They make virtually everything into Christmas tree ornaments these days though. Off the top of my head, some that I have include:

- Trains
- Mailboxes
- Pickles
- Unicorns
- Skis (OK at least that's winter-ish)
- Tons o' cats
- Fairies
- Books

I have a lot of ornaments. (My mom and I have a tradition to decorate Christmas presents with ornaments, plus she always gave me a special one in my stocking -- I think the unicorn was one of those, circa 1978 or so.)

Tinsel is also a great ornament. When I was younger my parents told me it is hair from the Christ child.

What a pity, that this believe is fading... Nowaday children just know Santa Claus anymore.

I have tons of ornaments. More than I could possibly put on a 7.5' tree.

Hubby's parents died many years ago, and both of mine are gone, too. We both inherited a lot of our families' decorations. Of course, we already had our own, so now we have three times as much. We put probably, oh, 150-200 ornaments on our (biggest) Christmas tree. We have a couple of small trees, too...one in SonofEva's room that he decorates by himself every year.

A few of our favorites:

Miniature Christmas books (2.5" square) with red ribbon hangers (part of an Advent calendar set, so there are 25 of these)
Small, brass-framed pictures of SonofEva (one for each year of his life)
Swarovski crystal star ornaments (one for each year since SonofEva was born)
Heaps of fruit ornaments...peaches, plums, apples, bunches of grapes, persimmons, lemons/limes...garlands that look like dried apricots and cranberries with nuts
24k gold plated Tulsa landmark ornaments (a local series...one for each of the last 20 years)
A dozen Florentine paper-covered balls with ribbon hangers
3 handmade terracotta birds
The Christmoose (our joke)...it's a moose or reindeer made of construction-paper cutouts of SonofEva's footprint (head) and two handprints (antlers) from his first Christmas, laminated now
The cookie cowboy that Hubby's mother made for him when he was a child and painted his name on it with food coloring
The worn chiffon angel from my parents' tree that I've had every single Christmas of my life
The red and gold velvet Victorian ornaments that Mom and I bought together...we split them, but she died before Christmas came that year so I hang them all together now

Oh, I could go on and on! There are memories tied to each and every one of them. Every single one is my favorite.

To answer nimh's question...yes, I think there are a couple of old tin soldier ornaments in there from Hubby's family. And SonofEva decided several years ago that he loved nutcrackers, so we have some of those painted wooden ones, too.

my dad was always the family clown. of course we have regular tree ornaments, and we change the theme every now and then. sometimes it's red and gold, sometimes it's blue and silver.... my favorite is apples and walnuts,candles, and straw ornaments -way it used to be back in the day in my mother's village.
but dad always sneaks things onto the tree that clearly shouldn't be there. silverware. lewd potato figures that he sneakily carves (last time it was a hula dancer with huge grape boobs), dog's treats (dog objected), and his favorite: my mother's teeth.... yup. up on the top of the tree...that is until she found them, then they were confiscated.

I like your dad. :-D

german christmas trees are traditionally topped off with a (glass) spire -
probably to suggest a church spire .



my brother and i called it (rather disrespectfully) a PICKELHAUBE -
helmets worn by german sodiers up until WW I .



foil-covered chocolates were always hung on the christmas-tree ;
we particularly liked those filled with liqueur :wink:

it's one of those things that's odd or ironic, except that it evolved (at least i would think so) - kind of like the duckbill platypus, which seems quite odd to most of us.

christmas trees have presents under them, toys are a common type of gift, historically wooden soldiers are a popular toy or image of toys, (they don't seem much like one now) and voila, you end up with a christmas tree full of soldiers.

christmas trees were brought over to the states from germany, they could have made their own way over (trees don't fly! but some can swim with the currents) to other parts of europe, tree decorating also used to be a big pagan holiday celebration, and you would drape the.. entrails of your enemies over them in honor of your victory.

given that too, soldiers don't seem like a very odd decoration at all. happy christmas!