The holiday season is just around the corner and with it comes in-home festivities and traditions. For those who celebrate Christmas, the living room tree is an iconic symbol of the holiday, and the decorations are just as interesting. Each family’s decorations are unique to their own home and can range from having a color scheme and matching pieces, to being covered in handmade preschool crafts that can loosely be called “ornaments.” All are equally charming in their own ways.

CdM junior Mikayla Kendziorski’s family tree is unconventional in the best way. Forgoing traditional ornaments, they decorate with teddy bears. Her family has been collecting the stuffed bears for a long time now, and have enough to cover a huge tree each year. The collection consists of an array of types and sizes, including polar bears and bears in Santa outfits. Kendziorski enjoys having their adorable ornaments, saying, “some of them bring back memories.” With multicolored lights behind the bears to add to the festive feel, their unique tree is one to remember.

Another CdM junior, Catherine Tumbarello, also has a heartwarming tree tradition. When asked to describe it, she says, “Every year my family gets this massive over the top Christmas tree that’s about 2 times the size of our living room, but we stuff it in there anyway. As a family, we decorate it with red, green, and white teardrop-shaped lights and over 60 ornaments!” On top of having a huge and gorgeously decorated tree to fill their home, the Tumbarellos go to the store each year and each pick out an ornament. Tumbarello explains the origins, saying her mom “created the tradition of everyone getting an ornament each year so when my two sisters and I grow up and have our own apartments, she can give us the ornaments back so we feel loved and can reflect on the memories we shared together.”