travel memories on our tree
We LOVE this time of year because we LOVE Christmas! It’s 2 weeks from Christmas and our tree is now up – yes it is an artificial one 😉
As we added the different ornaments, we began reminiscing about our travels because some of our decoration are our “souvenirs” from our travels. It was only back in 2009, while we are at the Empire State Building did we think it would be a good tradition to start.
And since then, we have added several more to our tree. It’s not always easy to find Christmas ornaments, as it can depend not only the time of year but also the place you visit. But these are not the only things we pick up as our souvenirs 🙂
Our families are in Sydney so Christmas is great because we get to spend time with both sides – minor downside is that its always hot! Maybe one day, we get to experience a true white Christmas somewhere…
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
HOPE next year brings you all lots of joy and travels 🙂
Thanks to GlobalMouse @ GlobalMouseTravels for inspiring this post during our twitter conversation.
wise monkeys abroad 
December 25, 2014 at 3:44 am
nice christmas tree… Merry Christmas to you and your partner!
December 27, 2014 at 8:21 am
Thank you so very much! We hope you had a lovely Christmas 🙂
December 24, 2014 at 3:18 pm
Our tree, too, is filled with memories of travel. It’s fun picking up ornaments in far places. You have an impressive collection. 🙂 Have a great holiday season and wonderful adventures in the New Year. Curt
December 27, 2014 at 8:23 am
Hi Curt. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and here’s to wishing that you too have many adventures in 2015 🙂 We would be keen to see photos of your tree. We find it so inspiring to see things like that – makes us want to travel more so we can have more additions each year!
December 27, 2014 at 9:41 am
This year we travelled to Tennessee to be with our daughter and her family. So the tree didn’t go up this Christmas, much to Peggy’s dismay. Next year. 🙂
December 24, 2014 at 1:59 am
Such an impressive and eclectic collection of ornament 🙂 Wish you very happy holidays and tonnes of more adventures to come!
December 27, 2014 at 8:25 am
Thank you so very much for your well wishes. We too hope you have a fabulous festive season and that 2015 brings you everything you wish for and plenty of travel and experiences that you will cherish for always.
December 24, 2014 at 12:55 am
Your Christmas ornaments are so cool! Here’s wishing you both Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
December 27, 2014 at 8:27 am
Thank you for your sweet message 🙂 We wish you a very Merry Christmas and an amazing 2015!! Thank you so much for your support this year.
December 23, 2014 at 11:45 pm
Great collection! Hope you have a fab Christmas 🙂
December 27, 2014 at 8:30 am
Hi Liz – We hope you have a wonderful Christmas and that 2015 brings your more happy things to share with us 🙂 Thank you for your support throughout the year!
December 27, 2014 at 8:59 pm
Thanks guys! Looking forward to reading about your next adventure. Happy new year! 🙂 x
December 23, 2014 at 10:47 pm
Great Idea. Wish we had thought of that! Oh well, more travelling for us to put together a tree like that… great job!
December 27, 2014 at 8:32 am
Yes, we only started back in 2009 so our excuse is that we need to fill the tree up with more so we can eventually get rid of the “baubles” LOL – So it’s not too late for you to start.
Merry Christmas to you both and may 2015 be an adventurous and fun-filled year! Hope you enjoyed your first “sunny”/”warm”/stormy Christmas in Sydney.
December 23, 2014 at 9:54 pm
What a fantastic idea – it must be quite a ritual decorating the tree and reminiscing about where each ornament is from. Merry Christmas!
December 23, 2014 at 10:44 pm
Hi Natalie – Putting up an Xmas tree is always a treat in itself but it really feel extra special when we unpack the ornaments and fondly recall not only where we bought it but also the great memories of the place 🙂 Happy Christmas to you too. Thank you for reading and for leaving us your kind comment!
December 23, 2014 at 8:15 pm
Fantastic!! What a cool way to celebrate your travels – we’ve often collected the most kitschy tourist souvenir we can find to make a place more memorable, but this takes it to a whole new level! Merry Christmas!
December 23, 2014 at 10:46 pm
Thank you for your comment 🙂 As we said in one of our other responses, we collect the keyring and magnet from each place & try to locate an ornament and/or three wise monkeys if we are lucky.
The ornament is really a little extra reminder at Christmas of our travels as we are always home 🙂
Happy Christmas and all the best for 2015!
December 23, 2014 at 7:40 pm
What lovely Christmas tee decoration! My parents will set up the tree either today or tomorrow even though they have one already waiting on the balcony for a few weeks 🙂
I wish you a merry Christmas and I hope for great new blog posts also for the new year 🙂
December 23, 2014 at 7:44 pm
Thanking you ever so kindly 🙂
We look forward to 2015 and learning more about you and your families.
Stay warm, safe and happy!!
December 23, 2014 at 7:07 pm
SUCH a special tree!!! Love it! Have a safe and happy holiday!!!!!
December 23, 2014 at 7:37 pm
Thanks Diana! Hope you have a safe and happy one too. Look forward to more interactions with you in 2015 🙂
December 23, 2014 at 6:51 pm
And Merry Christmas to you.
What wonderful memories you have accumulated.
December 23, 2014 at 7:38 pm
Thanking you Yvonne for your support throughout this year! All the best for 2015 🙂
December 23, 2014 at 6:24 pm
Reblogged this on No Mad Sojourn and commented:
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
December 23, 2014 at 6:13 pm
We have one like that too! 🙂
Also an artificial tree, but kept up through the year (cos we were too lazy to take it down, and it looks nice to have something green in the house). Our new cat likes to sit under it. 🙂
December 23, 2014 at 7:42 pm
Love it how you keep it up all year round 🙂 Must be so lovely to always walk past and look at it – Does it feel like Xmas every day?
Thank you so much for visiting and for leaving us the comment and then reblogging too. Loved seeing your tree 🙂
December 23, 2014 at 8:13 pm
Great posts are worth reblogging 🙂 And it is nice to feel like xmas everyday!
December 23, 2014 at 5:19 pm
Great way to remember your travels – we do the same but also we would buy key rings for one daughter and hat pins for the other from each location / city / attraction we would visit. We started when our youngest was about 5 years old and now she is 14 she has several thousand key rings – she can go through and recall most of them and so have been great for her to recall her journey. Our oldest gets the hat pins and she has a few less as you cannot get them at all attractions – for her we have mounted them on canvas.
December 23, 2014 at 7:36 pm
Oooh yes! We always pick up a keyring & magnet from every country. Then we try and locate an ornament and/or 3 wise monkeys from there. We can’t always find either but when we do – it is so very exciting to be able to add the decorations to our tree at Xmas (and remember our time there) and add the monkeys to our glass cabinet 🙂
Thanks so much for reading and sharing your souvenirs 🙂
December 23, 2014 at 3:51 pm
Reblogged this on wise monkeys abroad and commented:
Christmas is almost upon us and it is one of our favourite times of the year. So to continue with the spirit, we are sharing an old post of ours about the decorations on our trees – ornaments from the places we have travelled 🙂 Although, this is an old post, we have updated it to also share some of the newer additions!
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year folks 🙂
January 6, 2014 at 1:21 am
This is the greatest tree ever!
January 6, 2014 at 7:06 am
Thanks! It makes putting the tree up & taking it down a whole lot more fun 🙂
December 29, 2013 at 2:06 am
We have a travel tree, too! It even has two of the same decorations as yours… the ‘Evil Eye’ from Turkey and the Empire State climbing Santa. Have fun in Tasmania!
December 29, 2013 at 7:35 am
Wow – that so cool 🙂 Would love to see pictures!! Happy 2014 to you.
December 15, 2013 at 1:23 am
It’s a great idea – and gives a chance to reminisce in the cold (at least it is here) of December. It seems you’ve done a good bit of traveling since 2009.
December 15, 2013 at 7:52 am
Thank you! We just wished we had thought of the idea earlier on our travels… But it’s now a great excuse for us to keep going so we can fill up our tree 😉
December 15, 2013 at 7:56 am
Sounds like a good excuse to me.
December 14, 2013 at 12:54 am
What a beautiful tree, especially with all of its personal meaning for you. Merry Christmas! 🙂
December 14, 2013 at 6:41 am
Thanking you! All the best to you for the festive season 🙂
December 13, 2013 at 10:24 pm
Lovely idea! I have a big tree in our living room (also a fake one – it’s better for the environment than a real one!!!), and the only foreign item is one I got from a friend in Italy. My dad recently gave me a special ball as well (but from Belgium though). I kinda work in a colour scheme each year (a real Christmas addict here, haha), so to copy this would mean a lot of searching I’m afraid… but I love your tree though! 🙂
December 13, 2013 at 10:27 pm
Thanks so much for commenting!! We are Christmas addicts too 🙂 – We are very impressed that you do a colour scheme each year. Would love to see photos!!
December 13, 2013 at 11:49 pm
Well, not a different one each year, that would cost too much (and our main budget always goes to a certain other addiction that we share… :-p). I basically have two: a classical red (unbreakable, since Febe was born) and a blue & grey one. Will try to tweet some pics soon 😉
December 13, 2013 at 11:56 pm
Ahhh… We understand! Look forward to pics 🙂
December 13, 2013 at 9:59 pm
Excellent idea!
December 13, 2013 at 10:25 pm
Thank you 🙂
December 13, 2013 at 6:54 pm
Reblogged this on travelicius and commented:
A couple of days ago I came across this post by wise monkeys abroad. Their christmas tree decoration idea is reallly great, made feel a bit jeallous (in a good way). I don’t put out a tree on Christmas but I begun to reconsider! Check out all the cool ornaments on their tree from different parts of the globe!
December 13, 2013 at 10:59 pm
Thanks for sharing this on your blog! We are very appreciative 🙂
December 12, 2013 at 4:59 am
I love your idea! And I would have never expected that christmas ornaments are sold in countries such as Dubai! Thaanks for sharing! 🙂
December 12, 2013 at 5:36 am
Thanks for stopping by and commenting!! We too were surprised to find it in Dubai and just glad we did find one there 🙂
December 12, 2013 at 12:57 am
I love this!! And I’m definitely going to start my own collection now…totally inspired 🙂
December 12, 2013 at 5:35 am
Thanks – it definitely is fun!! 🙂
December 11, 2013 at 12:25 pm
That’s such a great idea!! Now I know why some travelers collect Christmas ornaments.. =)
December 11, 2013 at 12:56 pm
It’s very fun to choose one and it definitely makes that trip live forever (at least for as long as it goes on the Xmas tree each year) 🙂
December 11, 2013 at 11:11 am
What a fantastic idea I love that!
December 11, 2013 at 11:14 am
Thanks 🙂 – its good fun and does help relive trips of the past!