What To Do With All Those Beautiful Christmas Pins?

Over the years I've written many posts about my family's Christmas traditions and handmade Christmas decorations. One of my family's wonderful and sentimental traditions was started by my Dad a long time ago.

My Dad wanted to give "his girls" meaning my Mother, myself, and my sister something special for Christmas. Back then the term "his girls" did not imply the possessive, chauvinistic implications that it does today. To my Dad it was nothing more then a term of endearment. One that separated us from "his boys," my brothers.

So my Dad decided to buy each of "his girls" a special Christmas pin to wear during the holidays. For my first pin he bought me the reindeer pin shown in the picture to the left.  I loved it.  He bought us pins the first year, and then the second, and so on and so on and so on.

My wonderful husband decided to carry my Dad's tradition on after he passed away. So, every year, for awhile, he gave me Christmas pins. Sometimes he couldn't decide which one he liked best so he'd give me two special Christmas pins. That was okay with me as I cherished each and every one of them.

Not only did my loving husband give me Christmas pins but he gave my mother some as well.  Needless to say, over time, both I and my mother accumulated a lot of Christmas pins.

When my mother passed away I inherited some of her Christmas pins.

Every year I take them all out and look at them. What always amazes me is how little they have changed in design from the first pin I received. And, believe it or not, I don't have any duplicates.

Also (and I know this will be hard to believe), I don't have any "dollies." So, a heartfelt thanks to you Dad for starting this tradition and a heartfelt and sentimental thanks to my husband for continuing his pin tradition.

Several weeks ago I was thinking about all my Christmas pins and thought it was a shame not to see all of them as they really are so pretty to look at - especially as a group.  I wanted to find some way of displaying them for the holiday season and wasn't sure how to accomplish this.

Well, it so happens that hubby and I were browsing through a new home decorations store nearby and I stumbled upon the felt balls wreath shown in the picture above.  I looked at it at first and walked away.  For some reason I turned around and went back to take another look at it.  It was a wreath made of red and white felt balls.  Then it dawned on me it might be a perfect way to display all my Christmas pins.  I could attach the pins to the felt. Hmmm........

So, I mentioned it to hubby knowing full well that he'd probably respond, "You need another Christmas decoration - you've got to be kidding!"  To my delight he said, "If you think it will work - go for it!" So, I bought it.

When I got home I opened the jewelry box that housed all my pins.  There were a lot of them, but I wasn't sure I had enough to cover the whole wreath.  So I took them all out of the jewelry box and started laying them on the wreath to see if I would have enough.

Turns out - I did! Yippee!

The problem was how to affix them to the wreath.  Should I use the closure on the back and just pin them to the felt balls or glue them.  I started pinning them to the felt but quickly realized this wasn't going to work.  They weren't laying right on the wreath and some were a little flimsy.  So, I decided to glue them using hot glue.

I started at the top with the "Joy" pin and the little "doggie" for my Mom and my baby "Bud" and just started gluing them one right after the other.

I glued and pinned down the right side....

Then across the bottom.....

And, finally up the left side and finishing back at the top, where I began......

The wreath came with a really flimsy red felt hanger that was sewn to a metal ring at the top of the wreath.  Since the wreath was quite heavy with all the pins attached I knew this hanger would easily come apart so I needed  to develop something stronger.  You couldn't hang the wreath from the metal ring at the top center of the wreath as it was too far into the middle of the top and wouldn't work for a wall attachment.

So, I decided to to remove the felt and add a heavy metal hanger of my own to the metal ring that I could bend in a way to make it easier to hang on the wall using 17 gauge wire.  With a pair of needle nose pliers I was able to twist and fasten the wire into a hanger into an "l" shape that would work.

When I removed the red felt hanger at the top I was left with a space that needed a bow of sorts.  At first I tried a wired ribbon bow but quickly decided it wasn't right for the wreath.  It was too big and detracted from the pins.

So, I took the red felt hanger piece and cut it in half and then fastened a simple bow out of the felt and glued the pieces together with hot glue.  I then hot glued the little felt bow to the top of the wreath.  Not only did it fill the space, but it didn't detract from the pins.  It was perfect!

I loved the way it turned out as did my darling hubby.  I could hardly wait for the Christmas decorating season to begin as  I have the perfect spot for my new decoration. I want to put this over my family room fireplace mantle.  Not only will it look perfect there but every time I look at it I'll remember my Dad and the wonderful tradition he started so many, many years ago for "his girls."

Well, Christmas decorating season finally began and I was excited to put up my wreath.  Unfortunately when hubby hung it from the hook we discovered the metal hanger I had fastened was not long enough for it to hang on the wall properly.  The bottom of the wreath was  bulging out from the wall.  Yikes!

So I took the red felt bow off, cut off the wire I had fastened to the center loop and constructed a new l-shaped wire hanger and glued it to the wreath with hot glue.  I also added more red felt in the back to hold the hanger securely and glued everything in place.  When I was confident the l-shaped hanger would work I added the red bow and we tried hanging it again.  Voila! It laid flat against the wall.

When I look at the wreath and all the different pins it takes me back to various holiday seasons over the years with my loved ones.  It's a wonderful and sentimental tradition.  Hopefully my blog post will inspire you or someone in your family to start a beautiful family tradition of your own.

In advance of the upcoming Christmas season I wish each and and every one of you a wonderful holiday season filled with beautiful memories and, if you're lucky, a sentimental decoration to remind you of your loved ones and happy times together.  Sentimental memories - what could be better than that.

© 2018  - 2023 Copyright Linda Walsh Originals - Written by Linda Walsh