Do you have any favourite items?

Hello, old friends 

It 100% makes sense! Even just it being Woolworths somehow feels like throwing it away would be like sacrilege. A relic of an irrecoverable past. But still part of your present. And all the years in between.  The lights are alternating Victorian lanterns and Cinderella carriages, in blue, yellow, purple/pink, and green. I’ll put a picture on here soon (if spared) as it’s nearly that time. I love them so much. Some of the wee wheels and things on the carriages are a bit broken or missing now but most are holding up pretty well. 

When you say 'carriage lights', do you mean tree lights that resemble Victorian lanterns? Your description of the tree, lights, and decorations conjures up a delightfully cosy image.

On the topic of 'trash', my mother has a plastic Christmas ornament that I remember her buying from Woolworths when I was a young child. It's Father Christmas on a sleigh full of presents, and really has seen better days. However, I have given her strict instructions that she is not to throw it away. I don't know if this will make sense, but I think there's something quite appealing about the fact that it now looks so cheap and tacky.

Thank you Shardovan

That’s a beautiful story, and what a special and unique result that you can treasure always. 

So many things. I’m a bit of a hoarder really. I suppose the ones that feel most magical to me are the Christmas tree and accompanying carriage lights that i saved from being junked two decades ago, and that have been part of my life since about 1980, early childhood. I’ve given them sanctuary in every home I’ve had since. They are irreplaceable to me. The tree slots together in many pieces like a jigsaw and the coloured lights glow softly and warmly in a way many modern Christmas lights don’t. In a quiet room with it the only source of illumination there’s a very special kind of sacred hush to its careworn but dignified silhouette. Among an eclectic bunch of decorations and old bits of tinsel, there’s even one or two fragile glass baubles as old or older than I am. And an extra special decoration too: objectively very, very  tacky, but thanks to the power of nostalgia one of the most beautiful objects in my life, a gold foil star, trimmed with tinsel, foregrounded with an affixed Angel (in reality a little cone of foil with a Sindy-sized doll’s head fused  at the top and two fragile wings. At the back, an old pipe-cleaner of goodness knows what vintage serves as a way to secure this hybrid confection to the top, where it catches the subtle light most beautifully. Trash made somehow almost holy by the magic of memory, the irrational alchemy of unconditional love, and the transformative power of a Christmas Eve hush. I’ll never throw any of it away, and I hope the whole beautifully melancholic continuum that it collectively embodies (the ghosts of forty-something  Christmases, the stoic witnessing, ‘recording’  of reliable presences then sudden absences that linear time brings inevitability -sometimes much sooner than hoped- to its faux-immortal cycle)  will still keep me company through however many Christmases remain to me. If any. 

This is a great question and one that I've spent some time thinking about.

After a great-grandmother had died, I acquired a collection of loose beads (pearls) and buttons. They were of no practical use to me but had sentimental value because they reminded me of my great-grandmother. The story doesn't end there though.

About a decade ago, I had been friends with a woman living in Canada, who had an interest in cleaning / restoring vintage beads and jewellery-making. Deciding that she could make far better use of my great-grandmother's collection of pearls, I posted them to her on the understanding that she was to use them however she wished. The friend refused to accept them because she felt they needed to remain with me. However, rather than posting them straight back to me, she made the generous offer of creating a custom-made necklace for me.

The friend consulted with me every step of the way, resulting in the necklace featured below, which I absolutely love. She named it 'Roses for Remembrance', which I consider rather apt. The friend had chosen and added the rose beads to match the shade of a jacket I had bought to wear for a wedding. I don't think words can ever truly express just how much I appreciated the time, thought, effort and expense that the friend had put into creating the necklace. I've been told that my great-grandmother would be delighted to know that her vintage pearls had been given a new lease of life, and that she would be 'tickled pink' if she knew of the journey they had been on.

I have a brown Teddy bear that looks  crappie LOL in fact am not ashamed to say I bought it for my son when he was a baby but I had my eye on it for myself waiting for him to grow out of it so I could have it and cuddle it lol. Now it's all mine lol

My LPs.

Mine is running medals for taking part in races. 5km used come in the top 20 of my age category. 

I've got a necklace with my name on which given to me by my 1st pen friend (stopped writing in 2007);

Teddy bear called ninja who I cuddle. Plus poppy keeps me company at the shops.

A nice question.

Yes I have several treasured items that have stood out to me in some way or another over the years. I’d like to properly have a think about this (it’s nice to revisit these sometimes), but in partial answer to your question I’ll list a couple.

The first that sprung to mind was a piece of ‘Blue John’; a mineral from a trip to Castleton in Derbyshire when I was young. I love rocks and minerals and this is quite a unique mineral to this part of the UK. From the same visit I also have a small pot (small being important to me) of assorted miniature shards of minerals that I enjoy sorting through when stressed.

Another important object, or rather collection of objects, are my Pokémon cards from the original 151 Pokémon. Again, I quite like to organise and reorganise when I stumble across them every few years or so.