I have a bag of Christmas ornaments that were handed over to me from my brother. They were salvaged from a dumpster after our parents estate auction. He told me yesterday that lots of the ornaments ended up in a box at the auction, and that people dug through them and broke some. I suppose that box was sold, though I don't remember seeing it that day.
Anyway, I've finished decorating our tree but haven't gotten that bag out yet. I know that one special one is in there. It is the only ornament Dad ever made. He named it Martian Santa Clause. How it came about, is Mom got this idea that she needed religion but didn't want to go back to the Presbyterian Church. So she got involved with some like-minded people who called themselves Unitarians, and one evening she had a Unitarian meeting at our house.
They mostly got together to have fun, it seemed to me. That night, Mom bought red felt, pipecleaners, gold rickrack and other holiday supplies and each person could build/make their own ornament. Dads was cute, it was a styrofoam mans head with a pipecleaner circle around it's head. He announced it was a Martian Santa Clause. I remember the group burst out laughing.
Looking back, I can see that it was kind of appropriate for it's time, early 60's when UFO hysteria had been around for awhile, and Sputnik was created, the race for the moon was on. So that ornament was pretty special to me and I'm glad I'm it's keeper now.
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