2023 Ornament Of The Year

My 2024 Ornament of the Year

Once I read this sentence in a business article:

"The best ideas are when you take two older ideas that have nothing to do with each other, make them have sex with each other, and then build a business around the bastard, ugly child that results." - James Altucher

Now I hear those words have been published in a book and it's a good thing because I think they are mad genius. 

And those words pop into my brain whenever I find myself putting together two seemingly disconnected ideas and discovering that I may indeed be on to something grand.  

* * * * *

Here's a story of highs and lows, wins and losses, long years spent sitting in the dark, and eventually, sweet victory.

I'll call it Sex in Sweden. Let us begin.

After years of hibernation, my salt-dough disks are free of their storage bag and ready for paint!

Back in the fall of 2019, I was noodling about in my annual pursuit of a good Christmas ornament idea, and I thought perhaps some good old-fashioned salt dough might be the perfect medium for my madness.

Spoilers: it was not. 

But I didn't discover that until after I had whipped up a jumbo batch of salt dough that now had no purpose to serve. 

Well, I jolly well couldn't waste it. So just for fun, I grabbed my mother's sturdy doughnut cutter and made as many doughnut-shaped circles of salt dough as I could.

Which turned out to be exactly 41 circles.

Then my attention turned back to my 2019 models and these 41 salt dough disks found themselves sealed into a Ziploc bag and tucked into one of my garage craft bins. 

The next year, with hope rising in my soul, I pulled them out and experimented with some white acrylic paint. Nope. Still wasn't feeling it. Back they went into the garage where they sat for several more bleak and fruitless years.

But I never forgot about them. And I knew someday their time would surely come. 

Yes! Their time has finally come! 

Now this past summer, I received an interesting and seemingly unrelated email. The good people over at 23 And Me had recently upgraded their DNA analyses and offered me a refined report on my genetic lineage.

And Lord have mercy, saints be praised, I learned that I am 11% Swedish.

I can't tell you haw much I have always longed to be Scandinavian. Oh sure, I'm happy for my Scottish, English, German, and French ancestors - not to mention my Canadian paternal grandparents - but I have always felt a deep kinship to the Norsemen and wished to be one of them.

Well. Pass the pickled herring and pour me a cup of fika, once the excitement of my newfound ancestry sunk into my bones, I knew exactly what to do with my salt-dough disks. 

This ornament mother tries not to have favorites but if I did...

So this year's ornament is an homage to my Scandinavian roots. 

Minimalist design.

Neutral colors.

Natural materials.

Wood accents.

Airiness and a sense of space.

And you know what? When I counted out how many ornaments I needed - for my extended families, my own family of six, and three friends with whom I share the tradition - there were EXACTLY enough salt-dough disks to go round.

Forty-one. Exactly. 

And one for me. God Jul!

I'm delighted with how these long-ignored ornaments have finally got their time to shine, and bring such a special celebration to my new bit of family history.

Now my story is all told out. And we are living happily and Swedishly every after.

* * * * *

For more Ornament of the Year posts, check these out:

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018
2017
2016
2015
2014

2013

2012

2011