Hobby Thread - December 20, 2025 [Ornamental Rex]

Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread. As previewed, the Ace of Spades Wheel of Hobbies (TM) landed on Christmas Ornaments, Part 2.

Last week, the call went out for Horde Christmas ornament submissions. Are you thinking "I'm a grinch that did not submit an ornament, but I am eager to see what others submitted. I can't wait to get into the content!" I knew it. Enjoy.

[Top Photo: The Official Club ONT Restroom token Christmas ornament.]

What are you hobbying?

As per usual Hobby Thread etiquette, keep this thread limited to hobbying. All (legal) hobbying is welcome. However, politics, current events and religious debates can live in threads elsewhere. Pants are optional but please fully assess the temperature situation if you choose to go without. Puns are welcome and encouraged. No AI was used in the preparation of this post. Commentary on active sporting contests is permitted.

Play nice. Don't be a troll and do not feed the trolls.

Wrote this last week and still seems to apply, so works for a repeat.

Christmas ornaments are more than plastic, wood, metal or glass. They may have aesthetic value but usually they are important and valued because of their origin story. Could be a special person or relative that gifted it. Could be someone that made it. Could be a treasure from travels or a family tradition. Could be the age and previous owners. Ornaments often have value because of their meaning.

THANK YOU to Morons who submitted treasures for the thread content. Enjoy their stories and share some of your own.

Stories of any holiday crafting is welcome on the thread this week.

From Piper:

This beautiful angel means so much to me. Every time I look at it, I smile, not just because it's lovely (it truly is), but because it reminds me of the extraordinary way paths cross. Who would have thought that a little corner of the internet - a blog, of all places - would bring together people who would become such genuine, wonderful friends? But that is what happened.

Not only this, but my mom collected angels, which made this even more special - and exactly what I needed. This Angel came with a message that I still read to bring me encouragement during tougher days. I wish everyone a Christmas filled with warmth, peace, and the same kind of unexpected joy this angel has brought to me.

From ARiK:

The Rocking Horse Baby's First Christmas was from our first child. A special Christmas in many ways.

The bird is from my parents tree and dates back to at least the 1950's. I hope he doesn't poop on my favorite car below it!

Last is the manger scene showing the possibly apocryphal fourth Magi on the far right. Little is known of him except that he arrived late bearing no gifts because his tiny arms were too weak to carry anything. Some sources say he ate one of the sheep but this cannot be confirmed.

Ha! Outstanding! I'm glad to see that your nativity set contains all the historically accurate pieces. Well done. Mystery click for you.

From Westside Dano:

Neurosurgeon next door devoted himself to woodcarving after retirement. Every Christmas he gifted us a unique piece. You can see he was active in Kiwanis (with my dad). These occupy a place of honor on our shelves each Christmas.

From tRusty Christmas:

I've had this wreath since my first truck, a 1985 GMC Jimmy - which tRusty #2 now calls his own. But it looks really good here, on my '52 Hornet.

From Sinead in AK:

My brother made a dozen reindeer ornaments out of wine corks for my tree before he passed away in 2019. They are precious to me. Merry Christmas to all!

From Skip:

These and dozens more were hand painted by me, some by my wife decades ago. Not sure where we got them every year. Pottery Barn maybe? Found a few not painted first.

From Stephen Price Blair:

We had a lot of homemade clothes and homemade ornaments when I was growing up. I still have a few of them. We each had a cloth horse head ornament meant to hold a candy cane, which was ours to take on either on Christmas Eve, or on Christmas morning before everyone was awake - we couldn't open our gifts until everyone was at the tree.

I'm somewhat ashamed to say that as I got older I was often the one who slept in longest. However, on Christmas Eve there was one small gift we were allowed to open and on Christmas morning we could open our stockings. The combination kept us happily busy while waiting for the whole family to appear. I don't remember when the horse head candy canes were fair game, but probably in the morning since they constituted a decoration and I doubt we were allowed to raid the tree itself until Christmas arrived.

I posted this photo to our family chat last week and discovered that the colors on this ornament are the school colors one town over, where my dad grew up. Each ornament had different colors, so now I'm wondering if they all had some significance known only to mom! (More likely they had significance that mom thought was obvious and which I was completely oblivious to.)

From OrangeEnt:

A couple of pix from handmade Christmas decor for next week. The first one is a nativity scene I made in first grade in 1968. It was intact until 2023 when I broke off the tip of the pine tree and lost one of the sheep. Also, Mary lost her head, which I was able to superglue on. It will never be packed away again.

The second one is a die cut wooden scene the youngest painted a couple of years ago.

From BarelyScaryMary:

This is my beloved Blow Mold Santa. My grandparents had one like him when I was little and I loved him. This one I scored at a thrift store. He's a little beat up but jolly and reminds me of happy times with family.

From Sabrina Chase:

The one on the left is one of a set passed down in the family for generations. I think it is German. The other is a very energetic (and heavy) enamel dragon. All supported by my *fully home-grown tree*!

From Mrs. IS Roth:

These are three of my favorite ornaments from recent years. Many years these end up being some of my less-complicated embroidery because by the time I finish making embroidered Christmas cards, I am all Christmas-embroideried out, but I do always make something different, so that each one can remind us of that particular Christmas.

These are icicle ornaments I make from flat wire. The twist is done with a jig my husband, IS ROTH, made for me. The shepherd's crook at the top is freehand, and helps make it more of a Christmas ornament instead of just a winter ornament. The ones I make for other people are uniform, but mine are varied, ostensibly under the theory that being varied makes them more real-looking as a group, but also because I experimented with different twist-rates before settling on one, and IS ROTH would have been more inquisitive about how much the experiments were adding up to if I had not had a use for them.

By popular demand...

Where are handmade wooden Christmas ornaments made in Germany?

Have a close look at this picture from our collection:

Now watch this video. This is in German but worth watching even if you don't know German. Special interest for the woodworkers and whittlers. The pictures speak for themselves.

Yes, it exists and everything is as charming as it looks. Sadly, becoming too expensive to survive.

Did you miss the Hobby Thread last week? We did an Christmas Ornament theme. The comments may be closed, but you can re-live the content.

Notable comments from last week:

Words of wisdom:

"Because despite all our troubles, when things are grim out in that wide round world of ours, that's when it's really important to have a good hobby." Posted by: tankascribe at June 22, 2024 07:41 PM (HWxAD).

If you have trouble finding something in the content or comments that resonates with you, seek professional help. Send thoughts, suggestions and photos of your hobbying to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Do mighty things.

posted by Open Blogger at 05:30 PM

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