THE WINNER
This year marks the 60th Christmas for this little cardboard decoration, which we usually call the Little House. It has hung on the Mulroy family Christmas tree in Dunleer every year since 1955, when it was given as a gift to my grandparents, Tommy and Anna, to mark their first Christmas as a married couple. Back then, electric fairy lights didn't really exist, so my grandfather – always ready with an ingenious solution – wired up a battery-operated light, so that the Little House would have its own light in the window for Christmas. The decoration is getting fragile now but still holds its own. It wouldn't be Christmas without it and, for us, it is a reminder of many happy Christmases over the years. Laura O'Brien
Congratulations, Laura O’Brien: you win a break for two with dinner at Gregans Castle, Co Clare, courtesy of Ireland’s Blue Book
0 of 7
A SYMBOL OF MY SON
This little chap has hung on our tree every year for the past 27 years. He represents our son's first Christmas. Last year my son was in Australia, the first Christmas he had spent away from home, and I found myself looking at the bauble and thinking of him. Thankfully he is now back in Ireland. Last Sunday I saw him showing the bauble to his 18-month-old daughter and telling her the little boy was him: enough to bring a tear to the eye of this Irish mammy. Jackie Deering
A WELL-TRAVELLED FAMILY HEIRLOOM
When my mum and dad returned to Ireland in 1983, I was the recipient of a box of Christmas decorations, among which was this ancient pink ball . As children my siblings and I – all 10 of us – would bicker over who got to hang this unique bauble. It was not like any of our other shiny new decorations, but had a history: my mum had brought it from Ireland when she emigrated to Canada in 1958, and it had come from her mother's hoard of decorations. My mum is about to turn 91, and she remembers this decoration from her childhood, so I consider it a family heirloom. Since 1993 it has been back in Ireland where it belongs. Lorraine Whelan, Bray, Co Wicklow
THE APPLE OF MY EYE
This decoration, which hung on the family tree as my three children grew up, is the apple of my eye. The decorations were always a fascination, and some of them found sampling this apple difficult to resist because it looked so real (look closely and you can see the teeth marks). As all of the old decorations made their way to the dustbin, this one held some kind of sentimental value, and, 20 years later, it still takes pride of place on our Christmas tree. Valerie Gately, Loughrea, Co Galway
MY CONEY
My Coney! My Coney! My Bauble! My THING!
Not brassy or classy – no tinge of the bling.
I found it one day when out for a walk
’Ere our first in the buggy was able to talk.
I painted it white and varnished it clear
(Still need it for comfort this time of year!)
It ‘suffered’ my kids (they now have their own),
Who roughed it and scuffed it – no need to atone.
Somebody mentioned my THING might be pensioned
Aesthetics merely, sincerely intentioned.
While I’m alive, my THING will survive,
I treasure the pleasure I always derive.
The-thought-has-just-hit-me (‘cos I’m in decline)
They could bury it with me to produce a fine PINE!
Joan Denihan, Castleknock, Dublin
A KIND AUNT
"You need to make an effort to keep the romance alive," my aunt said as she presented me this trinket. "1st Christmas Together," it read, under a couple skating, stuck together with love. I asked would she unearth "Second Christmas Together" for the following year. "After this, it's up to yourself," she laughed. She did not live to see the couple skate away from each other, never again as close as that first Christmas. And yet, each year for 20 years, this bauble has taken its place on the Christmas tree reminding me of my kind aunt and her sense of fun. Mary Maxwell
CHRISTMAS KINDNESS
My favourite Christmas decoration was made especially for me by a lady I never met. It's a styrofoam sphere. The four segments are covered with sparkling black and silver fabric, the seams are sealed with silver sequins, the bottom is studded with a pearl and the top adorned with a tiny silver rose. It was hand-made by the wife of a colleague of my husband. She gave it to him for me because my mother had died, unexpectedly, two weeks before Christmas. She told him she always made a special Christmas decoration for people who had been bereaved during the year. I love it because it was made to mark my mother's passing and because it represents the ultimate Christmas gift: an act of kindness. Bairbre O'Hagan
SANTA FROM AFRICA
My grandaunt, Kay, spent several years as an air hostess in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). In 1954 she brought home two simple Santa decorations that spent many years on my grandmother Mary's tree. For their first Christmas together in 1978, my parents' tree was helped on its way by my gran, who gifted a decoration from her own tree to my mother. And so the tattered old Santa from Africa became a source of curiosity for me during my childhood. Having just got engaged myself this month, my mother continued the tradition by giving me the choice of a decoration from her tree. The same Santa now rests on my tree, awaiting his annual hibernation to preserve him carefully for future generations. My gran is now 90 years young, and the original companion Santa decoration is celebrating its 60th Christmas on her tree. Aidan Lynch, Dublin
