star or angel/fairy?

Wee elf and his brother,they are in their late forties

Father Christmas dressed as a fireman. He's a little battered now but has been our lucky charm for over 30 years. After his first Christmas on top of the tree we packed away the decorations to find charred wallpaper behind the fairy lights so nothing will stop him being put on duty every year.

We have just put our poor old Santa on top of our new, tall tree (we now have not so much a living room with a tree in it, as a tree with bits of living room round it!!). He is three inches from the ceiling, suffering from vertigo, refuses to open his eyes and has been sick twice!

I guess most of us continue with whichever we grew up with. As a child our tree was always topped with a star as my mother said it represented the star of Bethlehem. She also burned a candle in the window all through the night of the 24th to show that there was room for Christ in our home. All very odd as we were brought up largely without religion and certainly without religious observance, this was at my father's insistence though, my mother
missed her religious family especially at Christmastime.

I still top my tree with a star and light a candle in the window on Christmas Eve (although certainly not all night) and I don't have a shred of religious belief in me.

I've got a gold coloured metallic angel on the top of mine purely because none of the fairies ( I have three) would sit properly on the new tree. I've never been a one for stars, simply because we always had a fairy when I was a child.

My 'angel' is at least 50 years old but the tree she tops is 80 yrs old this year, it was a Christening gift to me from my Godmother.

We have a beautiful angel, bought twenty years ago, she has a cream silk dress with gold wings and is holding a string of pearls This year the top of the tree was not strong enough to support her so we had to stick a pencil up her skirt, she really does not look happy.

The historian my comment 'older then mine' meant for you I'm new at this ?

Older then mine. I wonder if it was a custom in those days. I was born in November

A fairy we bought for our first tree after we got married. We've celebrated our ruby wedding this year so she's getting on a bit now!!

Nanannotgrandma our Fairy/angel is similar to yours and was made by one of my Aunts 46 years ago for my eldest DD.

Mine was bought for my first Christmas in 1951. Has had new dress quite a few times and now wears a sparkly mob cap as fairly bald

My Christmas fairy was bought when I was born 63 years ago. She has real hair and moveable joints. She has been redressed by my Mum a few times. I gave her a new outfit last year but kept the original wing frames

I have a lovely Angel bought when DH & I had a large house & real tree, lived there for 20+ years. Went with us when we downsized & now I've moved again (widowed) she's still with me.

What lovely (& funny) memories we all have

I have an Amish angel, bought 20 years ago while visiting my sister in the US,

Mine's a cross between an angel and a fairy too,and she must be 43. I made her from a peg doll, ready painted face. would like to clean her dress but not sure how as it's fixed on. No knickers though, they never occurred to me!

We gave an angel bought for DD1's first Christmas in 1986 and a star bought for DD2's in 1990 .They rotate and the DDs know whose 'turn' it is .The other sits lower down that year
Last year I couldn't find them when it came to put them on the tree .I was out of all proportion and ridiculously upset .I ransacked the house and the loft .I decided to put on my big girl pants and make a new star for all three of our houses for this year. Create a new tradition and all that ..
Come June and DH was tidying the garage after DDs' 'stuff'had left for the properties they both bought (yay)He sorted out the accumulation of jiffy bags,Amazon boxes etc and lo and behold he found them in a jiffy bag .
I cannot tell you how pleased I was. We had had a very stressful year up to that point .It felt like a good omen

Mine is a little angel with wings and she is holding a staff with a star on top. I bought her in the corner shop when we lived in Glasgow in 1966! My older daughter was 3 and the baby daughter was 7 months. So lots of memories are attached to her!

after posting the above i thought i'd find a photo of the tree with my oldest grandaughter - i thihk she got to win the fight to put the fairy on the tree that year - 2009.

back in my cash strapped days in the 70s i dressed a little doll in a white crepe paper dress trimmed with silver tinsel. the skirt of the dress made a circle and, viewed from the back, all you saw was her knickers! but the children loved her.
in the late 90s i decided to re-dress her but in red as i'd changed my colour scheme. however much i tried i couldn't get the dress to go right so bought another fairy instead.
didn't like it much so, in the mid 00s i bought a lovely red and gold fairy and she's been on the top of my tree every year since - the grandaughters absolutely love her and fight for the privilege of putting her on the top of the tree.

We have a battered angel who has seen better days. I can't throw her away or replace her as everyone wants everything to be EXACTLY the same every year.

For many years we had a fairy - ie a cheap celluloid doll (being rather strapped for cash in those days) which I made a white dress for and stuck on some tinsel. My son loved her and he always got on a chair to put her at the top of the tree. Last Christmas, I took her down, put her on the floor to take outside to blow off the dust, and stepped back and trod on her. She was 40 years old and just disintegrated. Son devastated when told. Tradition means everything to him.
This year I pushed the boat out and bought a beautiful angel from John Lewis so await the verdict from the family. I did point out to my son that the new angel will become part of his childrens' traditions and one day he might step on her!

We have a Santa that looks like Edward Woodward in A Christmas Carol! We've had him since my 46 year old daughter was 3. He doesn't match my current decor but I will use him til he falls apart! ?

To be honest I'm not sure if mine is a fairy or an angel she is dressed in white with golden hair and wings, could be either I guess.. had her for years though and she always looks slightly drunk on the top of the tree and often topples off at varying times.

That sounds lovely sara