There’s something rather strange about Christmas decorations.
We carefully wrap them away in January, put them in a box and don’t see them again for almost an entire year.
And yet, when that box comes back out the following Christmas, opening it can feel like meeting old friends.
“Oh, I remember this one!”
“We bought this when we moved here.”
“That was your very first Christmas.”
“Your nan gave us that.”
Suddenly, decorating the Christmas tree isn’t really about decorating at all.
It’s about remembering.
And I think that's exactly why personalised Christmas baubles can become so much more important than we ever expect them to be.
A bauble can mark a moment in time
When you order a personalised bauble, you're usually buying it because something has happened.
Perhaps a baby has arrived.
You've bought your first home.
You've got engaged.
You've married the person you love.
There's a new puppy causing chaos in the house.
Someone has graduated.
Or perhaps this is simply another Christmas together – and that's worth celebrating too.
At the time, you're buying a decoration for this Christmas.
But without really intending to, you're also creating a record of your life at that particular moment.
Take a bauble that says:
Olivia's First Christmas 2026
In December 2026, it's a beautiful new decoration celebrating a brand-new baby.
Ten Christmases later, Olivia is probably the one hanging it on the tree.
Twenty Christmases later, it might cause a conversation about what her first Christmas was like.
And one day, perhaps that bauble will leave her parents' Christmas box and find its way onto a tree in Olivia's own home.
That's a lot of life for one little bauble to witness.
Our Christmas trees grow with us
I love the idea that a Christmas tree can tell the story of a family.
Look closely at somebody's tree and you might find their whole history hidden amongst the branches.
Our First Christmas Together.
Then…
Our First Christmas Engaged.
A few years later…
Our First Christmas as Mr & Mrs.
Then perhaps…
Baby's First Christmas.
Followed by another baby's bauble a few years later.
A new home.
A family pet.
An anniversary.
A holiday.
A decoration the children made at school that is slightly wonky but absolutely nobody is allowed to throw away.
Year after year, another little piece of life gets added.
Eventually, the tree becomes less about matching decorations and more about the people who decorate it.
Personally, I think those are the most beautiful Christmas trees of all.
Why names make such a difference
You could buy a beautiful red bauble from almost anywhere.
But put somebody's name on it and something changes.
It's no longer a Christmas bauble.
It's Sophie's bauble.
Add a date and it becomes even more specific.
Add a message and suddenly there's a story attached to it.
That's the magic of personalisation.
It creates ownership and emotional connection.
And that's why personalised decorations are so often the ones we hesitate over when we're eventually sorting through old Christmas decorations.
They're not simply decorations anymore.
They're ours.
The baubles children look for every year
One of the loveliest Christmas traditions is letting children find their own decorations.
If you've bought a child a personalised bauble each year, eventually they have their own little collection.
There might be a first Christmas bauble.
Then a favourite character or hobby.
Perhaps one celebrating their first day at school.
Another for something they achieved.
And every December they can find their decorations and choose where they go on the tree.
Obviously, they'll choose completely inappropriate branches.
All twelve decorations will probably end up within six inches of one another.
And you'll desperately want to rearrange them once they've gone to bed.
Resist. 😂
Because one day you'll miss the years when half the tree was decorated by somebody three feet tall.
They can become family traditions
Personalised baubles are also wonderful for creating traditions.
You might choose a new family decoration every Christmas.
Perhaps every child receives a new bauble each year.
Maybe grandparents give grandchildren one special decoration every December.
Or you could choose a decoration representing the biggest thing that happened to your family that year.
Imagine the collection after twenty years.
You wouldn't simply have twenty decorations.
You'd have twenty chapters of your family story.
And that's something you can't recreate later.
They aren't always celebrating the obvious milestones
Some of my favourite personalised baubles celebrate wonderfully specific things.
A favourite hobby.
A teacher who made a difference.
A beloved pet.
A special friendship.
A holiday.
A new job.
A sporting achievement.
Someone becoming an auntie, uncle, nan or grandad.
Even a milestone birthday can find its way onto the Christmas tree.
That's one of the reasons I love creating personalised designs.
If it matters to you, it's worth remembering.
Christmas doesn't have to be reserved only for the traditional milestones.
Sometimes a bauble remembers someone who isn't there
There is another side to Christmas memories too.
Christmas can make us very aware of the people who are missing from our celebrations.
Someone who once sat around the table.
Someone who always decorated the tree.
Someone whose name was written on presents underneath it.
When they're no longer there, Christmas traditions can suddenly feel very different.
That's why remembrance baubles can become some of the most treasured decorations on a tree.
They give someone we love a small place amongst the celebrations.
Perhaps their name is written on it.
Maybe there are angel wings, a feather, a heart or simply the years of their life.
And every Christmas, when that decoration is unpacked, they're remembered again.
I consider it a real privilege when somebody asks me to make one.
The slightly battered decorations are often the best ones
Here's something else I've noticed.
The Christmas decorations people love most aren't necessarily the newest.
They're often the ones that have survived.
The ribbon may have softened.
The box might have a few creases.
The decoration might not match this year's perfectly coordinated Christmas colour scheme in the slightest.
But it goes on the tree anyway.
Every. Single. Year.
Because its value isn't determined by how fashionable it is.
Its value comes from what it reminds you of.
That's the point where a Christmas decoration has become a keepsake.
And that's exactly what I hope happens to the baubles I make.
Made this year. Unwrapped every year.
There's something I find quite lovely about making a personalised bauble in my workshop and knowing that this may be the only Christmas it is ever brand new.
Think about that.
When it arrives with you, everything is pristine.
The ribbon has just been tied.
The glitter is sparkling.
The personalisation has just been applied.
You open the box for the first time.
But after Christmas, you pack it away.
Next December, you don't receive it again.
You rediscover it.
And that's what happens every year afterwards.
Eventually, the excitement isn't because it's new.
It's because it's familiar.
I think that's when you know a Christmas decoration has become part of the family.
Why I put so much into my baubles
This is also why I'm probably a little obsessive about my personalised baubles.
Each of my signature glitter baubles is handmade to order.
You choose your design and personalisation, and with a huge selection of glitter colours available, you can make it feel completely your own.
The glitter goes inside the bauble, so you get all that lovely sparkle without glitter shedding all over your tree.
I then add the personalised design and finish the bauble with two coordinating ribbons before carefully packaging it in its gift box.
And yes, I know that sounds like an awful lot of fuss over a Christmas decoration.
But I don't really think I'm making something that's only going to be used for a few weeks.
I'm making something that could come back out every Christmas for years.
That changes how I look at it.
One day, today's Christmas will be 'the old days'
This might be my favourite thought of all.
Christmas 2026 feels completely ordinary to us right now.
We're living it.
We're buying presents, planning food, arranging visits and wondering whether we've remembered everyone on the Christmas list.
But one day, Christmas 2026 will be a memory.
Photographs taken this year will look old.
Children will have grown.
Families will have changed.
Homes may have changed.
And the personalised decoration you buy this Christmas could still be sitting inside that Christmas box.
When it comes out, it might be one of the things that takes you straight back.
That's why I don't think personalised Christmas decorations are really about decorating a tree.
They're about capturing a little piece of now for later.
From my hands to your family 🎄
I've been making personalised gifts since 2013, and one of the things that still amazes me is thinking about where everything ends up.
I make a bauble in my workshop.
I fill it with glitter.
I add somebody's name.
I tie the ribbons.
I put it into its box.
And then I send it away.
My part in its story is actually very short.
Yours is the long bit.
You decide where it hangs.
You create the memories around it.
You pack it away.
You bring it back out.
You tell the stories attached to it.
And perhaps, many years from now, you pass it on.
That's why I love personalised baubles so much.
They're small.
They're sparkly.
They're beautiful hanging on the tree.
But every so often, one becomes something much bigger than that.
It becomes part of the family.
And if a bauble I've made gets to be part of your Christmas story for years to come, I can't think of a better reason to keep doing what I do.
Georgina x