Personalised baubles, Christmas trinkets and the fairy - not angel - on the tree!

I’ve been writing so much about personalised Christmas baubles I woke up thinking about them at ten past six this morning. I write and send so many calligraphy baubles to customers, but I don’t have one on my own Christmas tree. I do have baubles, but the one thing that’s personalised will be the last thing you’d expect.

I grew up with a colourful, mismatched, eclectic Christmas tree in our home. Mum and Dad had their own collected and inherited baubles and decorations, with jewel-toned glass and plastic alongside the tree decorations me and my sister had made at school. And since we grew up in the 1980s, these were always made of toilet rolls, paint and cotton wool. They were special though: taken out of the box in the loft every year with fondness and laughter, to decorate a tree that felt like home.

I still have one of mum & dad’s baubles on my own Christmas tree - I’m not sure they know I have it! It’s a 1980s disco ball type thing, factory made and 100% plastic - but it reminds me of that lovely, happy home (and it twinkles when it catches the light). I love it - it’s my favourite one.

All of our Christmas trees have their quirks, I think?

Unique and hand painted Mum / Dad Christmas baubles, inspired by my parents

My parents have these hand painted baubles on their tree, and they’re amazing supporters of my calligraphy business and my sister’s Etsy shop (she makes personalised gift bags and boxes). I designed these baubles for them, and then added them to my shop - both my mum and my dad are brilliant gardeners, so the flowers, leaves and berries just felt right.

The other tradition I’ve inherited from my parents is the fairy on top of the Christmas tree. We always had a really cute fairy with blue wings on top of the tree - and she’s been there for as long as I can remember… with one exception. In the late eighties, Dad tried to replace her with an angel. (He grew up in a family involved with the Church of England, while my mum’s side were atheists.) Dad’s angel was a blonde bombshell - a doll with shockingly orangey hair and a white lace dress made of plastic. There was uproar (and we all wet ourselves laughing) - and the fairy stayed. For the next thirty years.

Find these personalised baubles on Not On The High St

My Christmas tree, on the other hand, doesn’t have a single hand painted bauble. It’s a wonderful mix - me and Steve have our own collection of eclectic baubles with everything from a plastic robot and a horse to owls and peacocks, alongside the standard shiny baubles (and the disco ball one I think I stole from Mum & Dad). I have a gorgeous Murano glass tree ornament Steve bought for me, but since we got young cats it’s far too precious to hang on the Christmas tree, so I have it in my calligraphy studio!

No. The personalised Christmas ‘bauble’ on our tree is one I bought as a joke from a garden centre. It’s a plastic Santa with ‘Grandma’ printed on its tummy. When my Grandma was alive, she refused to hang it on her tree, but every year it would dangle from her little phone table in the hallway! It makes me smile to see it now, and that’s a lovely memory I want to keep.

And that’s the thing with personalised Christmas baubles - the memories they bring and the feelings they evoke. You remember where they came from and who gifted them to you. They’re special - arguably, even if they’re a cheap plastic Santa (I wish I’d bought Grandma a nicer bauble but there you go!)

White personalised Christmas baubles with gold names - find these baubles on Ingenious Gifts for £20

I’m happy I’ve made it part of my Christmas tradition to write beautiful calligraphy baubles for people. I always imagine where they’ll end up, the reaction when the gift boxes are opened, and whether they’ll be snuggled back into their tissue nests to keep them safe year after year when they’re not on the Christmas tree.

And I hope they collect their own memories, of grandparents and aunties and uncles, of favourite Christmas trees in cosy homes, of childhoods and of feeling loved. A personalised bauble isn’t just a bit of ceramic with a name on, but something a bit more special that grows, in time, into a treasured family heirloom.