Un-Christmas Ornaments

December 2, 2011 2:41 PM

I'm looking for some cool, non-Christmas-y ornaments for a Christmas tree. Any specific suggestions for where I could find some or what to include?

Inspired by this blog entry (specifically the octopus, which is a little pricey) I'd like to find ornaments that couldn't possibly be construed as Christmas-oriented.

(I know I could cover the tree in Halloween decorations, but that seems too limiting -- although little voodoo dolls would be great!)

posted by coolguymichael to home & garden (29 answers total)

Sea Shell Ornaments might work for you.
posted by Nickel Pickle at 2:48 PM on December 2, 2011

If there's a Costplus World Market near you it's a great place to go for non Christmasy ornaments. Just ask my kangaroo ornament!
posted by girl scientist at 2:49 PM on December 2, 2011 [2 favorites]

With a glue gun, you can make all sorts of things ornaments. What about stuff from the toy store? An all-dragon or all-unicorn tree?

In the past we've done all birds or all roses, but those might be too Christmas-y.

Thanks for the link! I'm loving the ornaments on there.
posted by small_ruminant at 2:49 PM on December 2, 2011

anything to which you can attach a little loop of fishing line can be a christmas ornament. go to a dollar store, toy store, or Archie McPhee, an start grabbing things!
posted by juliapangolin at 2:50 PM on December 2, 2011 [2 favorites]

A fake owl makes a great tree-topper, IMHO. And I am stealing that fishing line idea! To think I have spent all these years (at least the tree-having years) carefully placing things on branches.
posted by Lesser Shrew at 2:54 PM on December 2, 2011

I was considering popping airline bottles of vodka and whiskey onto mine. Although with their weight they may have to be emptied first.
posted by sweetkid at 2:56 PM on December 2, 2011

Great ideas so far - thank you!!

Sweetkid - that's exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. Things my (deceased) grandmother would look at and say, "You put THAT on your Christmas tree?!"
posted by coolguymichael at 3:00 PM on December 2, 2011 [1 favorite]

Unwrapped condoms.
posted by Burhanistan at 3:02 PM on December 2, 2011 [1 favorite]

Last year, we did our tree entirely in kid's toys. Rubber ducks (we had around 10 total), trucks, rattles, basically any toy we could balance on a tree branch. It was awesome.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 3:05 PM on December 2, 2011

I was actually rather glad, the year my partner decorated the tree in stuff from our local goth/S&m store, that my stepfather apparently has no idea what a cock ring is and just thought they were pretty silver rings. It was a lovely shiny tree that year. There were also some random skull charms and stuff from that store that worked nicely.
posted by Stacey at 3:08 PM on December 2, 2011 [3 favorites]

Last year I bought a snazzy tarot deck, punched a hole in the top center of each card, and strung a ribbon through it. At my holiday party I turned over all of the cards & had guests pick a card & did their fortune from it for fun :) The deck covered the tree & looked awesome!
posted by haplesschild at 3:10 PM on December 2, 2011 [3 favorites]

you should make some kind of snazzy garland out of hardware!
posted by juliapangolin at 3:28 PM on December 2, 2011

My husband and I buy fish ornaments as gifts for one another every year. You would be surprised how many fish-themed Christmas ornaments are out there.
posted by troublesome at 3:28 PM on December 2, 2011

The kids had some sore of bendy people (think: Gumby) that they stripped naked and had straddling branches. I'm not sure why they were on our tree, but I liked 'em. It's now a tradition.
posted by mazola at 3:29 PM on December 2, 2011

Get big bags of fun-size candy bars (or rolls of Smarties or those individual oversized Lifesavers or whatever your pleasure). Cheap! Colorful! Delicious!
posted by argonauta at 3:33 PM on December 2, 2011

Try the woodworkers' store in Pioneer Square. They have some gorgeous hand-carved ornaments, some of which weren't Christmas themed. I haven't been for about six months though, so their stock of hanging things (on the water-ward side of the counter) might have been tailored to be more "Christmasy" now, so YMMV.
posted by thelastcamel at 3:37 PM on December 2, 2011

I'm thinking import stores and toy stores too. What about mini rubber chickens? Mini rubber lobsters? Army guys. Finger puppet monsters. Knock-off Barbies. Or what about OB tampons? Scrabble tiles. Little bottle brushes. Fetus-shaped toys. Fake mustaches. Bacon.

Love this. I'm inspired to shop here for my shiny but un-Christmas ornaments this year.
posted by Specklet at 4:11 PM on December 2, 2011 [1 favorite]

When I was a kid, one year we hung up cutlery - mainly cake forks and teaspoons - all over the tree. It was cute and shiny.

Another year we used my dolls' house furniture. My mother made me take the toilet off, though.
posted by lollusc at 4:12 PM on December 2, 2011 [1 favorite]

PetSmart dog toys. Not the holiday ones, but ones like this, these, or these.
posted by yoga at 5:08 PM on December 2, 2011

Did someone say luau?
posted by plinth at 5:12 PM on December 2, 2011 [1 favorite]

Archie McPhee has mustache and bacon ornaments.
posted by Gucky at 5:16 PM on December 2, 2011 [1 favorite]

Also, we hung drafting tools on our design office tree for years.
posted by yoga at 5:26 PM on December 2, 2011

I'm thinking about covering mine in artificial butterflies from my local craft store. They make them out of dyed & cut feathers.
posted by Ys at 5:43 PM on December 2, 2011

Cocktail mermaids.
posted by corey flood at 7:45 PM on December 2, 2011

I fill in the gaps in the Yule tree with random stuff from the floral department - not flowers, though, but sprays of reeds, stuff that looks like seaweed, ridiculously glittery amorphous stuff in bright colors. (I do the rest of the faux tree in stars and cheesy 60s stuff, and the tiny real one in flag garland, which is a Scandinavian tradition.)
posted by cobaltnine at 10:10 PM on December 2, 2011

I suggest Michaels and Pier 1. Both places should have lots of non-xmasy ornaments and/or items that can be repurposed into ornaments.
posted by deborah at 10:40 PM on December 2, 2011

Do you have any kids? I'd think a hot glue gun and a pile of Matchbox cars could be interesting.....
posted by easily confused at 8:49 AM on December 3, 2011

When we moved into our house, we had a housewarming party where we asked for "Christmas tree ornaments that will remind us of you".

That turned out to be a great idea. We got a stuffed toy monkey from my brother, a glittery sparkly cat sculpture which totally represents one of our close friends, and so on.

We also supplement the ornaments every year with a souvenir from that year's vacation or camping trip, so there's a silly wine cork on it from our wine touring vacation the year we conceived our first kid.

We just put up the tree last night, and it was a great trip down memory lane.
posted by wenat at 12:43 PM on December 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

Thanks so much everyone. LOTS of good ideas here -- very helpful.
posted by coolguymichael at 9:50 AM on December 5, 2011