For about 8 years I have been selling Christmas ornaments online.  Each year my mother and I take a buying trip and choose what that year’s stock will be.  Last year was the first time we had to travel far to do our buying.  In previous years we just went a few towns over.

Halloween is the demarcation line for us.  We spend the summer checking in stock, photographing them, folding tissue paper, and cutting huge rolls of bubble wrap into neat 12″ x 12″ squares.  But, on November 1st we go into “lock down” mode.  Our lives become the ornaments.  I’ll get up a little earlier as the season wears on, go to bed a little later and homemade suppers will get simpler until they are non-existent.

With all this work and sacrifice, you would think we made a lot of money at it.  Every year sales improve and our profit margin grows (thankfully!) but if we had to pay for our labor we wouldn’t be able to run the business.  After the expenses are paid, the rest goes into next year’s stock.  As the profit grows, so does our inventory.  It is a pretty simple business – exhausting, but simple.

It is hard to put in words why I do this every year but the simple answer is I love owning and touching beautiful things – even if it is just for a short time.  There’s something more to it, though.

Christmas ornaments are precious items.  It doesn’t matter what it costs, $1 or $100, each one says something about the person who gave it and the person who received it.  That’s what makes even a mass produced, poorly painted plastic Christmas ornament special – it was given and received with love.

That’s why I do it.