Some may say decorating for Christmas before December is just too early, but to that, we say bah humbug! Not going to lie, we had our Christmas trees (yes, trees) up before Thanksgiving this year. At the Williford house, we currently have six Christmas trees ranging from full size to kitchen counter decor and each has its own theme! We have a sports tree with ornaments from all of our favorite teams. We have a tree with ornaments from childhood. We even have a tree with only ornaments of the characters from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (one of my fave holiday movies). But our favorite – by far – is our travel tree!

Since we love traveling and love Christmas, combining the two is the perfect way to celebrate the holiday! A few years ago, we started collecting ornaments from every new city we visited and they have quickly become some of our favorite travel souvenirs. The best thing about these souvenirs is reliving each trip as we decorate each year! It’s so fun reminiscing about what we did in each location and how we selected that city’s ornament.

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Usually, ornaments are really easy to find such as this cute pirate that we found in a gift shop while on a cruise to St. Kitts.

Every once in awhile, however, we’re in a spot where there are no ornaments for sale. In these cases, we love to use our imagination! We found the below “ornament” at a cruise port in Tobago where a man was carving and painting designs on the shells of a native plant.

In Costa Rica, we couldn’t find anything that was specifically an “ornament.” But we did find this cute sloth and we’ve made our Christmas tree his new home!

Many destinations will have markets with handmade items such as the straw market in Nassau, Bahamas (pictured below).

Sometimes the only option is a mass-produced one and that’s fine, too. We just love to find something with personality!

Every Christmas, you will love opening your ornament box and reliving your adventures while getting in the holiday spirit!

Do you collect Christmas ornaments as travel souvenirs?

If so, what are your favorites?! Let us know!

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