One of my favorite ways to include our sponsored children in our Christmas celebrations is to display their photo in an ornament on our Christmas tree.
Several years ago I found these beautiful red frames at Pier One and bought all they had (it was an after Christmas sale!). The following year they had the blue one, but only one. Now the past two years I haven't been able to find more that I like. This year I really wanted all our kids on our tree and so I found these simple round frames. Last year Heather got really creative and made her own ornament frames from perler beads. Wouldn't it be cool to make these and use the colors of your child's flag? Oh my...I might have a new project on my hands!!
**If you know people who sponsor kids, giving them an ornament for their tree is a fun and special gift. I gave ornaments to the new sponsors at my church and they were so surprised and grateful.
Although there is no official "theme" to our tree, having this many children on the tree gives it a global theme. We also have some other special ornaments on the tree, like this one from Compassion. (I can't find any of these available anymore...)
And a globe ornament.
I also love the owl ornament I got in Peru last year.
If you are interested in buying an ornament from your child's country, let me suggest one of my favorite sites.... Ten Thousand Villages is a fair trade retailer and has a wide selection of ornaments from: India, Kenya, Peru, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, the Philippines, Ecuador, Colombia, El Salvador, Haiti, Tanzania, Guatemala and Mexico.
The red star garland you see in the photos above comes from Bangladesh. This is also available from Ten Thousand Villages.
I also have this very cool star valance that I hang in my kitchen window, also made in Bangladesh.
Hmmm...maybe I should sponsor a child in Bangladesh!
Do you have any other holiday ideas? If so, I would love for you to share them here.
