ARLINGTON, TX—Millions of Christmas ornaments are out of work this season as big glitter takes over the industry. Many once-beloved decorations will remain in storage indefinitely, confined to the dark recesses of basement closets, attics, sheds, and crawl spaces.
Christmas decorations at the Johnson household have undergone cutbacks in recent years since the youngest of three children started high school. "The kids used to completely cover the Christmas tree, hanging every ornament in the house until there were hardly any bare branches," Suzanne, 43, shared, "but now that they're older, they've gotten more selective and leave off some of the tackier decorations." That includes a ceramic rocking horse ornament given to the Johnsons' firstborn, Millie, in 2003.
The 20-year-old college student explained that the ornament in question, while sentimentally valued as a gift from maternal grandmother, "Nana K," just doesn't fit the family's Christmas aesthetic anymore. "I could never get rid of Nana's rocking horse, but the colors are kind of ugly, and it has a chip in it from the year Jake [the youngest Johnson] knocked the tree down. I didn't want to hang it up this year. Please don't tell Nana K."
The rocking horse was unavailable for comment, but Nana K stated, "Oh that piece of crap? Yeah, it was a gift from a student back when I taught first grade, but there was no way it was going on display at my house."