Hidden treasures hang on Christmas tree
PHIL CAMPBELL — For Jam Lee TePoel Saarinen and her husband, Jeff Saarinen, some of the most meaningful Christmas gifts are not found under the tree but hidden inside its branches.
Small presents and keepsakes are tucked among the needles each year, waiting to be discovered only after the larger gifts have been opened.
“There are small gifts left inside the Christmas tree branches, which we look for and open last after opening the gifts under the tree,” TePoel Saarinen said. “It’s always fun to look for the gifts hidden in the tree branches.”
The tradition began in TePoel Saarinen’s childhood, when her parents placed small gifts inside the tree for her and her sister to find.
“There were small gifts left in the tree to find ever since I was a little girl,” she said. “My sister and I loved searching for the small gifts in the branches.”
She carried the tradition into adulthood and shared it with her husband after they were married.
Another tradition grew alongside it. Each year, TePoel Saarinen’s parents gave her and her sister a special Christmas ornament meant to represent something important that had happened that year.
When she received her driver’s license, she received a truck ornament. Other milestones were marked the same way, creating a growing visual record of her life through ornaments.
After she and Jeff Saarinen were married, the couple continued the tradition. One of the ornaments hanging on their tree is a wooden goat ornament dated 2016.
“This ornament is from the first year I started raising Kiko goats,” TePoel Saarinen said.
She and her husband now raise and sell Kiko goats at Saarinen Farm Kikos and Karakachans.
One of the ornaments hanging on their tree is a wooden goat ornament dated 2016.
Over time, the tree has become more than seasonal decor. It has become a collection of memories, milestones and personal history, layered together in lights, paper, wood and glass.
The smallest gifts tucked into the branches may be modest in size, but they carry something larger with them.
“They build suspense,” TePoel Saarinen said. “You see them and want to open them, but you wait until the bigger gifts under the tree are opened and then you get to search for them.”
For TePoel Saarinen, the traditions are not about the value of the gifts themselves but about continuity.
“They are traditions that I have continued,” she said, “and shared with my husband.”
In that way, the Christmas tree becomes not just a holiday centerpiece but a kind of living scrapbook, holding stories from past years while quietly making room for new ones.
