The Remember Tree

I love this time of year. Leaves are falling, temperatures are dropping, and Halloween is fast approaching. Halloween has long been a favorite holiday in my family. For my kids, it was all about dressing up and getting candy. For my husband, it was about sneaking candy when the kids weren’t looking, and my mom loved to decorate and see the creative costumes when children would come to trick or treat. For me, it’s a time to remember all of our lost loved ones.

When my kids were small, we would decorate a small tree for Halloween (actually a branch in a flowerpot). The “ornaments” were pumpkins, apples, or ghosts cut out of constructions paper with the names of our lost loved ones written on them. My sons called it the “Remember Tree”.

Decorating this tree and writing the names gave me and my sons a lot of time to talk. We would think of all the great memories we had with that loved one and what that person meant to us. It also gave my sons a chance to share their feelings and tell us what they missed about our loved ones.

The best part, it is an easy genealogy craft for Halloween.

The Remember Tree

Materials:

• A branch (about 1 to 2 feet long with lots of twigs) or small potted shrub strong enough to hold your paper ornaments.
• A flowerpot (You can recycle on you already have as long as it is big enough to support your tree)
• Small rocks
• Construction Paper
• String
• Scissors
• A whole punch
• A pen or marker

Instructions:

1. Clean your branch by removing any unwanted twigs or debris by breaking them away. You will want the bottom of your branch to be clean slightly more than the depth of the flowerpot.
2. Stand your branch in the flowerpot and start filling in around it with rock. Remember to occasionally jiggle our pot so the rocks fill in the gaps.
3. Print or draw the shapes for your ornaments and cut them out using scissors.
4. Punch a whole at the top of your ornament and tie a piece of string through it for hanging.
5. Write the name of your loved one on one side of the ornament. On the opposite side, write a fun memory, quote or message for that loved one.
6. Hang your finished ornaments on your tree and put it out for display.

I hope you and your kids enjoy this craft as much as me and my boys have. Genealogy doesn’t have to be hard or stressful as long as you remember to enjoy the journey.

Happy Halloween!