The Tree Pipsie - and how he got his name.....
There are certain traditions we all have in our own homes at Christmas, these are very individual to families and outside of the family these festive traditions can seen somehow bizarre.
One of our Tree Pipsies along with the brooch we created of him.
One of my most cherishedChristmas decorations is our Tree Pixie, or to give him his correct title, a Tree Pipsie.
"The Tree Pipsie is the protector of the tree, the first decoration to go up and the last to be taken down, his magic is most powerful, it is old magic and this magic guards the tree through the long dark nights from evil spirits....... "
And this is what my Father told me, and something that I believed very much so as a small child, and so it came into pass the legend of the Tree Pipsie, into the Bilson family at least, and into a few very select other families over the years.
The Tree Pipsie first arrived one winters night in the late 70s, when my father bought a box of random items at auction, and in the bottom of the box, there sat a rather dusty, and dirty and motheaten pixie. His outfit shabby and faded, his head a little loose, his wire body a little twisted, but my young heart only saw his magic and beauty. He took pride of place by the tree that year and for every one of my 46 Christmases since in my parents home.
The OG Pipsie at my Parents house, much faded and careworn, but we love him...
When I moved out I wanted a Pipsie to call my own and I searched high and low and eventually found not one, but several over the years at car boot sales. Although not THE Pipsie, he is a distant relation, but his magic is still as strong as the original and he too guards the tree on the long winters nights in our home, much to the delight of our young child.
Some of our Tree Pipsies (and friends), if you see anymore, I will happily purchase from you
I have, over the years made Tree Pipsies for the special children in my life, each one of them having their own magic pixie to guard their trees, but how did the Pipsie get his name?
Simple, a young Estelle couldn't say 'pixie' so he was christened by my infantile self as 'Pipsie' and thus has been called that since....
The decorations can still be found, but as with most other vintage Chistmas decorations they are getting harder to source and more expensive to purchase. From what I have found out he dates from the 60s and most likely made in Japan from very cheap materials.
But to quote the Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams Bianco
“Real isn't how you are made,' ......'It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.'
The Tree Pipsie feels very real and as much a part of the festivites as Turkey, Crackers and Christmas Pudding and quite frankly it isn't Christmas without him.
This year, we paid homage to my childhood Christmas nostalgia and memorialised the Pipsie in the form of this beautiful acrylic brooch created from my original decoration by Kat and Mike from Leopard Print Bee. If you were lucky enough to have snagged one, may his old magic protect you from evil spritis this Christmas and always...
Big Love and yuletide felicitations
Estelle x