Ornament Shopping in the Old Market

This year I decided to participate in the Social Fabric ornament exchange. I absolutely love this community and I was even more excited when I found out I was paired up with one of my favorite SoFab members! She has the sweetest most caring of hearts, she has a brilliant eye for design, she’s a teacher, always learning and always wants the best for others. Oh, and she’s a blast to hang out with too! I had the opportunity to meet her in person at SoFabU on the road, which she did a fantastic job setting up with the rest of the SoFab team.

I knew I needed to find the perfect ornament for her, so I went to the perfect Christmas ornament shop. Tannenbaum in the Old Market District of Omaha. This store is open year round and it’s always Christmas themed. In case you were wondering, many people think Tannenbaum means Christmas tree, but actually it just means fir tree. Weihnachtsbaum or Christbaum are both Christmas tree in German, however, common translation of Tannenbaum refers to Christmas tree, so we’ll go with that. 

Now that I’m thoroughly sidetracked by linguistics, let’s get back to the real point of the post, and that’s to give you a tour of Tannenbaum and show you some of the ornament sightings we found while shopping for my Social Fabric buddy’s ornament gift.

When you walk in to Tannenbaum, you’re surrounded by Christmas. There is a ton packed in the shop, it’s always busy and it’s hard to move around, but it’s just so awesome you don’t care. You don’t mind moving around people or between the narrow aisles because you are in so much awe of the massive amount of ornaments presented to you in so many different styles. Amazingly not many ornaments are broken with the high traffic, and it’s a great place to hear a lot of manners going around, mostly of the “Excuse me” variety! Ok, and we’re in Nebraska where we’re known for our manners. I always heard that’s one of the reasons we’re chosen to be a central location for call centers? I don’t know if it’s true, but it wouldn’t surprise me.

Here we go, the first thing I noticed when I walked in was some beautiful dangling decorations. I stood there and admired them for a bit before my husband reminded me I was blocking the doorway. Oops, sorry fellow shoppers.

As I made my way through the main aisle I also found a wall of stockings.

Finally we made our way to some of the side aisles. I knew I wanted to walk the entire store before I narrowed down the ornament I wanted to give my SoFab ornament buddy. So here’s a quick tour of the types of ornaments you’re going to find here.

Have a friend who’s a flamingo lover? You’re covered.

Tea lover? Yep, that too.

New parents to be? Sure, why not.

This owl was one of my favorites.

Well, until I found the Doctor Who ornaments. Yay Daleks!

Yep, I’m going to make you stare into the eyes of a Weeping Angel too. Muahahaha, I love this show.

This place seriously has walls of ornaments. Thousands!

More ornaments…

And even more ornaments! Farm and Ranch theme anyone?

 I even found some fantastic vintage themed ornaments that reminded me of the ornaments we hung on the tree when I was growing up.

When in doubt, send your friend a reminder that you’re always thinking of them.

I absolutely love this store and can easily lose myself browsing the aisles.

Want to know what ornament I sent to my buddy? We’ll you’ll have to wait! I just mailed it yesterday and she’s traveling! Plus, I forgot to take a picture of it so we’ll have to wait to see if my ornament buddy will share a picture of it for you all to enjoy.

If you’re in Omaha I hope you’ll head down to the Old Market and check out Tannenbaum. There are a ton of great stores to explore down there, but this one is perfect if you’re looking for some Christmas cheer.

What would your ideal ornament be for your tree. Do you do a theme or do you have random ornaments? Share your ideas in the comments below, we’d love to hear them!