No matter what your holiday traditions are, collecting ornaments is a wonderful way to commemorate your travels and adventures.
Every year when it's time to decorate the tree, you have the opportunity to relive some of those favorite memories, remembering specific destinations or the people you traveled with.
If you like the idea of creating a travel-themed tree, stick around — we’re sharing eight of our favorite tree decorations for travel lovers! Happy holidays!
Tree Decorations for Travel Lovers
1. Limited-Edition The Wander Club 2021 Ornament
We’re kicking off our list of the best tree decorations for travel lovers with a bit of a shameless plug — our very own limited-edition ornament!
These fun Christmas tree ornaments are more than just, well, ornaments. They represent our incredibly rad community of adventurers and wanderers, connecting all of us with the spunky yellow hiking shoes.
We are super stoked to be able to share this limited-edition ornament with you, so be sure to snag yours before they’re gone for good!
2. Airplane Ornaments
Airplanes are some of the most iconic symbols of travel, so they're also one of the best tree decorations for travel lovers.
Of course, you could simply put a single plane ornament on your tree and call it a day. However, why not consider taking it a step further and doing an entire aviation-themed tree?
To achieve this, get airplane ornaments in different styles, colors, and sizes. There are countless types out there, but we’re especially fond of this commercial plane ornament, this vintage prop plane, and this personalized one.
3. Map Ornaments
Nothing says "wanderlust" quite like a map ornament on the tree. Whether you stick with a USA map or go with an ultra-specific destination, you truly can’t go wrong with this particular travel theme.
Maps can be especially meaningful tree decorations for travel lovers, as many makers allow you to make custom creations. This is a wonderful way to honor and celebrate an engagement, birthday, your first home, a new baby, and so many other special occasions.
We love this particular personalized map ornament on Etsy, but again, you really can’t go wrong with any of the options!
4. Map Garland
If a garland around the tree is more your style than a single ornament, we have a wonderful suggestion to get your creative juices flowing.
Use a few old maps or buy a few inexpensive ones and make this DIY paper garland. Yep, these are exactly like the red and green construction paper variations you made in elementary school (and they’re still just as easy and cute!).
Not much of a DIYer? No problem, Etsy has you covered! Check out this fun fringe-style map garland, made from old road atlases.
5. Destination-specific Ornaments
Much like The Wander Club’s Travel Tokens, ornaments from meaningful destinations are an excellent way to highlight specific trips.
Perhaps you want to remember the first time you went to a favorite country or you want to show off the state where you met the love of your life.
One of our favorite things about this particular tree decorating idea is that over time, it becomes almost a passport of sorts, showcasing all the places you’ve been. As you decorate, be sure to talk about those memories — perhaps this can become a fun annual tradition!
6. Use Postcards or Polaroids
If you’re the sentimental type, this may be the perfect style travel tree!
In order to create a postcard- or Polaroid-themed tree, you’ll want to incorporate lots of personal mementos.
There’s no one right way to do this, so feel free to get creative with it. We love the idea of clipping individual photos or postcards onto the tree with small clothespins, but you could also string them together to create a completely custom photo garland!
7. National Park Ornaments
We're a wee bit national park obsessed around here, so needless to say, this is one of our favorite tree decorations for travel lovers.
Ornaments like these gorgeous custom hand-painted ones allow you to show off and remember all the different national parks you’ve been to (plus, they make excellent conversation pieces for anyone coming to your home!).
We also love the idea of gifting these to your loved ones as a way to tell them about a future trip you have planned!
To make these ornaments even more giftable, be sure to add a matching U.S. National Park Token from The Wander Club!
8. Road Trip-themed Tree
Last but certainly not least on our list of the best tree decorations for travel lovers is a road trip-themed tree! Because who doesn’t love a good road trip?!
There are soooo many ways to execute this idea! Maybe you use road trip-focused ornaments or incorporate several different vehicles. Perhaps you include both maps and destination-specific ornaments.
Or, you could go about decorating your road trip tree in a completely different manner! How about combining several of the ideas we’ve discussed and using an eclectic mix of souvenirs, Polaroids, and maps?!
