The house we moved too when I was 8 years old had a big magnolia tree in the front yard. It was quite beautiful and interesting. The huge flowers in the spring/summer were amazing and my brothers used to call the seed pods grenades ! There was a lot of fun to be had with those pods.
One year in the 60s when Moms hand made lots of Christmas decor, it was popular in some magazine to take the leaves of the magnolia, spray paint them gold and attach them to a triangle/tree shaped piece of styrofoam. I thikn they added a bow or some small gold ornaments to finish them off. My Mom made one too and hung it on the wall in our living room during Christmas.