Alongtimegone

I am curious. Do you decorate in one color? Have handmade ornaments? Ornaments you have collected over the years? Do you use tinsel? Icecicles? Garland? A real tree? An artifical one? Fiber optics?

Rainy

we always get a real tree--from a local tree farm....white lights....all the handmade decorations the kids have made....but I usually change the color "theme" from year to year....this year Im thinking about going retro 70's. No tinsel strands tho, too messy!

Cadence57

I finally broke down and got an artificial tree - it's beautiful (perfect for my tiny apt.), and it's convenient (no needles). It lacks the Christmas smell but that's easily fixed with candles and incense. It's decorated with white lights and one long strand of twinklers to add a little sparkle. Red is the primary color of my ornaments but there's also a lot of other things too. The "popcorn" (plastic popcorn) and "cranberry" (red wooden beads) garland that Christen and I spent WEEKS making when she was just three years old. The tree shaped homemade ornament with Jessi's picture in it (5th grade - she's 18 now) and macaroni noodles all sprayed in gold, the other homemade "ball" type ornament with Trish's picture in the middle (third grade - she's 17 now) and colored with crayon, and the popsicle stick and green paper christmas tree ornament with Christen's photo (fifth grade - she's 21 now). There are the "Baby's first Christmas" ornaments, the Woodstock (as in Peanuts) ornaments, the horse-y ornaments - so many memories in those treasures!! I can't wait to get started on decorating!

Marti

smoke gets in my eyes

My family are humbugs but I have a little bitty tree. It's about 2 feet high and goes in a box all decorated. Multi lights, with a few ornaments I don't have to take on and off. Last year Ann sent me a pretty little blue angel ornament and it was and will be on the top. I may have to get some more little ornaments. I have a cat and she liked the fake peppermints. I liked those too.

Alongtimegone

When I was young the extended family would get together the day after Thanksgiving and make ornaments, Christmas decorations, and cookies. Those were some great times.

We have had nearly every kind of Christmas tree with a multitude of ornaments. When the kids hit their teen years, they got bored with the conventional and we started our "theme tree" tradition. We'd get a live tree and decorate it per the year's theme. One year it was New Orleans style, complete with ****** dolls and beads. Another was Hawaii, with hula dancers and palm trees. We did a sci-fi tree, with complete with aliens and a Darth Vader mask as the tree top.

This year it's "Mr. Bill" from the early days of Saturday Night Live. I have just purchased $40 worth of modeling clay so we can make Mr. Bill, his dog Spot, and Sluggo. A stuffed pair of gloves will be Mr.Hands, and will be the "star" on the top.

Our friends think we are very strange.

Karivan

We got rid of our ratty old artificial tree last year and got one of those fiber optic trees. I really like it but then I'm into computers and gadgets so it's perfect for me. There's a color wheel at the base that changes the color of the fiber optics as it turns... it's pretty. We have some family ornaments that we use every year and some other chistmasy stuff that we put around the house.

Gabe

There are rules in my house about the Christmas tree.
First and foremost, it has to be real.
I will be found dead somewhere, the victim of matricide if I ever attempt to erect an artificial Christmas tree in my house.
We used to go out country and cut one down.
Last few years we've gone simple and gotten one off a lot.
No themes, just the ornaments that have been collected over the years.
And while my kids have the "no fake tree" rule, I have one of my own.
Nothing, I repeat nothing, blinks on my Christmas tree.
Blinking lights remind me of Diner signs.
The tinsel war continues with my eldest art-type.
He insists on no tinsel.
I like the way it reflects the lights.
The compromise came a few years ago in the form of large strand tinsel that we use sparingly.

smoke gets in my eyes

N...n... n... no t... t... t... tinsel?

CrazyRed

I have a 3 ft tall plastic Santa Claus from WalMart that lights up a friend gave to me in 1995. I think he is for the yard, but I plug him in on the living room floor and put gifts around the feet. He has a special coffee table to stand on and sometimes I turn him around so he faces out the window.

I had an artificial tree at one point, but got tired of dragging it up and decorating each year. The Santa is just fine.

Blondie

What's on my tree? Anything my kids want to put on it. Paper chains, tinsel, paper plate angels, cut-out paper stars, glitter, etc, etc, etc. I let them put anything they want on the tree because me and my sister were FORBIDDEN to put anything that wasn't approved by my mother on the tree (she hated paper chains and tinsel or most things handmade and we weren't allowed to bring anything like that home because it was "ugly"). When I was a kid I promised myself that my kids would do whatever they wanted with the tree. Their eyes twinkle every year when they decorate the tree. That is the type of twinkling I like to see each year. Oh a the tree is nice to look at too.

Gabe

I know, isn't he a killjoy? I shudder to think what a Christmas tree that he and he alone decorated would look like.

osier59

This will be the first yr that I have a FAKE tree. The person who sold me my house left a big one in the basement. SO, I will give it a try.... but with LOW expectations.

As for decorations, its a hodge podge of old and new... some hand made by my kids, a bunch of cute disney ornaments... and some old family ones that have been handed down. Its sort of one big happy mess... and we always love it.

Happy holidays,
Barb