posted on December 10, 2000 04:56:42 PM
Sorry no pic but we have a 8 foot blue spruce that we cut after traipsing through the snow and muck to find the "perfect" tree.
Decorations are old and new. We love angels so we have quite a variety of them: silver, bisque, fabric, glass, wood, and whatever else I come across during the year. I try to find one new angel each year. The rest of the space is filled with wood and felt ornaments the kids made and old glass ones from my Mom.
Lights this year are the multi-color little ones. I MUCH prefer the all white bulbs (they look like little stars), but my kids insisted on the colored this year so I relented and bought some on sale at Target.
posted on December 10, 2000 05:18:48 PM
Start with basic Italian flag.
Green tree with red and white balls and bows.
This part is for me.
Add lots of Sci Fi for my husband, dogs and puppies for my daughter, and Big Bird and Toy Story for my son.
Partial to Hallmark and avoid anything homey or quaint. Get a big kick out of talking ornaments.
We are not done - here is a work in progress
[ edited by VeryModern on Dec 10, 2000 05:27 PM ]
posted on December 10, 2000 05:25:58 PM
Hubby is out in the living room watching The Santa Clause (for the millionth time) and putting together the tree right now. We have a 7 1/2 foot huge artificial tree we finally relented and bought last year since the whole house is allergic to real trees We had a hard time figuring out where to put it in our small house this year.
We have multi-colored programmable lights that we usually have on slow fade mode with constant lights up the middle. Our ornaments are a mix of all kinds we've gathered over the 7 years we've been together. I have a very few Mom let me take when I left home We have 3-D wood ones, plain color glass, fancy glass balls, several kitties, glass bells and a few cheap ones for the bottom for the cats to play with. No tinsel, it's a horrible sight to see some hanging out a cats behind! Oh, and a few pretty bows and a big bow for the top (we can't fit a regular topper!)
posted on December 10, 2000 05:31:27 PM
For the past three years, I have just put up lighted garland. This year my mother decided I needed a bigger dose of Christmas spirit and bought me a two foot fiber optic tree. I wasn't too enthused until I plugged it in. It is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. It reminds me of watching fireworks.
posted on December 10, 2000 05:36:04 PM
Speaking of Christmas trees, Meya, do you happen to get the Sunday Plain Dealer?
In the Sunday Magazine there is an article about a professional "tree trimmer" in Cleveland and some of her completed jobs. She decorated a tree for a suburban Cleveland family last year: a 20 foot Fraser Fir. She purchasesd 165 glass balls and 75 sterling silver ornaments at $21 each for the client. They strung 4000 white lights on the tree. Final cost for the job was $8400.
I almost flipped! Imagine having so much money that you could spend close to 10 grand on your Christmas tree!! And I'm sure if you have a tree like that, you probably also had a professional decorator do the rest of your house for the holidays!
posted on December 10, 2000 05:54:56 PM
For people with children - here is an online tree/room decorating site. Lots of fun. The ornaments and other stuff are in a drop down lists on the left (kind of hard to find)
thanks toomanycomics. My husband for the most part has strung his ships and sci fi people on various garland this year, so we are a little naked. I am glad about this since last year we were kind of overloaded and now I see I still have reason to shop.
Plus there is the downstairs tree...
Star Trek's Worf has the most delicious voice. Any fans who missed the Hallmark runabout, well better go bid. I hung up Oz today too. "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain..."
posted on December 10, 2000 06:01:09 PM
If I don't get my butt in gear, this years "style" is gonna be ala natural (which isn't easy for a fake tree!)....
It's current state:
When it's complete, we have almost 1000 lights, I "wrap" the tree twice in lights & have separate controls so I can have all the lights, or just the "always on" lights, or just the twinklers & programmable lights (the rest of the neighborhood dims when I light our tree!)....Our ornaments are a mix of my crystal menorah ornament, my hallmarks, my favorites-the kids homemade ones, even the pontiac logo from my husband's old GTO....We have lots of things that aren't ornaments, but are special to use because of where we got them or what they meant to us - even my "Instruction Fault" light from the first computer I worked on.....It may not be traditional, but it is very special to us....
I'll post finished pix, sometime in February, if I keep goin' at the pace I'm going!...
posted on December 10, 2000 06:08:04 PM
Does my cat hanging tangled in the branches count as an ornament? She spends most of the season there. Gave up trying to stop her we just pull her out a few hundred times a day.
Music-related ornaments that I have been collecting for years. No two are the same.
Baldwin Brass is now making ornaments, including music instruments. I've collected all of those and will be adding the tympani from their line this year.
My favorite ornament: a battery-operated jukebox that plays music. Found it in Atlantic City many moons ago.
I fill in with gold & silver balls and use white lights.
posted on December 11, 2000 06:45:59 AM
None this year. I'm not well enough and we don't seem to be inclined anyway. (One of the benefits of being a grown-up is being able to choose NOT to do something.)
But in other years: Always balsam (Dad taught me right). When we had a 12' ceiling we got a 10' tree, which just about held my collection of antique ornaments and garlands, including many from my great- and great-great-grandparents' estates. Nothing later than 1940, ever, except for NONflashing white mini lights (I prefer the early light sets, but the bulbs are hard to find) and the ornaments I've made over the years from antique paper cuts. In Boston, popcorn-and-cranberry strings. I'm still looking for a couple packages of the old lead tinsel. My biggest focus is on the creche, which is pre-WWI German figures. Anyway, the tree goes up Christmas Eve before Mass, preferably decorated in secret for maximum effect, and comes down New Year's Day. IMHO, the tree should come down well before it stops dazzling you. There can indeed be too much of a good thing.
posted on December 11, 2000 10:55:36 PMImagine having so much money that you could spend close to 10 grand on your Christmas tree!!
Busybiddy, If I had that kinda money I certainly wouldn't spend it decorating a tree ,although I might just pay someone that much to take it down for me. LOL
My tree? Bah, humbug! Told my DH if he wants a real tree he better pick one up tomorrow!
posted on December 11, 2000 11:39:31 PM
1000 lights? 4000 lights? *faints dead away*
Two years ago my hubby put 800 lights on our (artificial) tree - took him close to 4 hours (this was *not* a professional job *grin*). Well, Christmas came and Christmas went, and remembering how long it took to put them on, neither of us wanted to take the time to take them *off*.
I took the ornaments off, but the tree itself stayed up for (literally) a year and a half. When people came and stayed with us, I'd tell them it wasn't a Christmas tree, it was a 'decorative tree' - I mean, you go into hotels and *they* have their trees decorated with white lights year round, right? *grin*
Needless to say, I'm now known for being rather eccentric...this year there is no tree, though - we're going away for the 2 weeks around Christmas, so I've just taken out some of the ornaments and candy canes and hung them on various knobs and door handles around the house...though of course there are still the multi-colored lights around the banisters to get us in the Christmas mood, but umm...they've been up for going on 4 years now...eccentric? nah.... just uh, festive
posted on December 12, 2000 03:51:50 AM
10k on a tree?? Gee wiz!
Seriously, our tree goes together in layers, so hubby does the lights as he does the layers. Put the bottom branches on, run the lights, next layer, then lights.
I think there are between 1000 and 1300 lights on ours because of the way he strings them on.
We put wreaths in each window, and a window candle as well. I even bought some of those mesh lights for the 2 small bushes in the front of the house this year.
posted on December 12, 2000 08:52:20 AM
What tree??? There's no room for a tree. Maybe I will just drap garland and tinsel on all the boxes. I did make a tree and take it down to the Antique store. I hung little tins, little wheaton bottles, old jewelry, tea balls and various other little old things on it. Of course somebody bought it the next day, yipee!!!
Tattoogranpa and I are letting the son and daughter-in-law do all the work at their house this year. We are going there.
Happy Holidays to All.
Tattoonana
[ edited by tattoonana on Dec 12, 2000 08:55 AM ]
posted on December 12, 2000 11:26:28 AM
I have a huge inherited stash of ornaments and decorations, but this year I'm just too tired to haul it all out and get it set up. I may pick up a small tabletop tree and put a few candy canes on it, but that's it for Xmas 2000....Those of us in the state of California are also in the middle of a critical energy shortage and we're being asked to cut back on electricity usage so I have an excuse to offer friends and family. I have been so busy the last few weeks that I've hardly noticed the approach of Christmas, frankly, except as a marketing trend. I'm sad about that, because I love this season's weather and vibrations, but some years you get it together and some years you don't. This is one of the "don't" years....I'll be baking 20 dozen cookies to give as gifts on Dec. 23rd, and then it will all be over.....
This is the only time of year when I wish I had children. It helps me get into the spirit. I just love kids at Christmas, buying them gifts, seeing their little faces....Anyone have a couple kids that need a vacation here in California??
posted on December 12, 2000 05:59:31 PM
I am relieved to hear I am not the only one lacking in Christmas spirit this year!
In past years I have put up three trees: our big 7' one with a wide assortment of ornaments from old weird ones from Japan made out of pipe cleaners to Christopher Radkos, a 6' skinny one that has nothing but bird and animal ornaments, especially cats, and a 3' one all done in a baseball theme.
This year I just, like 20 minutes ago, finished putting up the big one. This year I didn't use any of my hand-blown glass ones, just all non-breakable, because we have a new, former stray, cat. It looks a lot simpler than usual and it did go up a lot faster since I didn't have to be as careful with the ornaments.
It's definitely more difficult to get into decorating when you don't have kids. I left all the boxes of garlands, trims, wreaths and assorted other decorations in the attic this year. This year I'm wondering why I ever collected all that stuff in the first place because you sure feel guilty when you don't feel like putting it up!
posted on December 12, 2000 06:17:26 PM
My Yule trees are still growing :::wink:::
It was a tradition in my home to PLANT trees in springtime, not to cut them down.
There was NEVER a holiday tree in the house...we decorated a living one in the back yard, covered it with treats for the birds and squirrels. It was amazing to watch this living tree decorated with beautiful living animals.
Far more satisfying than having to dispose of a browned and dead tree.
One of my most fond memories was the day that FOURTEEN cardinals (one of my fave birds) were all on the tree at once, feeding. It was quite miraculous.
Happy holidays, all...and remember to donate your old coats so that others can be warm, too.
posted on December 13, 2000 07:49:46 PM
BEARS-BEARS-BEARS!
I spent years collecting ornaments, and then 2 years ago decided to be different. I started at the top with beanie bears and other small ones, and worked my way down to huge ones under the tree. About 200 on one 7 foot tree. My kids love it! since then, when I ask what they want, they all vote for the bear tree! So as not to get boring, I have been accumulating old tin noisemakers, baby rattles, and such to add to it this year.
And of course my old Siamese under the tree, who rips all the bows off the packages every year-13 so far! That's a tradition around here, too!
That is the most beautiful and caring Christmas tradition I have ever heard!
I have also stopped putting up a tree since the kids are gone... but I always feel kind of empty. I am going to use your idea this year. Thanks!
posted on December 14, 2000 10:12:49 AMSkorpioGal I like your tradition too. It sounds like some Winter Solstice traditions I've been reading about recently and hope to incorporate with my own family. It's a good time to give back to nature, to care for others when we've been so blessed.
Our tree is artificial (much to my husbands continuing horror) because I don't like the idea of bringing a living thing into our home only to let it die.. just bugs me. Plus the mess. Yuck. So we have an artificial tree and it's done entirely in purple, gold, and blown glass bells. Purple and gold mini-lights (though the dang purple lights always look pink in reality), purple velvet riboon streaming fromt the top bowdown (no star on top), purple glass moons and stars, gold suns, little jeweled gold crowns, purple velvet bows on branches, and of course some handmade decorations my son
has made and a few Pooh ornaments even though they don't 'go'. It's kind of a "regal" theme. Maybe it's a deep seated link to some past life where I wasn't a poor commoner .... heh. Oh, and my couch is a deep purple so it ties in with that. Can you tell what my favorite color is??
Anyway, it's lovely, but it's nowhere near up. We take the tree with lights still on it and put it in the garage each year, still standing. I haven't had enough time yet to get my living room clean enough to put the tree up this year.. pathetic ain't it!? If I didn't have kids I'd probably never get around to putting the tree up at all.
We had a hard time figuring out where to put it in our small house this year.
Oh, and a few pretty bows and a big bow for the top (we can't fit a regular topper!)
Oh, and my couch is a deep purple so it ties in with that. Can you tell what my favorite color is??