Your Christmas tree

[Lady Florida.]

Artificial 7.5 ft. pre-lit tree. It's our second year with it. Before that we had an artificial 6 ft. tree for many years.

 

Multi-colored lights. No blinking.

 

Sentimental ornaments collected over the years. Some were mine before dh, some were his before me. Most are from our time together. Some are ds' that he'll eventually take with him.

 

Award winning look? No. Not by a long shot.

 

Homey and cozy and sentimental and a tree filled with love look? Absolutely.

[TrixieB]

Artificial tree, not pre-lit, rather ancient but still holding up.  This year it has one strand of multi-colored lights with a blinking/flickering/steady controller, and several strands of regular multi-colored lights.  Dd thinks it's fun to drive the rest of us nuts by making half the tree flicker.

 

Ornaments:  my childhood collection, the kids' collections (mostly gifts from grandparents over the years), and a couple that belong to dh.  He doesn't have any from his childhood, and doesn't really care about getting new ones, which is why he has fewer than the rest of us.

[Southern Ivy]

We have a 7ft "prelit fancy pine" artificial tree that we stole from my parents when they were downgrading everything. It has white lights - the hugest holiday contention in our home. My husband declares white lights to be horribly unfestive. 
The original theme (from pre-kid era) was "rustic cabin"; so we have garland of cinnamon sticks, pine cones, and fake berries. We have matte gold and glossy red globes, matte and glossy pinecone ornaments, plus many rustic ornaments (birds, bells, deer, etc.) Our star is wire and wood with berries and garland "clippings". 
I really tried to incorporate my husband's love of the outdoors and my love of prim and proper into the theme. It's a really pretty tree. :) 

Now, however, it's beginning to get a lot of various ornaments. What ChristusG did/does is what I'm aiming to do with my daughter. We have an assortment of ice cream cones, cupcakes, and princesses right now. Eventually, it will just be full of memories which is fine by me. 

 

Our tree is filled with memories. Each year as I grew up, I got one ornament....when I moved out I got to take them with me to begin my own tree. There's memories of my childhood in those ornaments. I do the same for my own kids. I can tell that as a toddler, my middle DD was into princesses because we have several years of Merida, etc. I can tell that my oldest has always been a tomboy due to her choices of soccer ball ornaments and race cars. I see the year that oldest DD learned to read because we have an ornament of Curious George reading a book. I see my middles short year of ballet because of the ballet shoes ornament.
 

 

[ScoutTN]

Ours isn't up yet! I love a real tree, but in an effort to keep the cost of Christmas under control, we do the ultra-frugal tree plan. We get ours from the tree recycle lot when people start dumping them this weekend! A free tree!

 

We do white and colored lights and variety of ornamants that we have collected over the years. Nothing out of the ordinary, but still pretty and fun. Small house so a smallish tree, 6-7 ft.

 

Star on the top. How many people do a star on top vs. and angel? Or something else?

[Dmmetler]

Our tree this year was done by DD. As a result, it's decorated with colored twinkle lights, stuffed reptiles and amphibians, a few toy dinosaurs, and giant microbes. A dragon wearing a pipe cleaner halo is being the angel this year. Stuffed snakes are covering the base.

 

Yeah, we're a little weird...

[Dmmetler]

Our tree this year was done by DD. As a result, it's decorated with colored twinkle lights, stuffed reptiles and amphibians, a few toy dinosaurs, and giant microbes. A dragon wearing a pipe cleaner halo is being the angel this year. Stuffed snakes are covering the base.

 

Yeah, we're a little weird...

[foxbridgeacademy]

When we used to move a lot we did a small pre-lit (white light) tree (usually with a theme).  Easy to move but also cheap to give away if there was no room in the moving truck or in the case of the move to FL the back of our van, same for ornaments.  We've settled down a bit so now we do a real tree size in the 7-8 ft range with mostly hand made  or natural material ornaments.  There's a few sparkly deer and balls we've had for a couple years that blend well.  What I'd like to do is start getting the kind that are still actually alive and then you plant them after the new year.... not sure how well that would work up here in the North though.

 

For a topper the last 3 years we've done an angel (got it on sale for 90% off) In the past we've done a star but often we do a Santa's hat.

[PrincessMommy]

We get a "cut your own" tree... this year it's about 10-11ft tall.  I'm sure some day I'll get a fake one, but hopefully not anytime soon.

 

It's decorated with white lights (not blinking!).  I like white lights for inside because at night it looks like candle light.  But I like colored lights outside (not blinking!) because it's so festive!

 

The decorations are an assortment of bought by me, sentimental ones, and ones the kids made over the years (although I'm weeding those out a little at a time). 

[PrincessMommy]

Ours isn't up yet! I love a real tree, but in an effort to keep the cost of Christmas under control, we do the ultra-frugal tree plan. We get ours from the tree recycle lot when people start dumping them this weekend! A free tree!

 

We do white and colored lights and variety of ornamants that we have collected over the years. Nothing out of the ordinary, but still pretty and fun. Small house so a smallish tree, 6-7 ft.

 

Star on the top. How many people do a star on top vs. and angel? Or something else?

 

Really?  People start getting rid of their trees before Christmas?  Who knew.  How do you find a tree recycling place?  My daughter doesn't celebrate Christmas until Dec. 7th and they're on a very tight budget... this may be something she'd consider.

[Miss Peregrine]

Real tree, 8'. White and colored lights. Still have ornaments I made when I was little, Kid-made ornaments, no real theme. We have always had a real tree and this year it is apparent that dd12 is having a harder time with her allergies so we might need to forego real for fake or figure out another solution next year. I don't really want a lead-filled tree.

 

Oh, and I don't decorate it. The kids do. I don't care how it looks. :)

[Lisbeth]

Switched to an artificial tree about 5 years ago, because we are so allergic.  Also, the tree water can become poison water to our cat.

We have only red-and-white, are all red, or all white ornaments.  We do have a wicked devil ornament, the German tradition, Krumpus/Krampus. The lights are white.  Warm white, not the new cool white.  Our tree is tall, but I can't say how tall, exactly.  Probably north of 7 feet...not sure....  (My guess).

 

I really want a Dr. Who weeping angel for the top.  ;)

[ScoutTN]

Really? People start getting rid of their trees before Christmas? Who knew. How do you find a tree recycling place? My daughter doesn't celebrate Christmas until Dec. 7th and they're on a very tight budget... this may be something she'd consider.

People who are going out of town for the holidays often take theirs down before they leave. Usually the week school gets out. We have a tree recycle drop off in the parking lot of a public park about a mile from our house. The city runs the trees through their huge chipper trucks to make mulch for the park system in early January. The city puts up signs at the designated parks and ads in the paper and info on their website. A good use of local tax revenue. Nice to see that governments can do sensible things sometimes! ;)

[Mom in High Heels]

We have a real tree, that we cut down at a local tree farm.  It's a 6.5' Nordmann, which is the kind of tree we had in Germany, so it makes Indy happy.  I also love them for the open branches.   We have white lights, no blinking!  I don't know how people handle blinking lights.  I think I'd have some sort of seizure.

I am nutty about my tree, and like it to be pretty, so I decorate it with a theme color.  The last 3 years it's been red, white, lime green, and silver.  The wrapping paper MUST match.  It drives my parents batty, and they quit sending wrapped presents a long time ago.  They just send them and let me wrap them to match the tree. 

We have a 6 foot artificial tree (also white lights-no blinking) in the playroom, filled with kid ornaments.  They like having their own tree.

In the DR, I finally got to put up the tea cup tree I've been wanting to do forever.  This year I only did a 4 foot tree, because of space.  It's an artificial, white tree with white lights (no blinking!), that is decorated with some of my vintage transferware tea cups and creamers, small, silver tea spoons, and I tucked in a few red poinsettias, and red ribbon. I love it so much it hurts.  It fills me with girlish glee.  I have enough tea cups that I could decorate two 6-7 foot trees.  At last count, I think I had roughly 5 dozen tea cups.  I might have a small obsession with transferware. ;)  

[J-rap]

We always get a real tree, 6 or 7 feet high.  We have solid colored lights, a mixture of store-bought and hand-made ornaments, and lots of tinsel.

 

 

 

[Jenny in Florida]

We bought our (real) tree last night and decorated it this evening. This year's tree is about eight feet tall, which grazes the ceiling in the room where we put it, once we get it in the stand. We use white lights, non-blinking. We switched to LEDs a few years ago when the warm white ones became available. I love them, because they stay cool and don't break.

 

No theme, beyond the fact that we have lovingly collected ornaments over the years. Each of the kids gets a minimum of two new ornaments every year -- one I make and another they get to choose for us to purchase. My daughter always got clothespin angels, beginning the year she was two and I found some inexpensive cross stitch kits in a Woolworths and thought they were cute. Over the years, I got more personal. Instead of buying a generically cute kit, I tried to find or design something that reflected her interests or experiences that year. They aren't all cross stitched. A few are crocheted, and some are really different and only rather abstractly "angels." Just today, I mailed her this year's edition, which I've decided will be the last one, now that she's all grown up and living on her own. It has a "life in the city" theme and is wearing a "dress" with a cross stitched city skyline and holding a cell phone with the Seamless (food delivery) app on the screen, a lease agreement, a copy of a book she's using for her acting class, an order of service from the church she's begun attending and a miniature version of the scarf I crocheted for her and gave her on Thanksgiving.

 

My daughter took her collection with her when she moved out and used them to decorate her own first tree this past weekend. 

 

My son's collection is a bit more eclectic, but also reflects his interests and experiences for each year. This year, it's a small nutcracker ornament (just because he has a large collection of nutcrackers going back to his first year performing in the ballet) painted in his college's colors, with the school's logo on his chest. He's wearing a tool belt with little tools made from Sculpey and holding a to-do list referencing some of his projects for the past semester.

 

For many years, the kids also made ornaments to give away as gifts each year, and we kept one or two of each of those for ourselves. I have a few of the cheap ornaments I bought the first year I had my own tree when I didn't yet have enough ornaments to fill it and had no budget to get much of anything. I bought some packs of foil decorations that I think were intended to go on packages, not really to hang on trees, but I got six of them for .99, and they took up space and sparkled. That was 30-ish years ago, and I still insist on hanging the remaining ones every year.

 

We also have a few ornaments from my husband's family, which I love a lot. They're nothing special, but it's fun to think of little him hanging them on his tree.

 

We do have a nice collection of Hallmark's Star Wars and Star Trek ornaments (only the ships and vehicles, not the figures). A few years ago, we spun those off onto a smallish artificial tree.

[SKL]

We have an artificial tree that looks about as real as an affordable artificial tree can look.  It has mini lights (random colors, not blinking), and originally it would spin around when you wanted it to.  (Something broke at some point.)

 

We started out with the conventional ornaments - shiny bulbs etc., many years ago.  Gradually we added things of sentimental value, and we never replaced the generic ones as they broke etc., so now we probably have more sentimental ornaments than generic ones.  The sentimental ones are mostly handicrafts from other countries or photo ornaments with my kids' photos from past years.

 

We keep the tree up and decorated all year long.  This saves us a lot of trouble, but just today I was getting nostalgic about the tradition my parents kept, of buying a new tree, setting it up, enjoying the smell that spread through the house, pulling out the ornaments and decorating the tree together.  My kids have not had that experience.  I hope they won't be too warped ....  This year they might get to do it with my parents (who still buy a real tree every year).

[hornblower]

We keep the tree up and decorated all year long. This saves us a lot of trouble, but just today I was getting nostalgic about the tradition my parents kept, of buying a new tree, setting it up, enjoying the smell that spread through the house, pulling out the ornaments and decorating the tree together. My kids have not had that experience. I hope they won't be too warped .... This year they might get to do it with my parents (who still buy a real tree every year).

Really? You keep the tree up all year? Wow! I've never heard of that!

[SKL]

Really? You keep the tree up all year? Wow! I've never heard of that!

 

Yeah, we've had it up since long before the kids came along.  We like it and don't see a reason to box it up for most of the year.  So as far as the kids are concerned, it's just part of the decor, except when we turn on the lights.

 

[LucyStoner]

6-7 ft Noble Fir. I like them sticky. Real tree every year. Colored lights. No blinkers.

 

Mix of ornaments. I have ones from my childhood. The little gripper monkey on the top of the tree? That's been with me since my first Christmas. Story goes I grabbed it at a store when I was a baby and my parents bought it to prevent me from being an infant shoplifter. It was Christmas so it went on the tree. When I moved out at 17, I had no tree topper so Mr. Monkey got himself a promotion and it stuck. Ornaments are everything from painted with glitter paint wooden elves to blown glass. The kids pick one each year so some randomness has accumulated. Darth Vader is on there, as is Charlie Brown. I also have some stained glass ones my mom made. I have a box of ornaments I weeded out this year which my niece and nephew get first dibs on (since many came from my mom and my brother had been through them with me already) and then they are hitting freecycle.

 

This is our tree. The expedit to the right is normally horizontally oriented under the window. We moved it just for the tree. Excuse the bare window. I haven't been able to find curtains I like since we moved in here. Now if I find ones I like for a price I like, we will practically have already moved out.

 

 

[Liz CA]

About 6 foot tall, real Douglas Fir. White lights only. Just this year, we got some blinking white lights - by accident. Didn't read the package but decided it's okay since they are very small and don't blink rapidly. Our tree mostly has glass balls in gold and red and then a few ornaments that are keepsakes. It is topped by a star. On the bottom is the reddish tree skirt and S-scale heirloom train is set up.

[happi duck]

I like reading about everyone's trees! Thanks for the nice thread op!!

[Tap]

2 trees.

 

One artificial that went up the day before Thanksgiving is my tree.  It is 7.5ft tall, pre-lit and set to all white, non blinking lights (there are other options, it is just what we use). The decorations are all all silver/white/red with just a hint of black. It has a heart theme and is about

60% silver hearts in assorted styles that I have collected over the years

10% very dark red glass hearts

10% small balls tucked inside that are silver, red and black for background filler

 the remaining ornaments are Lenox porcelain (santa, reindeer, snowman), silver (various shapes), a  few blow glass shapes like red/white mittens, and just a few glittery-glittery fanciful reindeer.   

I want a blown glass star for the top, but haven't found the perfect one yet, so there is no topper.

Red and silver tree skirt.

 

 

 

The real one in the living room has all the traditional ornaments that we have collected.  It is lit in all white, but set on a dimmer, so that it barely glows.  The tree with the angel must come within a couple of inches of the ceiling.  I buy the kids a nice ornament and fun one every year. Between the 3 kids, there are at least 50 'nice ornaments' in  white porcelain,real silver bells, blown glass, and crystal.  On top of that, there are easily a hundred fun ornaments that we have bought over the years. We don't bother with plain colored balls, there is no room. LOL The kids have their hand made ornaments in a box from when they are little, but they don't usually make it to the tree.  (The kids decorate it) The topper is an angel that dh and I bought before we were married. It has topped out tree since before we had kids, 20+ years and counting.  The tree color theme varies year to year, and we use only about half of the ornaments at any one time.  It is usually white/silver/red or white/green/red or red/green.....There is some variation of the theme due to childhood ornaments, but the kids have so many, they care more about how the tree looks/feels than putting every ornament on.  Tree skirt is blue felt night sky, over snowmen. We have had it since the kids were little. 

 

 

[Jennifer132]

Ours is artificial (and looks pretty cheap...). We use colored lights. This year we decorated the whole thing with perler bead ornaments (those little beads that you iron into designs) that my kids have made throughout the years. :)

[PrincessMommy]

People who are going out of town for the holidays often take theirs down before they leave. Usually the week school gets out. We have a tree recycle drop off in the parking lot of a public park about a mile from our house. The city runs the trees through their huge chipper trucks to make mulch for the park system in early January. The city puts up signs at the designated parks and ads in the paper and info on their website. A good use of local tax revenue. Nice to see that governments can do sensible things sometimes! ;)

 

we have tree recycling too, but they do curb pick up here. I'll have to look around and see where they take them and if local residents are allowed to go there.

 

 

[Lizzie in Ma]

9 foot tall balsam fir, it smells heavenly.  We like the little white lights, non blinking kind and we have an eclectic bunch or ornaments we collected and/or made for years.

We usually get it and put it up on the first Sunday of Advent, but this year life got in the way and we got it but were not able to decorate it for another week.  It looked so sad just sitting there all bare.  But now it is beautiful.

The kids and dh usually decorate while I take photos, but I didn't get a single good one this time, oldest was only able to watch and she went to bed directly afterwards, but at least it got done and we were together.

[Tammyla]

We have 5 pre-lit trees...Multi color family tree 6-7' in the living room, white light 6' hand blown bulbs in dining room, dd has a pink tree '4with white lights, ds a multi color 4' and a 3' red/white light in our mstbr.  Dd loves decorating the entire house, and I happily let her go wild.

[EKS]

Five foot tree from a tree farm. It sits on a table in the corner of the room which makes it look taller. White lights and random ornaments collected over twenty years and some from my parents that are much older. I love our tree!

[redsquirrel]

big real tree. We make Christmas trees around here so it seems silly not to have a real one. I am terribly allergic, but we still seem to have one. We have at least 9 foot ceilings so I would say 8' tree? Dh held back this year b/c usually it is hitting the ceiling.

 

We use gold non-blinking lights. We used to use white but we think gold looks much warmer and inviting. We have lots of sort of nature based ornaments, like woodland animals, snowflakes, acorns, and real pine cones. It looks very Jan Brett

 

Oh, and for a tree topper we have a stuffed Mike Wazowski. He has a hole in his 'butt' and he sits right on the tree top. That does not look very Jan Brett

 

Under the tree we have a large selection of seasonal children's books I have collected over the years. I have them piled up as decoration. People love to pick them up and browse. I once saw a picture where someone had potted poinsettias all around the base of the tree and it looked so pretty. But, I can't afford over a dozen poinsettias.  Books I can afford.

[Granny_Weatherwax]

 

This is a 22 yo artificial tree. DH and I bought it for our first Christmas after the real tree we had selected had spiders, lots of spiders.

The topper includes a couple of large pinecones someone gave me a couple of years ago and three wire branches with rustic stars and faux berries that were from DS's Eagle court of honor.  I tied rafia bows randomly throughout and used a wooden cranberry garland.  The ornaments are things we have collected throughout the years.  Mostly unbreakable or non-sentimental  items since DGD has a fascination with the tree this year.

 

The pic makes it look like there's tinsel but there isn't.

[AimeeM]

Artificial tree. White lights.

Initially it had beautiful, shatterproof balls on it, thanks to DH (who ran out to get two huge containers of them). Unfortunately, shatterproof does NOT equal Marco-proof, or GSD-puppy-proof, so the balls that are left (not many) have been moved to the top of the tree.

 

So, our tree looks a hot mess. Adorable, but odd looking, lol.

[MEmama]

 

This is a 22 yo artificial tree. DH and I bought it for our first Christmas after the real tree we had selected had spiders, lots of spiders.

 

*shudder*

 

I've been worried about ticks in ours (first time we've had a real tree, and DS was just diagnosed with Lyme---before we got the tree though!)

[Heidi]

7 ft real tree, colored lights, the ornaments are cinnamon/apple sauce cutouts, dried oranges, popcorn and cranberry garland, two felt birds (red and blue), and a few other random homemade ornaments. It looks blah, but making all that was fun for the kids. I don't thinks we will decorate with dried orange slices again because the kids think they make the tree look dead.

 

Ok, added a picture, but the lights aren't on:

[hornblower]

6-7 ft Noble Fir. I like them sticky. Real tree every year. Colored lights. No blinkers.

 

This is our tree.

 

. Excuse the bare window.

 

Love your tree! I have such a hard time finding trees that have space between branches & that you can get into the trunk. The things labelled as noble firs here are not like that anymore. They used to be... but now they're not & they shear them too :(  

 

I sort of gave up on tree picking & just let dh do it. He gets one fairly early & keeps it outside in a bucket of water until we put it up just before xmas. The stores usually get one shipment & so if you buy early & keep it in water it's better than going to the lot later in Dec.

 

& I lol'd about your windows because all my windows except for the master bed are bare - on purpose. I love bare windows & avoid curtains if at all possible...

[nukeswife]

ours is a 6ft artificial that I put the light on.  Prelit trees never had enough lights for me and I'm allergic to artificial. 

This year we went with our first ever theme and did a Doctor Who Theme.

[LucyStoner]

Love your tree! I have such a hard time finding trees that have space between branches & that you can get into the trunk. The things labelled as noble firs here are not like that anymore. They used to be... but now they're not & they shear them too :(

 

I sort of gave up on tree picking & just let dh do it. He gets one fairly early & keeps it outside in a bucket of water until we put it up just before xmas. The stores usually get one shipment & so if you buy early & keep it in water it's better than going to the lot later in Dec.

 

& I lol'd about your windows because all my windows except for the master bed are bare - on purpose. I love bare windows & avoid curtains if at all possible...

Thanks!

 

The lots here all tie your tree to the roof your car here. No way it would fit in the trunk!

 

I've been slowly angling for stickier and sticker trees as the years pass. My husband and sons always wanted the bushy-est trees. They like this now though. Cue evil Christmas cackle.

[hornblower]

The lots here all tie your tree to the roof your car here.

 

no, i don't mean the trunk of the vehicle, i mean being able to reach & see the trunk of the tree :laugh:

 

we have tall ceilings so dh usually gets an 8ft+ & it rides home on the roof of the van....

[LucyStoner]

no, i don't mean the trunk of the vehicle, i mean being able to reach & see the trunk of the tree :laugh:

 

we have tall ceilings so dh usually gets an 8ft+ & it rides home on the roof of the van....

Me and my lackluster reading comp skillz, I tell ya!

[rocassie]

We have a 7.5ft artificial tree.  We have small multi-color solid lights.  Probably about 4 strands at 10 ft.each.  We do not have a theme tree.  It is all special ornaments.  Ornaments that have been made or given as gifts.  Also, every year we pick out an ornament to represent our year or a special thing that happened that particular year.  We have a star made out of the small multi-color lights, but eventually I would like to make an angel to go on top.  Since the kids hang their own ornaments and rehang them throughout the season, the tree looks very unbalanced and ornaments are clumped up but I hope it creates fond memories for the kids.

[MariannNOVA]

Will try to post photo.......7.5 foot artificial, green. Tons of lights.....all colors. Snowman theme that I saw in a catalog, and I put together my own. Very whimsical, fun, colorful.

[Slache]

6 ft

White non blinking lights

Mardi Gras beads instead of tinsel because we fell in love in NOLA

Hodgepodge ornaments

Tin angel from like the 20s on top

[ocelotmom]

Our tree looks rather uneven because all the candy canes and ornaments of sentimental value are on the top 2/3 of the tree. The bottom only has lights and balls. The tree itself is artificial, around 7 feet tall, and has white lights and a purple star on top.

[VeteranMom]

In years past, I always put up a 6 ft tree.  I never had room for it and was so annoyed by having to put it up.  I realized I shouldn't be annoyed by a Christmas tree.  This year, I went out and bought 2 trees.  I have a 4 1/2 foot tree and a 3 foot tree.  The 4 1/2 foot tree sits on my buffet in the family room and the 3 foot tree sits on a cabinet in the dining room.  I love these trees.  One is decorated with twinkling colored lights and the other with white lights.  Both have garland made of beads and both hold our family ornaments.  

[OnTheBrink]

We have two 4' trees. One is white with clear lights and snow man ornaments and glass balls in shades of turquoise. The topper is a big glittery green bow. The other is a green tree with multi-colored lights, purple and turquoise beads and ornaments, and various funky ornaments dd likes (penquins, Perry the Platypus, Doctor Who, mirrored disco balls and cats.)

[DragonFaerie]

Our tree is a 7.5-foot tall, pre-lit artificial, and it's beautiful.  Nice and full. The lights have three settings, all white, all colors, or transitioning from white to colors and back.  We almost always keep it on the transitioning setting.  As for the ornaments, I have a few sets (like this Nightmare Before Christmas one) but most of them are random ornaments that we've collected over the years.  The kids each have their own special ornaments that they get to put on the tree, and I have a few of my own, too.  Then we "fill in" with sets of candy canes, sparkly snowflakes, and bells.  Our tree really is like our family history.  I love it!

[MariannNOVA]

http://i58.tinypic.com/2e5qptf.jpg

 

It worked.....that's our tree.

[Guest]

We have an artificial tree (DH is allergic to pine trees).  It's 7.5 feet.  Non-blinking colorful lights (because our children love them).  We have ornaments collected over the years (some match).  The tree itself is green.  

[Guest]

Artificial 3' pre-lit.  It opens like an umbrella and closes up in 2 seconds.  I wouldn't have a tree anymore had I not purchased this one a couple of years ago.  Too lazy.  

[AmandaVT]

We have a 7'ish real tree. We go to a local tree farm every year to select and cut our tree. It's a family run place, Grandma makes wreaths and they offer hot cocoa, coffee and cookies to their customers. We love it!

 

I used to think white lights and green/silver ornaments was the way to go. Now I love the colored lights and a mish mash of ornaments. I have some of the non breakable balls that I bought when my cat was alive and used to love batting ornaments from the tree. I have a few ornaments from my childhood that my parents saved. I have ornaments that my first roommate and I bought when we lived together. We buy a couple every year as well and have bought one for DS every year since he was born. There are some lightweight very sparkly snowflakes that give a nice sparkle of tinsel without the mess. I also try to buy an ornament from wherever we go on vacation, so I have remembrances of various trips, which are nice. :-)