Your Christmas Tree

[Liz CA]

You have to be careful, but my folks never had a fire. The candle holders clip onto the branches and are very tight. You need to choose got spots so that there are no branches close above your candle.

You just cannot leave it unattended.

 

When I was little, there were always real candles on the tree. If I remember correctly, my mother or grandmother always counted the candles so they knew they had not missed one lighting or extinguishing it.

We never set anything on fire either. We knew to be careful around the tree.

[regentrude]

When I was little, there were always real candles on the tree. If I remember correctly, my mother or grandmother always counted the candles so they knew they had not missed one lighting or extinguishing it.

 

yes, mine always counted, too.

[mom2scouts]

We've always had a real tree. We go to a local farm and chop it down. We always do big colored lights with half of them flashing. I love how colorful it looks on a dark winter evening.

 

The first year we were married (over 30 years ago), we realized we didn't have a star or anything to put on top of our tree, so we grabbed a stuffed white bear wearing a Christmas hat and put it on top. I think the bear was something MIL gave us and it had arms that could wrap around the top of the tree. We laughed about it and it became tradition. The bear is looking a little worse these days, but he still goes on top of our tree.

 

We don't have a theme or matching ornaments. Our tree is decorated with a wide variety of ornaments and many of them have special meaning to me. Some are ones we bought our children for something that reminded us of them that year, others were child made, some were from the loss of our babies, others are for firsts (first house, first Christmas together, baby's first year), some were gifts, and some are ones we bought or made our first years together when we didn't have any ornaments.

[Alessandra]

We do a real tree, though our youngest goes on & on each year about what a waste of time and money it is and how instead we should buy a fake tree, once, and use it forever. Cracks me up! 

 

So, real tree, multi-colored lights, several different color shatter-proof balls, assorted random ornaments, and the kids do all the decorating every year (dh puts on the lights, then the kids take over). Once a child has placed an ornament, that is where it stays, period. 

 

We will add candy canes throughout the season as well, although we're debating this year as we have a new dog who chews everything, so not sure. We'll try it and see; so far she's leaving the tree alone. 

 

No theme or anything, just randomness and fun. 

 

Once (dd and I had bad colds), when I left decorating to ds, he put one red ball on the tree. One. We left it like that, but I will never ask him again. Dd and I actually enjoy decorating -- Christmas music and cookies to keep our strength up, lol.

[Chris in VA]

Huge real tree. Co lo red lights tho I would like white. Never enough lol. Eclectic, meaningful ornaments. We have handmade ones from the kids, ones that my mother in law gave each of them (they will take when they have their own trees),ones we collected...one of my favs was a heart given to use in Seminary that says "halfway" on it, the Christmas we were halfway done with seminary. We have a star for the top, but we used to have an angel that held a light in each hand. We stuck them up in her hair one year. She looked like tbe bride of Frankenstein. We also hang Jesse tree ornaments on the tree. These have a symbol of Christ and a prophetic verse. We have tin icicles (basically sharp twists) that go on last. We put a train under the tree til Xmas. It used to hold a gerbil briefly every year...

[lailasmum]

We've got one of the fake trees that looks real. I used to buy real trees but they suddenly got so expensive and I found the fake one in a good sale. It does look really real unless you investigate closely. I also have fake candles for the tree, they're not perfect but they look pretty nice. I like a well coordinated tree, I always try and make things each year and the last few years I've been collecting some nice new ornaments as our old stuff started to fall apart.

[AmandaVT]

Real tree, multicolored lights, a variety of ornaments collected over the years, no theme. We go to a local tree farm in our town and cut it down the first weekend of December. Under $50 and they're always beautiful!

[eternalsummer]

No tree, yay!

[rutamattatt]

 Main tree - Fake tree.  White lights.  Angel on top.  Color scheme is brown, gold, blue, and white.  

 

Tree in the kitchen - Fake tree.  White lights.  Gaudy silver and fake diamond star on top.  Colors are birght aqua, pink, purple, and bright green with SO. MANY. ICICLES.  Usually this is where the homemade ornaments go, but this year we just did a color theme.

 

Tree in the dining room - Fake tree.  Colored lights.  Some basic ornaments with special family ones mixed in.  Silver tinsel.

 

 

I would have a gazillion trees if DH was up for that!  I always try to do a color scheme or theme for our main tree.  My favorite was two years ago when our main tree was a Darth Vader tree complete with collectible Darth Vader mask for the tree topper.  My DH who is a HUGE Star Wars fan was ecstatic!

[Seeking Squirrels]

Fake, pre-lit. The lights can be set to color, white, or alternating. The kids always mess with that so it varies. Ornaments are quite varied. Some kid craft ones, a handful my great grandmother made out of plastic canvas, some bulbs, and we get a new personalized family ornament each year and have since DH and I married so that makes up a big part of the collection now. A few random colored bulbs as well but I haven't replaced broken ones in a while so we don't have many. 

 

Our tree topper is a weeping angel! I love it! Hey, it's an angel, so it's traditional enough, right? Just don't blink ;) 

[HS Mom in NC]

Ive always wondered how the candles work in terms of safety. Is it difficult to make sure candle holders don't tip over? Are fires common?

 

Here's the fake candles on the tree option: https://www.amazon.com/Flameless-Christmas-Candle-Indoor-String/dp/B01GVSZV9E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1511817182&sr=8-1&keywords=led+christmas+lights+candles

 

[Alessandra]

Here's the fake candles on the tree option: https://www.amazon.com/Flameless-Christmas-Candle-Indoor-String/dp/B01GVSZV9E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1511817182&sr=8-1&keywords=led+christmas+lights+candles

 

Those look lovely. I should not be buying/storing more stuff, but they are in my cart now, lol.

[Loowit]

We get a real tree each year. We go to a tree farm and cut it down ourselves.  It is something our family really enjoys doing together.  We decorate with blue and white lights and a star on top. Ornaments are mostly sentimental from DH's and my childhood plus ones that we have collected since getting married.  My kids each get an ornament from us each year that is a reminder of something special from that year.  Some of the ornaments are ones from our grandparents who are now gone and it really brings back a lot of fun memories.

[laundrycrisis]

Fake, prelit with white lights. We add blue lights also because we have a kid who really loves blue ! Most of the ornaments are Shiny Brites. Some are older than me, and others are reproductions. I like the vintage look. No tinsel or garlands. The topper is a gold angel holding a star in her hands - for happy Solstice!

[kiana]

We always got a real tree and put it up on Christmas Eve. We would only put the tree up. We would set the ornaments and lights out and test the light strings. In the morning, we would get up and Santa Claus had come in the night and decorated the tree for us. This brings so many memories.

 

Edit: We would each (as kids) get an ornament each year. The lights were some fairy lights and as many bubble lights as we could convince our parents to buy. We also had handblown glass ornaments that my mother had bought before we were born, that were always put at the top of the tree for safety's sake. There was a star on the top most Christmases. Real tears were wept when the Christmas star that my parents had had as long as I could remember finally gave up the ghost. We tried an angel for a couple of years but went back to the star. 

 

It would come down on Epiphany. We would pop a giant bowl of popcorn and have hot spiced apple cider or something a little stronger for the adults. We would carefully pack away the Christmas decorations until next year and reminisce. 

Edited November 27, 2017 by kiana

[freesia]

real, white lights, a mishmash of balls, ornaments I got when I was teaching and kids pre-school crafts.

 

I love it.

[freesia]

We always got a real tree and put it up on Christmas Eve. We would only put the tree up. We would set the ornaments and lights out and test the light strings. In the morning, we would get up and Santa Claus had come in the night and decorated the tree for us. This brings so many memories.

 

We do a night of lights only, too, but not on Christmas Eve.  I love how the tree looks with just white lights.  I turn off all the lights and take deep breaths.

 

I love Christmas.

[kiana]

We do a night of lights only, too, but not on Christmas Eve.  I love how the tree looks with just white lights.  I turn off all the lights and take deep breaths.

 

I love Christmas.

 

Oh, it wasn't lights only -- Santa would do that too. We'd just untangle and test the strings and replace burned bulbs. 

 

(educationally, it was a great opportunity for my mother to explain to us about series circuits with the one really ancient string)

[HS Mom in NC]

Those look lovely. I should not be buying/storing more stuff, but they are in my cart now, lol.

Sorry.

[KarenNC]

Several years ago, we went to two small fake trees that sit on parson's tables to either side of our fireplace. They're probably 3 - 3 1/2 ft. We decorate one for Solstice (our religious holiday that we celebrate on the 21st) and one for Christmas (family/cultural holiday).

 

Solstice: white lights, nature/solar-themed ornaments, clear lighted Moravian star ornament on top for now. I have a set of glass icicles that go on this tree. Presents for our immediate family go here, as we exchange our gifts on Solstice. Once it's up, my daughter's advent calendar will go there as we count up to Solstice. This year, it's a grab bag of fun socks, since she loves wearing mismatched ones, and Old Navy had a great sale. Each day she gets to pull out two individual socks.

 

Christmas: multi-colored lights, ornaments with family significance, more general Christmas-themed ornaments, very woodsy Father Christmas topper. Presents for friends and family go here, to be taken to various get-togethers over the course of the holiday. We also do Santa stockings for ourselves at home on Christmas morning.

 

We have fun decorating them, talking about where the various ornaments came from. I think my favorite ornaments are two hearts that we hang deep in the trees, a small gold one in the Solstice tree and a dark red one that goes in the Christmas tree, but there's a lot of significance to most of them as they are a mix of handed-down ones and ones we've chosen over the years.

[ScoutTN]

Real tree, in a werk or so. Advent doesn't even begin til this Sunday.

 

Lights. Either. I prefer white, dh likes colored. We vary what we do.

 

Wide variety of ornaments.

Star on top.

 

Kids have a small, real, Jesse tree with homemade ornaments that go on as we go through the season.

[Shellydon]

Real Noble Fir 9 ft. White lights. Combo of metallic (silver, bronze, gold) colored ornaments and Hallmark keepsake ornaments.

[BlsdMama]

What is it like? Real or fake? White lights or color? Angel, star or other for the top? Do you have an ornament theme?

 

We put ours up last night. I love the idea of a real tree, but we just do fake these days. We have white lights. As for the ornaments, each kid gets to pick a new keepsake hallmark ornament each year. We have a lot of kid made ornaments and basic red, green, gold and silver balls. We do a star on top. We were half tempted to buy a star wars death star trer topper last year, but thought we should keep it a bit more traditional. Also, all the ornaments are at the height of a 2, 4 and 6 year old. Tbe top is pretty much bare :lol:. My 2 year old put about 6 balls on one branch in about 3 spots. It is a sight, but I wouldn't dream of changing it. They had such a fun time decorating.

 

 

8' ish real tree from Costco.

I just got a new topper off Amazon Lightning deals for it - star, lit.

I have no theme.  My mother and mother in law insist on continuing to buy ornaments for the kids and so they are very amusing - unique to each child usually but it results in a mixed hodge podge of disarray.... Kind of like our house really, so it's suitable.

 

One year the kids bought me a package of 12 fairies.  There are about 9 left since circa 2004.

 

Also, an ornament DH made and one I made from when we were each 5.  Most beloved though, are two ornaments - one from my MIL for Hannah (we lost her in 2001) and another from my BFF the year we had our awful miscarriage.  

 

I guess our tree is a reflection of us.  I like us but boy, we're messy.

[JFSinIL]

Fake, pre-lit (yeah it turned on again this year!) and a mishmash of ornaments collected/made over the years. Son with autism has his Darth Vader and Nightmare Before Christmas and Scooby Doo ornaments front and center.

 

My folks always had fresh trees and Mom had color-coordinated ornaments to impress her lady's club. I prefer not worrying about a fire hazard, and having a mishmash tree that reflects all of our whims etc.

[JFSinIL]

Fake, pre-lit (yeah it turned on again this year!) and a mishmash of ornaments collected/made over the years. Son with autism has his Darth Vader and Nightmare Before Christmas and Scooby Doo ornaments front and center.

 

My folks always had fresh trees and Mom had color-coordinated ornaments to impress her lady's club. I prefer not worrying about a fire hazard, and having a mishmash tree that reflects all of our whims etc.

 

I do miss the huge colored lights Dad would put on the tree - now everything is all little Italian lights and mostly white/clear lights. Sigh.

[rebcoola]

2 Trees both fake and pre lit since we moved here. Its just to far to go to get a park permit tree and i'm to cheap to get a lot one.   Ornaments are a mix of new,hand me down and home made.  The kids do all the decorating and do a pretty good job pretty and stress just the way I like it.