Granny_Weatherwax Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 (edited) My DH's chiropractor has a trivia board and monthly contest for his patients. Last week's question was "What is the most popular Christmas Tree topper?" DH submitted his guess, star, and was incorrect. The correct answer was angel. DH was surprised because of the culture shift away from religion and figured the star is a more neutral topper despite the religious significance. The last few times DH and I have taken our evening walk we look at every tree we can see and track what is on top. Our counts are: Angel - 8 Star - 23 Other - 3 Cannot determine - 7 (we cannot see the top of the tree or cannot decide what it is) No topper - 1 Edited December 12, 2019 by The Accidental Coach 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Granny_Weatherwax Posted December 11, 2019 Author Share Posted December 11, 2019 I change what is on top of my tree depending on how creative I am feeling and how much time I gave myself to decorate. Last year I made a topper with two huge pine cones with rustic/burlap ribbon and small, rusty country stars. This year I went with my standard Victorian era style lady. She's not an angel (no wings) but has a long flowing ivory gown. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustEm Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 I can't vote twice so I did other. We have two tree toppers. One is a Weeping Angel and the other is a Dalek. 5 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vonfirmath Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 WE have a angel for the tree tropper but I believe it should properly be a star. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selkie Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 We have a dog tree topper: https://www.etsy.com/listing/168205521/golden-retriever-dog-christmas-tree?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=metal+dog+tree+topper&ref=sc_gallery-1-3&plkey=bb77f23a0379f5136d42e4c54fa7c7faae00ae49%3A168205521&frs=1 Before this one, we always had a star. 9 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsheresomewhere Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 Ours is a snowflake looking thing that changes color. Over the years, we have had an angel, a large bow, and stuffed animals. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tap Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 We have two trees. One has an angel and one has a star. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MysteryJen Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 We used to have an angel topper that I made. The Christmas we moved, the angel head broke and I haven't found the right replacement yet. So now we have a star- which the kids like better because it lights up. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junie Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 We have a star on our main Christmas tree and a large bow on the "pretty" tree. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pawz4me Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 We have nothing on ours currently. It's an artificial tree we bought a couple of years ago, and neither the star nor the angel toppers we have will stay on it. I've been meaning to get out a bow or two and see how that would work, but so far I've been too lazy to do it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MercyA Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 (edited) DH and I actually had a disagreement about this when we were first married (also one about colored lights vs. white lights). 🙂 His family had always had an angel and mine had always had a star. He maintained that the star was more secular, and I was like, what in the world?!? "A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel," "we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him," etc. Plus most of the Christmas angels I've seen--while very pretty--aren't very Biblical looking. They really ought to be masculine, IMO. And a probably a bit scary. 🙂 I like that stars light up, too, and that's what we have now. However, we have the angel from his family's tree, and she is prominently displayed. Edited December 11, 2019 by MercyA 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pawz4me Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 (edited) 3 minutes ago, parent said: We have a small pipe clamp to attach our star to the tree. Yeah but the top of ours is a frail little twig of a limblet. It bent over when I tried using a zip tie to attach one of the toppers. Edited December 11, 2019 by Pawz4me Yeah, in case anyone's wondering--I made "limblet" up. I guess. ;) 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoo Keeper Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 We have a bear angel that came from Switzerland. Some business associates of my father's sent it to me as a gift when I was a child. I loved it then, and I still love it now. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenmom5 Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 I have two sets of ornaments - I have done two trees and part of me would like to do so again. My "eclectic" traditional tree (school crafts projects => Christopher radko => family heirlooms) has a german wax angel my mother bought in Germany. My perfectly homogenized snowflake/winter themed tree - has a lighted crystal star. (previously I had a plastic "Waterford-style" traditional shape tree topper that I'd try to shove a light into.) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 This year, it's an Absol Pokemon, which looks sort of like an angel dog. Our heritage topper is a lighted star, but between young cats and children, I think we've used it twice in 20 years or so. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjzimmer1 Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 I have a star. It's from a beaded ornament kit I made when I was in college. It took over 40 hours to make this one item. My kids know that it will be on my tree until I die. It's this but mine is more gold colored. https://www.crackerboxkits.com/ViewItem.aspx?ID=259 All my ornaments are also handmade (and mostly beaded) but none are as intricate as the star is. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
73349 Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 (edited) We have a homemade star made of card stock, which is light enough to not provoke our little artificial (24" tabletop) tree. ETA: Our nativity scene is next to the tree, so the star on the tree works as a big star up above the stable (slightly anachronistic: the star is already up even though the stable contains only animals). Edited December 11, 2019 by whitehawk 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Florida. Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 (edited) Other - A Santa hat. It looks a bit bare because I'm not finished putting on the ornaments. Edited December 11, 2019 by Lady Florida. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vonfirmath Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 31 minutes ago, MercyA said: DH and I actually had a disagreement about this when we were first married (also one about colored lights vs. white lights). 🙂 His family had always had an angel and mine had always had a star. He maintained that the star was more secular, and I was like, what in the world?!? "A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel," "we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him," etc. Plus most of the Christmas angels I've seen--while very pretty--aren't very Biblical looking. They really ought to be masculine, IMO. And a probably a bit scary. 🙂 I like that stars light up, too, and that's what we have now. However, we have the angel from his family's tree, and she is prominently displayed. my husband and I had a disagreement (Same difference. His family had angels, mine had stars) We solved it by going out to by a topper and the one we found was a angel. It does light up (fiber optics) but it is NOT biblical looking at all. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wintermom Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 (edited) I have a star made of braided straw from IKEA. It's based on traditional straw braiding from some European countries (i.e., the Ukraine, Norway, Sweden, etc.). The Ukrainian ornaments tend to have more wheat (and grains) included. Edited December 11, 2019 by wintermom 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wintermom Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 If people get a little put off by star vs angel, what about flags? 😉 This is a very typical Norwegian Christmas tree. Flags on string decorate the tree. These streamers should run from top to bottom. It takes a while to get used to all this "craziness." 😂 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 (edited) I grew up with a star, but we now have an angel. She does light up, though! ETA: Adding a (fuzzy) pic of our lit-up angel! Edited December 11, 2019 by Matryoshka 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momto6inIN Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 We don't have anything on the top because I can't find a topper I love and I don't want to buy something that's just ok. Our ornaments are eclectic and meaningful but not necessarily pretty and definitely not coordinated, so it's hard to find one I like that also goes with the hodgepodge well. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loowit Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 We got an angel for our first Christmas tree the year we got married. It lasted for quiet a few years, but eventually it broke. We got an inexpensive star to replace it. I find just as much religious significance in the star as the angel. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 Other. It was my parent's first tree-topper -- a 1960 space-age design of blown glass: 12 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2scouts Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 We have a white and red Christmas teddy bear on top of our tree!😂 When we first got married and put up our first Christmas tree, we realized we didn't have anything to put on top. We saw a bear that my MIL had given us and it had arms that could wrap around something, so we put it on top and laughed. We've put it up there every year since. He's not quite as clean and white as he was 30+ years ago, but he's tradition now. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Florida. Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 15 minutes ago, Lori D. said: Other. It was my parent's first tree-topper -- a 1960 space-age design of blown glass: OMG we had one of those when I was a kid. I don't know what happened to it but I think it probably broke and my mother replaced it with something else. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 7 minutes ago, Lady Florida. said: OMG we had one of those when I was a kid. I don't know what happened to it but I think it probably broke and my mother replaced it with something else. I know -- it is getting SOOOO fragile! But I love this thing -- the great early 60s retro look and those yummy colors -- that soft teal! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wintermom Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 Just now, Lori D. said: I know -- it is getting SOOOO fragile! But I love this thing -- the great early 60s retro look and those yummy colors -- that soft teal! Yes, I remember breaking a bunch of these kinds of decorations as a kid. Warm and fuzzy memories of mom going nuts! 😂🥶 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenmom5 Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 32 minutes ago, Lori D. said: Other. It was my parent's first tree-topper -- a 1960 space-age design of blown glass: that style actually dates to the 19th century in Germany. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacia Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 Well, the real question is which study did the chiropractor use for the data? 😁 (Currently we have a bow on our tree. It's because this year we're using a set that my dd got from her grandmother. Often, we have no tree topper that we use. I have two beautiful snowmen glass toppers, but both are really too tall to fit properly on top of our tree. And the "tube" on the bottom of each is really too narrow to fit over the top branch. Next year, I'm going to have to see about rigging up a way to tie/clamp/otherwise attaching one based on some comments in this thread.) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chocolate-chip chooky Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 We have a llama on top of our tree. It's our no-drama-Christmas-llama. 4 1 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 2 hours ago, Lady Florida. said: OMG we had one of those when I was a kid. I don't know what happened to it but I think it probably broke and my mother replaced it with something else. My mom had a bunch of those on her tree, but she didn't use them as toppers. She put a pipe cleaner in them and hung them as ornaments upside-down. Don't know why I'm using the past tense - she still has them on the tree every year! 😄 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alisoncooks Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 I grew up with an angel, but have always had stars on my trees as an adult. Our "kid tree" has a bow on the top. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MercyA Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 1 hour ago, Thatboyofmine said: I’d like an angel but they’re always female. I feel the same as @MercyA about angels, except he needs to look friendly, lol. I don’t want a judgy angel looking down on me while I eat Christmas sweets. Although...maybe that’s an idea to lose weight. Hmmm... This one looks like he'd look the other way, LOL. Too bad he is sold! 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spryte Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 4 hours ago, Lori D. said: Other. It was my parent's first tree-topper -- a 1960 space-age design of blown glass: Oh my goodness! We have almost the same one, but without the green. More gold and red. Our box still has the price tag on it for $1.39. That’s the one we are using this year. I’ll try to get a pic, but I’ve already packed the box away. Same box, I think. 🙂 We rotate toppers, depending on our mood. We have the above, and a really cool metal elephant that’s holding up a star, and an old world Father Christmas. We’ve used a Santa hat, too. I grew up with an angel. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 Huh... So no cupcake or kilt tree toppers from this crew... I'm surprised.😉 😂🤣 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 3 minutes ago, Spryte said: Oh my goodness! We have almost the same one, but without the green. More gold and red. Our box still has the price tag on it for $1.39... Twinsies! 😄 Our box still has the price, too: 29 cents. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medawyn Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 We have an angel my great grandmother tatted. Our tree is also covered with snowflakes that she tatted. I love them. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
City Mouse Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 We use a counted cross stitch Santa topper that I made a long time ago. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emba Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 47 minutes ago, medawyn said: We have an angel my great grandmother tatted. Since I more commonly hear the word “tatted” as shorthand for tattooed, this created an interesting mental image for me😂 1 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted December 12, 2019 Share Posted December 12, 2019 Currently we have a star that has a disco ball effect. It is ridiculous, and my husband loves nothing so much as the ridiculous, lol. The first year we got it we put on rave music and had the kids dance, lol. Before the disco star we had an angel that we found in the attic of the house when we bought it. I grew up with an angel. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippiemamato3 Posted December 12, 2019 Share Posted December 12, 2019 10 hours ago, Selkie said: We have a dog tree topper: https://www.etsy.com/listing/168205521/golden-retriever-dog-christmas-tree?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=metal+dog+tree+topper&ref=sc_gallery-1-3&plkey=bb77f23a0379f5136d42e4c54fa7c7faae00ae49%3A168205521&frs=1 Before this one, we always had a star. We ordered a labrador retriever one today! Thanks for the link! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted December 12, 2019 Share Posted December 12, 2019 A star currently and for the last many years. However, we've done a bow and an angel in the past. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garga Posted December 12, 2019 Share Posted December 12, 2019 (edited) Usually a star, but this year the 14 yo boy created the topper: a Santa hat and Santa beard with sunglasses and a pinecone nose. Edited December 12, 2019 by Garga 6 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edelweiss Posted December 12, 2019 Share Posted December 12, 2019 We have 7 trees. (I know— we’re crazy!) Main tree— Angel DD #1 tree— Star DD #2 tree— Snowflake Snowman-themed tree— Snowman hat Nutcracker-themed tree— Nutcracker topper Sugared fruit and flower themed tree— Poinsettia topper Red and white peppermint candy themed tree— No topper 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PinkTulip Posted December 12, 2019 Share Posted December 12, 2019 We tie 7 Christmas lights together - one to represent each member of our family, plus one for Jesus. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted December 12, 2019 Share Posted December 12, 2019 18 hours ago, Lori D. said: Other. It was my parent's first tree-topper -- a 1960 space-age design of blown glass: I grew up with something similar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted December 12, 2019 Share Posted December 12, 2019 Here they use lots of giant bows and floral picks. I am happy this year because, unlike last year, our first here in Jerusalem, our daughter is bringing some of our favorite ornaments here from home. We have a fake tree, and there are some ornaments here for it, including a star. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Granny_Weatherwax Posted December 12, 2019 Author Share Posted December 12, 2019 19 hours ago, Stacia said: Well, the real question is which study did the chiropractor use for the data? 😁 <snip> I have no idea. I am sure it was a scientifically valid study. 😉 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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