Please see Styx thread on the Registered Shipmates consultation for the main discussion forums - your views are important, continues until April 4th.
What would we see on your Christmas tree?
Graven Image
Shipmate
in Limbo
The Image tree is about 3 feet tall and sits on a table in front of a window, facing the street. It will go up mid-month. It is topped by a stain glass star of David, made by my son when he was in grade school, then red balls, a few showing their age stuffed red birds from my late aunts collection, red and silver ropes of beads, and a choir of paper hand painted angels that I made a few years ago, scattered all over the tree, along with small red velvet bows. The lights are small and white. At the bottom are a santa from my childhood family, and a santa from Mr Image's family. So shipmates what does your tree look like.
Comments
Once it is decorated, it becomes a Memory Tree. The first two ornaments that go on belonged to my grandfather. He died a year after I was born. My grandmother always put those two ornaments on first and, after she passed, I inherited the ornaments and have maintained the tradition. The Sleeping Angel on top also belonged to my grandmother. Many of the other decorations were given to me by family or friends, and I remember each giver when the ornament is put up. The other ornaments are ones that I purchased at different times in my life, and I think about those times when those ornaments are hung.
The lights are multicolored, because clinical studies show that white lights make the Baby Jesus cry. Although the lights in all my other Christmas decorations have long since switched over to LED, the tree still uses the last of my remaining incandescent bulbs. In a few more years, those will have to switch to LED as well.
There will be a train track set up around the base of the tree, with Santa driving the engine of the train.
Our tree (about 5ft) will stand on a table in front of the window for the edification of our neighbours. It's decorated with white incandescent lights (sorry about that, but I really don't like the cold light cast by LED lights, so I'm going to avoid them as long as I can) and a variety of silver baubles*. A sparkly star (a present from a friend) will hang from the curtain-rail above the tree.
Candle-bridges are already up in most of the windows and will stay up until Candlemas.
* When we moved, our old tree and its decorations didn't make the move, so we had to start again from scratch.
The ornaments are eclectic. When Ms. Tamen and I were on our honeymoon, we started a tradition of buying an ornament or two on every vacation or get-away we take. Once the kids came along, we had them each pick an ornament on every trip. We choose distinctive, not generic, ornaments—our honeymoon ornaments are two-toned stained hardwood cutouts of a New Orleans streetcar and of St. Louis Cathedral. When the kids have their own homes, their ornaments can be a “starter pack” for their own trees. My parents did a similar thing with my siblings and me, though the ornaments weren’t necessarily from trips.
Add in various ornaments that were inherited from parents or grandparents, given to us by friends or were hand-made by one or another of us when younger, and decorating the tree becomes a nice time to reminisce.
I see some trees in front windows already; too early for us. Usually a week in advance. I like to see it up until 12th night, 05 Jan.
The Xmas lights on the house, these go on after Remembrance Day, 11 Nov.
I like to put ours up late-ish December and keep it up till Old Christmas Day if possible (though if I have to go back to work on Jan 4 or 5, I usually want the tree down before then so I can get into the back-to-work mindset instead of the holiday mindset). This year we won't put it up before Dec 19, when our daughter comes home from her first semester away at college, as she wants to be involved in choosing and putting up the tree, so that suits me fine. And it will stay up till the 6th because I'm not going back to work at all this January!
The tree has one string of colored LED lights, and several unbreakable ornaments, including some that were made by us when the kids were very young. The tree skirt is my daughter's favorite red plaid light wool blanket from when she was a toddler. It was a remnant from the wool shirts I made for my dad for a Christmas long ago, which he still wears now, thirty + years later!
As for lights, ours are coloured one. I like white ones, but do admit the coloured ones add to the jolliness of the whole thing.
If/when decorating starts, the first thing to go on after the lights (red, LED) will be a worker angel. She carries a mallet. DH and I bought her at the TUC [Trades Union Congress] the first year we were married. (Long story, but they had a pop-up Christmas card shop.)
If DD is here, the tree will then be loaded with every decoration we ever bought or made. If DD and DS are both here, they will sneak tinsel and lametta into the house and destroy the hoover clearing the stray bits up.)
I will get my revenge. I will leave the noisiest baby toy I can find under the tree for beloved grandchild!
This was good for me because I'm allergic to evergreen trees and had no money for decorations. I put it in the trunk of my car, took it home, and set it up. Ta-da!
Another year, while still a penniless grad student, I carefully cut out the illustrations from Celestial Seasonings tea boxes (they were more elaborate back in the day) and hung them around my home. I still have them.
These days I rarely decorate beyond a big bow on the door and Christmas cards draped around on a cord. How drapy my decoration is depends on how many cards I receive.
I might get out the Celestial Seasonings decorations, though....
My current all-time-favorite comic strip is Georgia Dunn's "Breaking Cat News." The concept of the strip is that her household cats run a news show on mews important to cats (like updates on the food bowl and reviews of new toys). In her first Christmas special, one of the cats gets out and lost in winter. He is helped by another stray (Tommy), who has found warmth in a greenhouse. Tommy is shown decorating his "Christmas tree"--an orange safety cone circled by lights. This was enhanced in the next strip when Tommy proudly gestures towards the cone-and-lights, commenting "never guess she's artificial!" Which is one of those lines that did make me really laugh out loud.
Anyway, the reason I post this here is that some fans of the strip have adopted the "Tommy Tree" as their form of Christmas tree. Georgia Dunn is always delighted when fans sent her photos of real-life cone-and-lights Tommy Trees.
All of which is to say, Christmas is where you find it. Definitely bring out the Celestial Seasonings decorations.
I have an eclectic assortment of ornaments, with some from childhood, ranging through gifts and items acquired on my travels. My big indulgence is a complete collection of Neapolitan angels from the Metropolitan Museum of Art; they issue a new one each year. Stars, angels, and birds tend to be in the upper reaches of the tree. Fragile ornaments will be carefully evaluated before placement, since I have a young cat with busy paws.
@Graven Image Um, it was my idea (see up the thread). Hedgehig was encouraging me to continue with my tradition.
It sits on the mantelpiece in our front room, and has some dark blue glittery twigs in it.
At Christmas, I hang star shaped glittery gift tags from the twigs, as they won't support any thing heavier, and it looks very pretty.
That sounds lovely.
White lights (they do not make the baby Jesus cry!)
Decs are an assortment but over the years we’ve weeded out the tinsel, lametta, beads and most tawdry of the ornaments. So now it’s vaguely tasteful but the ornaments are varied and are different colours.
I’ve taken against colour-themed and co-ordinated Christmas trees rather strongly. They look like the sort of thing that go up in estate agents’ shops and the reception areas of businesses.
Oh, and an angel on the top. She’s very sweet. Was in my wife’s family for years.
The cat’s now attacking the lower ornaments...
A very creative response to a bad situation.
Now neither Nenlet is at home and we have redecorated downstairs and have new wooden floors. So we're back to the artificial tree, which I'll be decorating on my own tomorrow as Mr Nen is out. It will be a gold and silver theme - gold beads and gold and silver baubles.
The outside tree has 2 sets of lights: small white LED which remain on all the time and a set of larger coloured ones which have a ripple effect on/off programme. The whole thing is topped off with a lighted star.
Inside we have lots (800) of white lights, c96 apples (36 large red, rest small red or silver), a few decorations that the children made when they were at school, plus a few we've been given over the years, mainly by Swedish friends, including a cute set of 24 knitted tomte, and the whole thing topped off with a beautiful angel copied from an organ screen by an artistically gifted friend. NO TINSEL.
The outside tree will go up on Sunday 16th, the inside on Christmas Eve.
It is a four foot Artificial™ tree with Artificial™ snow on the branches. Silver tinsel, purple tinsel, purple pink and silver baubles and a gold angel atop. Lights are blue and white alternate LEDs which flash to a number of different patterns.
The only odd thing is that four of the baubles are bright red apples which we have had for years, it would not be Christmas without those on the tree.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinsel
They must have been a thing in the '80s.
They've got exactly what we used to have - thanks!
We have some pretty glass ornaments that we look at wistfully every year, and then put away in their box to await a time when they might be safe from destruction.
No coloured lights here either and definitely no blue lights. This is not a police station. Our preference is for warm white, rather than the stark LED's. The tree has three sets of lights and there are another seven or eight draped around the house.