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What would we see on your Christmas tree?

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

  • We will be buying a non-drop real tree shortly, about 6 foot tall. It has everything thrown at it, mostly red, gold and green; baubles, glass birds with nylon fibre tails like my mother had, lots of hand sewn/crochet/mixed media decorations I've either made myself or been given in craft swaps, kitschy decorations given as presents, including the rag doll Angel, tinsel and fairy lights. I like a good tree.
  • I have a six foot artificial tree. It has lights, silver garland, and lots and lots and lots of different ornaments. There are a bunch of different animals, including a lot of penguins, glass birds, and cats. There are three stuffed dinosaur ornaments. Lots of snowflake type things. Long metal dangle things meant to look like icicles. And many many plain round ornaments. A Harry Potter ornament. A Betty Boop ornament. A wooden toy soldier, a jumping jack, a plastic cookie ornament. There is no over riding theme, it's eclectic and very over stuffed. No tinsel though, because it's bad for the cats.
  • BoogieBoogie Heaven Host
    We usually have a huge real tree but we are away for Christmas in Heidelberg - so we are having a small ‘pop up’ spiral tree, very nice it is too :mrgreen:
  • Right now, you would see nothing at all. I get a real tree and Santa decorates it on Christmas Eve...so no real point to getting the tree this early, is there?

    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.
  • No tinsel though, because it's bad for the cats.[/quote] None for us either - we don't much like it (and I can never get it to look right).

  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Hedgehog wrote: »
    ... The lights are multicolored, because clinical studies show that white lights make the Baby Jesus cry ...
    We'll have to agree to differ about that - there will never be a coloured light chez Piglet.

    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.

  • Hedgehog wrote: »
    The lights are multicolored, because clinical studies show that white lights make the Baby Jesus cry.
    Ha! Those supposedly "authoritative" studies you get on the Interweb - don't trust them for a minute! It's actually flashing lights which make the Baby Jesus cry (he's not epileptic, they just keep him awake).

  • Our Christmas tree (not yet purchased), is always a sevenish-foot Fraser fir bought directly from the farmer. It has white and colored lights—pace Piglet and Hedgehog—and is topped with a white Moravian star, a very common indoor and outdoor Christmas decoration in these parts.

    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.
  • It's a varied thing re the tree. It's permitted to cut your own on Crown Land, and we do that or get one from a grower. Depends on who's around and what they want to do. The tree itself has mostly decorations made by us, including some from my wife's and my childhood, and some the children made when they were young. There's a controversy every year because there are more decorations than can be used and someone always wants to retire something. The second controversy is that everyone wants to be here for decorating, and this is difficult to do when people travel and want also to be with the family on the other side. The lights are multicoloured, always. We've also got a Nativity Scene, which has an unusual crew, including a ballerina, some ice skaters, the starship Enterprise from Star Trek, rabbits and a moose. I have no idea why Boney M's Xmas album got started as a decorating tradition.

    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.
  • All the grandchildren come around to decorate my tree which is followed by a pizza party just for the children. I have a box of decorations and the children choose what goes on the tree. Most of the decorations are heirloom, but I try to buy one new decoration each year and possibly retire another one. Each child gets to add their own decoration which has their name attached.
  • TrudyTrudy Heaven Host
    Our tree will be a real tree cut from our cabin property outside town, about seven feet tall. We decorate it with coloured lights and a wide assortment of ornaments collected over 23 years of marriage. Some were gifts from friends and family (my dad has been giving me an ornament every year since I was 18), some were made by our children in elementary-school years, others are souvenirs of places we've been. There are even a few vintage ornaments left over from my mother's childhood in the 1940s. I love our eclectic tree!

    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!
  • jedijudyjedijudy Heaven Host
    I decorated my tiny (2 feet tall) real tree today. I've been downsizing, and gave half of my Christmas decorations to the church thrift store. (That was very difficult to do.)

    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!
  • SarasaSarasa All Saints Host
    We have a five foot artificial tree that gets covered in loads of miscellaneous decorations. Some were presents, some were made by my son when small and some were bought to remind me of places I've been near Christmas. I try to buy one special one each year. I haven't got this year's one yet. We have a Victorian house with a very ugly original fireplace that I love to bits. The mantelpiece gets covered in various other Christmassy bits and pieces.
    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.
  • Why do all those people who insist on being here to decorate the tree disappear when it's time to take it down again? I think I might put up a bare tree this year unless I have signed promises to help again at the end. (That's why I was so excited by the storage which allows the decorations to stay on, but I don't think I could move it safely around this house.)

    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!
  • One year in graduate school I saw a fully loaded artificial tree set out for trash near a student dorm (it was the first day of the semester break). It was not damaged.

    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....
  • When I was a Seminarian Grad Student far from home in Chicago I was very penniless, as visa regulations prevented me from taking almost any form of paid employment. So I went to where they were selling trees near the Coop, and asked if I could take some of the branches that were cut off. (They are lovely people in Chicago, and they would give me anything I asked for in my "cute" Scottish accent!) I put these in a jar, and then we decorated with things we made from tin foil. I was one of the nicest "trees" I have ever enjoyed.
  • Oh, @sabine, definitely get out the Celestial Seasonings decorations! They hold memories for you.

    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.




  • RossweisseRossweisse Hell Host, 8th Day Host, Glory
    I have a six-and-a-half foot tall artificial tree that will go up later this month, when my daughters can take care of it. (Right now, I'm all about Advent.) The lights are colored.

    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.

  • We stopped putting up a tree the year our two cats climbed it, pulled it down and scattered baubles far and wide. We had Christmas twigs with led lights for a while, but another cat enjoys chewing them....I put up as many decorations as I can out of the reach of cats. I have a strict way of putting them out, and Mr D isn't really allowed to help! I like remembering where decorations were bought, or who gave them.
  • Another vote for Hedgehog's Celestial Seasonings decorations! Love the idea.
  • Another vote for Hedgehog's Celestial Seasonings decorations! Love the idea.

    @Graven Image Um, it was my idea (see up the thread). Hedgehig was encouraging me to continue with my tradition.
  • @ Sabine, I know, brain not engaged with typing fingers. : ( So Sabine my vote goes to you if counting.
  • On holiday in Brittany 20 odd years ago, I bought a beautiful blue speckled jug from a local potter. It has only once been used for liquid - it cost £25 then, which we couldn't really afford.
    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.
  • @Graven Image I think you and @Hedgehog should each pick a Celestial Seasonings flavor, and I will hang those illustrations in your honor (don't worry, I have most of them, some no longer being made)
  • Priscilla wrote: »
    On holiday in Brittany 20 odd years ago, I bought a beautiful blue speckled jug from a local potter. It has only once been used for liquid - it cost £25 then, which we couldn't really afford.
    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.
  • HymnNumber466HymnNumber466 Shipmate Posts: 39
    Seven foot tree in front window. Decorated it yesterday.

    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...
  • @sabine, if "Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride" is available, that's my choice. If not that, perhaps "Candy Cane Lane"?
  • @Hedgehog I have both!! They're going up. If anyone else wants to suggest a Celestial Seasonings flavor, I'm ready
  • Sabine do you have Bengal Spice? I like their current picture.
  • Yes!
  • My favourite tree was one that arose from the ashes. In 1967 Hobart suffered a catastrophic fire and many houses and people were lost. My father had a wonderful garden full of rhododendrons which he had cultivated and nurtured. Sadly, the fire tore through them all and they were gone, although the house was saved. My sister and I salvaged the skeleton of a beautifully shaped rhododendron, cleaned it up and sprayed it with white paint. Every year of her life at Christmas, until my mother died at 94, the tree sat in the front hall bedecked with brightly coloured glass balls - nothing else. It was a real work of art and helped my parents get through the trauma of the fire. Eventually my father planted rhododendrons again. These day my sister uses this beautiful tree every year at Christmas. The tree is so full of memories.
  • rhubarb wrote: »
    My favourite tree was one that arose from the ashes. In 1967 Hobart suffered a catastrophic fire and many houses and people were lost. My father had a wonderful garden full of rhododendrons which he had cultivated and nurtured. Sadly, the fire tore through them all and they were gone, although the house was saved. My sister and I salvaged the skeleton of a beautifully shaped rhododendron, cleaned it up and sprayed it with white paint. Every year of her life at Christmas, until my mother died at 94, the tree sat in the front hall bedecked with brightly coloured glass balls - nothing else. It was a real work of art and helped my parents get through the trauma of the fire. Eventually my father planted rhododendrons again. These day my sister uses this beautiful tree every year at Christmas. The tree is so full of memories.

    A very creative response to a bad situation.
  • NenyaNenya All Saints Host, Ecclesiantics & MW Host
    Back in the day when the Nenlets were at home our tree was a riot of coloured lights, tinsel, decorations they had made at school and different coloured baubles. When Nenlet1 was no longer at home we changed things a bit and started having a real tree with a colour theme - red or gold, usually, with strings of beads rather than tinsel. The year we went to the Harry Potter Studios I did both red and gold in Gryffindor's honour.

    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.

  • TheOrganistTheOrganist Shipmate
    edited December 2018
    We have 2 trees, one inside the house and the other at the front of the house.

    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.
  • Ours is a 6.5’ noble fir. The lights are blue, because that’s what was on sale at Target when the 35-year-old string of white lights went kaput. And I like blue. The ornaments include a lot of musical instruments (a guitar, a violin, a piano, a lute, a harp, and angels playing all of those) and a lot of animals (dogs, cats, a llama, a gorilla, a mouse in a Santa suit). No shiny glass balls, no tinsel.
  • Fraser fir resting quietly on the back porch, awaiting its journey to the living room closer to the feast. We have been brave this year (and thrifty) in getting one only as tall as I am, and not the much taller ones of past years. Our house is old, and has very high ceilings, so this may look like a toy tree, but we’re pleased with it. Lights will be white incandescent ones, since we cannot abide the ghostly blue ‘computer screen’ glow of the LEDs. (Baby Jesus will be in a different room, so we avoid disturbing his sleep.). Ornaments must all be shiny, we have no room for something in a matte finish -- we like the sparkle, and will be multicolored. There will be some intricate gold sparkly stars that slowly twist in the air current when the heat comes on.
  • Put the tree up yesterday afternoon. As the Carols by Candlelight service was later that day it now feels close enough to Christmas to have the tree up.

    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.
  • Baptist TrainfanBaptist Trainfan Shipmate
    edited December 2018
    I too bought a Fraser Fir - we've not had one before but they are less bushy (i.e. wide) than a Nordman of equal height. I'm quite convinced that, between putting it in the car and bringing it home, it grew about two feet as it is honestly a bit large for our small house! Anyway I've decorated it now - lots of mismatched baubles and things collected over many years, white and coloured lights but no tinsel! My wife, who was somewhat critical when I first brought it into the house, now thinks that it's Quite Nice. By the way, we too have some bright red apple baubles, from about 1987 I think!
  • I thought tinsel was a mid-20th century invention. Imagine my surprise to learn that it's been around since the 1600s and was used to decorate sculpture early on.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinsel
  • By the way, we too have some bright red apple baubles, from about 1987 I think!

    They must have been a thing in the '80s.
  • I used to get complaints if our tree didn't touch the ceiling (old school room), but since the daughters left, it has shrunk from 13 feet to 7 or 8, and I wouldn't mind a bit smaller. The decorations all have historical significance, the most revered being painted champagne corks from our wedding, on Christmas Day many years ago. We used to have a beautiful illuminated Moravian star at the top, but it has disintegrated, and we haven't found a replacement yet (anyone know where to find them?). Once, long ago when I was a student, I had a very small, dense tree with lights buried deep among the branches, with no decorations. I am not sure if we've ever improved on that, but have to be careful who I say it to.
  • @Stercus Tauri Amazon has a variety of Moravian star Christmas tree toppers.
  • sabine wrote: »
    @Stercus Tauri Amazon has a variety of Moravian star Christmas tree toppers.

    They've got exactly what we used to have - thanks!
  • Leorning CnihtLeorning Cniht Shipmate
    edited December 2018
    Our trees are finest plastic, dragged out of the basement and re-assembled by some combination of short people (this year without too much squabbling). Coloured lights, and a mess of ornaments thrown at them - mostly things the kids have made over the years, or things the kids have bought as souvenirs. Which means our trees have no aesthetic merit whatsoever, but are well loved. We've got some apples too - I think Mrs. C had them from her mother.

    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.
  • We used to have a cat who liked to bat the baubles on the Christmas tree. This meant that all the more fragile ones had to be placed on the upper reaches of the tree.
  • Hedgehog wrote: »
    The lights are multicolored, because clinical studies show that white lights make the Baby Jesus cry.
    Ha! Those supposedly "authoritative" studies you get on the Interweb - don't trust them for a minute! It's actually flashing lights which make the Baby Jesus cry (he's not epileptic, they just keep him awake).

    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.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    sionisais wrote: »
    ... Our preference is for warm white, rather than the stark LED's ...
    Yea and amen! If they ever manage to produce LED lights that have a nice warm glow, I'll be delighted to buy some, but not before.
  • Baptist TrainfanBaptist Trainfan Shipmate
    edited December 2018
    I bought some (battery operated) ones from Wilko's to use in church. £2.50 for 20 warm white LED bulbs - including batteries! Unfortunately one set was wrongly labelled (or I didn't look properly) and is actually the harsher white.
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