I will say that it has been a bit sad the last couple of years largely doing the tree myself. H always brings it in the house, and together we get it in the tree stand, make sure it’s straight, etc. - but then I’m on my own. My youngest is in grad school and won’t come home will mid December at least - I’m not waiting that long to get it up because that is even sadder!
I don’t love the process of decorating it - and REALLY hat the process of getting it down - but when it’s up and lit I do enjoy it.
Top secret information is that I personally wouldn’t mind a nice looking artificial tree over a cut one - but I’d probably be thrown out of the family for even suggesting that!
We have one Christmas tree, a real one , that my daughter and I have always decorated together (my husband is not interested.) We have migrated from filling it with all those hallmark pop culture ornaments, to now only including the homemade ones (many over the years) and the most important travel purchased ones. Since my 26 year old daughter doesn’t have space for her own tree, I still wait for her to come visit before we decorate. It is something of a ritual for us, we pump up the holiday music, turn out the lights, and drink hot cocoa as we decorate.
We have had an artificial tree for several years due to my husbands allergies. A few years ago we splurged and bought a Balsam Hill Flip Tree. It is so easy to set-up and store and looks great. Our 3 kids each got an ornament from their grandparents every year so the tree was very full, but they all are living on their own now, so the tree has less ornaments. But I love them all. Definitely not Pinterest worthy but I still really like it. This year I decorated on Thanksgiving Day to take my mind off the fact that we couldn’t be with family.
I love real trees but we bought an artificial one about 25 years ago after my police officer brother was the first on the scene of a family of seven who died Christmas morning when their tree caught fire and all were asphyxiated. My brother told us to burn our tree that year to get an idea of what you’re up against if it catches fire. The whole thing went up in seconds and the smoke was unbelievable. I still love real trees best and enjoy them at other’s houses, but we limp along with a couple of balsam candles to provide the missing fragrance. I think of that incident every year. It took a long time for my brother to move on from that one.
We have artificial trees due to allergies, too. Our kids would help decorate, and once they moved into their own homes I gave each a bin of the ornaments they’d received as gifts each year along with one of the trees.
We used to throw a big holiday party each year for H’s coworkers and direct reports, often 80 - 100 people. I’d decorate the whole house with multiple trees and cook/bake for weeks to prepare. We had a tree of sentimental ornaments in the family room, a partridge in a pear tree theme in the living room, a tree with food ornaments from Poland and Germany in the dining room, and multiple little tree shaped ornament stands in the kitchen (one with a red Kitchenaid mixer ornament) and throughout the house. A corner tree went in the basement and was decorated with lights and candy canes (which the kids ate while they played video games.)
When D1 was 14 or 15 she became quite critical/mocking of everything. Now she makes a big gingerbread house each year, bakes treats for friends and coworkers, and decorates extensively. I bite my tongue.
H and I did not put up a tree last year and probably won’t this year. I set one of the ornament stands that holds 8 - 10 ornaments on the breakfast nook table. H put out some decorations in front of the house last night. When the rain stops, I’ll wrap two small evergreens flanking the front walk in lights, and that will be the extent of our decorating this year. If we’re in the new house by next Christmas, I plan to go all out.
We put lights on the pillars by our front door. We also have a small pine tree in the backyard that looks just like a Christmas tree that we put lights on. We don’t go as all out as we used to. Our tree is up and it looks wonderful. We always do a combination of white and colored lights and it looks great!
@abasket , I love what you said “it tells a story”. That is true, I think back to where my ornaments came from and what they represent as I decorate it. Sometimes the kids are around and they enjoy the “old” ornaments from their youth. I have tons of loggers and balls, so it sparkles.
Mine is finally up, but I’m only putting out about 30% of the other stuff this year.
We also have a mix of ornaments. Some of the very old glass ones that I grew up with, Lenox rocking horses for each kid’s birth year, ornaments from places we have visited, ones the kids made over the years especially in pre-school and one I have bought over the years. My youngest usually comes to pick out the tree and helps put it up and puts on the lights, but I generally hang the ornaments myself. Everyone else gets bored pretty quickly. I put an ornament for each kid in their stocking every year. Try to make them unique. May skip that this year as shopping is challenging.
I also decorate the mantle with my Santa collection. That always makes me happy. DH and DS put the outside lights up yesterday and we will get the tree next weekend and I will decorate inside this week.
Tree is up and decorated! Glad that task is done! Like the result, don’t love the process.
Before I put the ornament boxes away NOW I’m going to go through and get rid of some that we never hang or don’t have a real story. If I wait to when we are taking the tree down to do that I won’t take the time cause I’ll just want to get the things down and shoved away!
We have one artificial tree. We used to have a hodge podge of ornaments earlier - some that we bought when the kids were little, some collected as gifts over the years. Some made by the kids.
For a few years now, we’ve switched the tree to be primarily a travel ornament tree. It’s fun to recall all the different trips we’ve taken as we decorate the tree. S and I put the tree up last weekend.
I kept all the gold ornaments aside - perhaps some other time, we’ll do a gold themed tree. Gave away all the other unused ornaments, beads, ribbon …
Yeah I don’t hang up every ornament we have. And when we’re decorating the tree and taking it down, there are usually a few I throw away or give to Goodwill. This year when we were putting the tree up, I got rid of several sleigh bell ornaments. They’re pretty, but we don’t need 7 identical ornaments. I just gave those away. I’ve also had some that have broken or are just basic and no one would miss them.
A tree with just travel ornaments would be fun. We have a good amount of ornaments we’ve gotten on our travels, but not enough to really fill up our tree.
Or Elf on the Shelf? I don’t have anything against Elf on the Shelf, but it seems like just one more thing for parents to go overboard and get competitive (especially on social media) with and it seems like just one more added stress. But, to each their own I guess. Just glad it wasn’t a thing when my kids were little, but I guess its just not my thing
We put up multiple trees because we have way too many ornaments for just one tree. We always put up a real tree in the living room and decorate it with our collection of special ornaments. The tree does tend to have a put together look since the ornaments are all similar in style and size.
The two smaller artificial trees throughout the house are decorated with the children’s homemade ornaments, ornaments we’ve collected during our travels, and gift ornaments from the grandparents. If our oldest is visiting over the holidays, then I’ll also put up a small artificial tree in her room with some of her special childhood ornaments. I love this time of year and tend to go a little crazy decorating the house!
Thankfully Elf on the Shelf became a thing when my kids were too big for it. But I don’t like it. In my family if we do anything like that we move the Wise Men from the Creche and make the Baby Jesus appear Christmas morning. But many years I can’t be bothered.
We have one very large tree and one smaller tree (but it’s not all that small). The big one has a hodgepodge of ornaments, and the other has ornaments the kids made, as well as ones we collected on trips over the years. We use colored lights, with some that blink.
The kids used to help decorate, but they haven’t lived with us for years; they have their own trees. Both have plenty of ornaments that they took with them, because we always gave them ornaments at Christmas. They are adding their own ornaments now, so the tradition continues.
H and I really love our trees. They’re especially important to us this year, because they give us some sense of normalcy.
W buys an ornament whenever we travel. So putting up the tree means reminiscing about vacations when the kids were young, or travels we’ve taken since the nest has emptied.
Thank God Elf on the Shelf was not a thing when our kids were younger. But I absolutely would not have done it or had one in our house. Our kids hated all costume characters, clowns, anything not human. It would have been torture to have a freakin Elf moving around the house!
We do a pickle (ornament). For us the tradition is someone hides the pickle on the tree and on Christmas morning whoever finds it first gets to hide it the next year (some people do an extra present for that person??)
My first Christopher Radko ornament was the pickle. When kids were younger, first one to find it got a silver dollar. I understand it to be a German tradition.
