Christmas Tree Decorations...

[Diane]

I was looking at Christmas tree decorations this weekend and was wondering if you decorate your tree with certain colors or just a "what ever goes" type of scheme. In the past I've done the anything goes routine... one year I did red and white (candy cane) and a few years after that I did it in mauve and white to match my new sofa and curtains... So do you have a color scheme?

Diane... :wave:

[AnnW]

White lights, wooden ornaments, gold and marroon glass balls of various sizes.

[Linda/NE]

No particular color theme here. We use white/clear lights and then our ornaments are a mixture of different ones we've accumulated over the years. I try to get the kids new ornaments each year so they have their own collection to use when they get older. Most of my ornaments are individual pieces rather than colored balls or ones that are from a matching set. We don't use garland or tinsel on our tree.

[KathyT]

No theme here, just a lot of ornaments close to my heart, either passed on to us by family or made by our dks.

[Cathy]

Our tree is a collection of ornaments that we've gathered over the years. Most come with a memory. Like Linda, I get my dds ornaments every year so they'll have their own. Now that I think of it, when they take all theirs, my tree will be pretty naked. LOL
I had all blue lights one year at my brother's request (long story), and I hated it. I like to think of our decorations as interesting.....but it's probably chaotic to anyone else.

[RCT]

when we were first married...NO kids....more money...we had a theme tree....all white lights....and white bows....shinny silver and red glass ornaments.....we loved it ...:* now 14 years later....we have a little bit of everything :lol: and not one glass ornament is left :biglaugh: ..all different colored lights....and NO TINSEL...I hate tinsel...its a childhood thing...my parents didn't know when to stop....LOL Poor tree :tree:

[Ryleigh]

Our main tree in the living room always has multi color mini lights and a wide assortment of decorations handed down over years, recieved as gifts from my day-care children or a few cute odds and ends I might find at a craft sale here and there.

We also have a smaller one that goes in the kids playroom. It also has multi-colored mini lights (that play music - but yu can turn the music off when it becomes annoying). The kids are in charge of decorating it any way they want. They spend days creating new ornaments to add to the tree. At the end of the season they each choose one or two of the ornaments that they think are extra special, that they want to save and those ar put into a special box for next years tree. The others are given to Grandma's, Grandpa's, Aunts, Uncles etc. or just tossed out.

:tree::tree::tree::tree::tree:

[Dnk119]

Oh we love lots of color. The multi colores lights and a star. I want to get a nice Angel for the topper though. A few glass ornaments and a bunch of the plastic matte ones I love them. And traditional ones like a new one every year and ones dd makes. Red and purple bows too. I am going to break out the decorations this week. Put up the garland and poinsettas and bows and wreath. I will leave the tree for after thanksgiving next week. I have to get the Christmas cards ready too. We took a family pic this year and got the cards with the pic on it...I always get so many pictures. You should see my walls full or portraits of dd. When we get a new 1 done we get more than one pose and I feel guilty of taking the old ones down. We have 11 on one wall an d6 on another in the living room..She is 2..We also have one of those mini trees too. Oh I can't wait to start the decorations. Oh another thing I like to do is wrap the picture on the wall as presents and cut out a hole where the face is. It looks so cute. Presents all over tha walls...Nicole :snickers: :*

[darlene]

I think ours would be best described as a "walk down memory lane" theme.

A real tree :tree: with only about a dozen glass ball ornaments....all the rest have a meaning and/or history. Especially love my ornaments that came from our Ornament Exchange here at IB.
I bought some beautiful silver ribbon with snowflakes on it that I want to try to wrap the tree with this year. I have seen pictures in magazines.....now if I could only make my tree look like those! :lol:

:)

[JAK]

The past few years we have had a Disney tree. My mom ordered my dd a bunch of Disney ornaments and they are so cute. I'm not sure what I'm going to do this year. I did buy a fake tree with the lights already on it. (Does anyone else have one?) I'm hoping it will look good when I put it up. I had heard horror stories about the real ones up here. When you bring the tree into your warm house from the cold outside all the eggs from the bugs on them hatch. I really didn't want to deal with that, so I bought the fake one! :)

[kacee]

We have a fake tree with white lights. Our ornaments are memory assortment. I always top off the tree with an angel tree topper. I have red and white bows which match my tree skirt. My SIL made these with matching stockings for us.
I love my tree!! It is my main decoration. Don't do much other fruufruu stuff!!

[Diane]

Originally posted by RCT
and NO TINSEL...I hate tinsel...its a childhood thing...my parents didn't know when to stop....LOL Poor tree :tree:

OMG Renee... our parents must have been the same when it came to decorating the Christmas tree with Tiinsel. They'd buy boxes and boxes and even MORE boxes of the stuff. (I think they spent more money on the tinsel than they did our gifts... LOL) It was a lot heavier back then. (lead?) Anyway... we'd HAD to put the tinsel on the branches starting back from the trunk right up to the end up the branch. Each and every branch had to be done like this and when my dad inspected the tree... if it wasn't done the way it was "suppose" to be... we'd be made to take the tinsel off that branch (one by one) and do it over again... until we did it right. LOL By the time we were done decorating that tree it was loaded down SO bad with tensel... but, when we turned those lights on (the BIG Christmas lights) that tree was SO beautiful!!! THEN we thought it was all worth it but... every year when we'd put our tree up we'd all dread having to decorate it. LOL I don't use it anymore either... :)

Diane... :wave:

[Dnk119]

Oh man I remember tinsel when I was a kid. Goodness that stuff got everywhere and somehow when your were taking it off there was some still on it..I have a fake tree always did. Wouldn't want a real one. Cutting down a tree,paying for it every year, and then throwing it away?? I don't understand it. Our tree is huge. We got it at wal-mart. It's 6 ft tall and the bottom is huge around. I don't know how many people have asked me if it's real. It's all how you decorate it. When I put it up I fix every branch one by one as I out it together (as it says in the directions). It always looks so full..In teh past few years I have heard so many people dog fake trees saying real is the best...Well I beg to differ. Artificial is the best..........Take care. Seven weekends to Christmas. Oh my goodness......Nicole
:tree: :tree: :tree: :tree: :tree: :tree: :tree: :D :snickers:

[RCT]

Originally posted by Diane P.


OMG Renee... our parents must have been the same when it came to decorating the Christmas tree with Tiinsel. They'd buy boxes and boxes and even MORE boxes of the stuff. (I think they spent more money on the tinsel than they did our gifts... LOL)

By the time we were done decorating that tree it was loaded down SO bad with tensel... but, when we turned those lights on (the BIG Christmas lights) that tree was SO beautiful!!! THEN we thought it was all worth it but... every year when we'd put our tree up we'd all dread having to decorate it. LOL I don't use it anymore either... :)

Diane... :wave:


I remember the BIG lights...dh and I inhertied them....we don't use them either...do you remember the shinny star shaped foils you would put around the BIG bulbs...for more glimmer...YUCK...that and that tinnsel...I remember the trees being beautiful but when I look at pictures...well.....my memory is failing me...:lol:

[RCT]

Originally posted by Dnk119
Seven weekends to Christmas. Oh my goodness......Nicole



WHAT? WHAT? WHAT? 8o 8o 8o That can't be right...OMG it is.....EEEKKKSS :tree: :santa:

[Diane]

Originally posted by RCT



I remember the BIG lights...dh and I inhertied them....we don't use them either...do you remember the shinny star shaped foils you would put around the BIG bulbs...for more glimmer...YUCK...that and that tinnsel...I remember the trees being beautiful but when I look at pictures...well.....my memory is failing me...:lol:

Yep... I remember those too. Such memories... LOL

Diane... :wave:

[Diane]

Originally posted by Dnk119
Seven weekends to Christmas. Oh my goodness......Nicole
:tree: :tree: :tree: :tree: :tree: :tree: :tree: :D :snickers:

Only seven weeks??? Wow... I think I'd better get started with my Christmas shopping AND also start thinking about what kind of cookies/bar's I'm going to make. SOOOO much to do and such little time to do it. LOL

Diane... :wave:

[Diane]

Originally posted by Dnk119
I have a fake tree always did. Wouldn't want a real one. Cutting down a tree, paying for it every year, and then throwing it away?? I don't understand it. Our tree is huge. We got it at Wal-mart. It's 6 ft tall and the bottom is huge around. I don't know how many people have asked me if it's real. It's all how you decorate it. When I put it up I fix every branch one by one as I out it together (as it says in the directions). It always looks so full.. In teh past few years I have heard so many people dog fake trees saying real is the best... Well I beg to differ. Artificial is the best.......... :D

When I was first married dh and I bought a fake tree... didn't like/care for it at all. LOL I missed the smell of a real tree. Anyway... after we started having kids we decided that a real tree was a MUST. It's become kind of a fun tradition for us to go out as a family... scoping out all the tree's and picking out the one we all thought was "just right"... Roping it up on the car and driving home. I usually make hot chocolate to help us warm up, turn on some good Christmas music and then proceed to decorate the tree.

I'm sure that there are some good things to be said for fake tree's... and MAYBE some day when the kids are all married and no longer living at home dh and I will go out and find a really GOOD looking fake tree but until then... we'll enjoy our tradition of going out and picking out our tree. I'm glad you like/enjoy yours. I've seen a lot of ones that look and almost feel real... so I know that there are a lot of good ones out there. You must have one of them. :)

Diane... :wave:

[Melody]

Before I had red and gold glass balls and wood ornaments and colored lights. Now it is all white lights, silver ribbons from the top on down with bows at the top and ornaments the kids have made, the ones from the IB exchange and glittered snowflakes I got at Wal-Mart. Most of the ornaments are white. The angel tree topper is one ds made when he was 3 at a school craft fair after older ds's concert. It's made of construction paper and has an upside down smile LOL and the halo is gold chenile stick. It truly is the most adorable angel to put on a tree.
I don't use tinsel, at first it was because I didn't want my cat to choke on it, then she died, but I had the boys and they were into everything and I didn't want them putting it in their mouths. I remember all the glass balls were at the top of the tree one year and wood ornaments at the bottom. It looked silly but it was safe! LOL I still don't use tinsel. We used alot of it growing up too.
I don't have any more of the wood ornaments or glass balls. I do have a few ornaments that my parents gave me. They are very old, my favorite to put on the tree each year when I was a little girl. Two angels and an elf.
I will help the kids make more ornaments this year, maybe some white paper angels. :)

[KarlaB]

We hang a variety of ornaments on our tree - some dks made, others were personalized from when dh and I got married, some given to dks, etc. The majority though are wooden from craft sales. I also put lots of raffia bows on the tree that my mom made me with little wooden hearts glued in the middle of the bows, along with little some other crafty ornaments she has made me ~ my favs. :)

[Leigh]

I have an assortment of ornaments on my tree. I have several sesame street ornaments, several snowmen ornaments, a few ornaments that I bought in Germany, dh and I first Christmas together ornament. I could go on, but I think that ya'll get the idea. I would love to have a tree that matched, but I would miss having my memory ornaments up, so I doubt it will ever happen. :lol:

[MaryL]

We have a MILLION teacher ornaments (ok...exaggeration!) that my students have given me over the years! Ornaments dk's have made get special spots....we also have some from our wedding (One of my bridal showers was a Christmas ornament shower....I thought it was odd, since our wedding was in July..but I truly appreciate it now!) We don't use garland, or tinsel. Our tree is artificial....which I love! Our kids have a small tree upstairs that they can decorate anyway they like....that's fun for them. I have an angel on top.

[Linda/NE]

When I was growing up we always had a real tree. Pine, not cedar --hate the smell of those. We just got ours from outside the grocery store already cut. We used to save a branch of the tree in the ornament box. I can remember sneaking upstairs where the ornaments were stored, in the summer just to smell the pine tree smell. :) We had a few real trees when the boys were little but it got too expensive and dh convinced me an artificial tree would be fine. They do make them look more real now than when I was little. My 5th grade teacher had one of those silver aluminum trees with the color wheel for the classroom--tacky in my opinion!

I have teacher ornaments too. I received some of them from kids who weren't exactly angels and it has crossed my mind to throw them out, but never seem to get up the nerve to do it. :)