Christmas time is HERE!!!

[meresal]

So, it''s Christmas time and FF and I have been living together for almost 6 months now. It''s our first Christmas living together, and tonight we are going to get the Tree!! We both love the season and so we are very excited.

My FF "C" grew up in a house where they always had fake trees b/c of his sister''s allergies, and had an outsourced comapny come hang all of their outdoor lights. This is why, I will be hanging the lights outside, and cutting the tree so that it fits the stand. I found out last night that "C" had no idea this was even necessary, hahahaha...

So, initial question.... who does the decorating around the inside and outsides of your dwellings? Does this ever change if you were the one that used to do all of it? And what are your favorite Christmas decorations and activities?

I love multicolored outdoor lights, my family always goes to the Holiday parade the Friday night after Thanksgiving, and if anyone buys anything between T-day and Christmas my mom has a small stroke!!! (jk... but it''s forbidden in our family)

Happy Holiday''s Everyone!!!

 

[Lorelei]

Hehe - I have a horrible old fairy from my childhood which DH detests and despises, but she always ends up in pride of place on top of the tree every year! He has even tried to throw her onto the fire to wind me up! She has a yellowed and crinkled paper skirt, a sad wilted strand of tinsel on top of her head and a battered wand, but I love her anyway! So that has become our tradition, squabbling over my '' scruffy fairy'' as he calls her.

 

[meresal]

That''s so funny and yet adorable. I''m laughing hysterically just thinking about your little tree topper. Maybe he''ll finally just give in this year.

I just got done putting the outdoor lights up around our garage, and I''m working in the back porch now. We live in a apt, so I''m hoping that they don''t come by and tell us they have to come down. "finger crossed"

 

[:)]

My fiance was a bit of a 'bah humbug' when we first started out. Little did he know what he was in for! Now we get a real tree (first couple of yrs we were in different cities so no tree, then he caved and we got a funky silver tree for a couple of yrs, and then finally a live tree - the year he took me to go get the first live tree he said I didn't stop smiling from the moment we arrived on the lot - he seemed quite astounded as to how happy it made me). Nowadays I still drive him crazy singing wacky holiday songs over and over ('Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer' is a great morning shower song, by the way

), but I think he actually secretly loves it because he tries to hide his grinning when he complains - he now hangs the lights for me without my even asking and participates fully. Yay!
We have some of our backyard trees (several that are lined up in a row) strung with clear lights around the trunks year round (although they usually only come on at xmas time), and we have a couple of the net type of clear lights over a couple of trellises (I got that idea from visiting wineries in the past where they were nicely decorated that way)
I love a string of clear icicle lights that we put across one of the beams in our living room - some of the dangling rows twinkle and others do not so it gives a nice effect when all the other lights are off.
We hang some fun multicolored round just- smaller- than- lightbulb sized colored bulbs around part of the front door.
(the G30s http://www.christmaslightsetc.com/productdetail.htm?productid=18767&CategoryID=824 )
Some other single strings of small multi colored lights around mirrors in the bathrooms (nice effect so that you don't have to even turn on the regular lights!)
Some of the old multicolored C7s go along a row of several sliding glass doors..
http://www.christmaslightsetc.com/categorydetail.asp?CategoryID=450

And a few other random lights here and there.

 

[meresal]

Well, "C" and I went to get our first tree last night... I think we were doomed from the beginning.

We found a perfect tree, in every way, and went to get a rolling cart to take it and check out. Just then, a man in his 60''s walked over to our tree, picked it up, and drug it over to pay. My BF almost lost it (actually, we are still not talking about it... and probably never will). Anyway, we found another one, still pretty... but like a wedding gown... it just wasn''t "The One". Well we get home, and it just went horribly wrong... the tree stand screws were too small for the holes they were supposed to go through, the prongs on the bottom wouldn''t go into the tree trunk, and it wouldn''t stand up to save its life. 2 hours after starting, we decided to drag it into the living room, and see if we could just get it to prop against a wall. The wall was unsuccessful, but on my head, YES, VERY successful. BF dropped the tree while I was trying to grab the stand. The truck has left an adorable cut across my forehead, and the rest of the tree fell into the flat screen across the room. We''re only luckly that the top of the stem didn''t slice the front of the television.
So, now it is finally propped up somehow(???), but I''m still not sure we''ll ever be able to put lights or ornaments on it, bc it IS going to fall over the next time I even turn the fan on.

On a positive note... The lights that I put up outside look absolutely amazing. I will talk pictures tonight so that you all can see. In case no one can tell yet... I absolutely love Christmas!!!


--- I had an interview this morning, and when I woke up to take a shower I started singing Christmas carols, and cuaght myself listening to a seasonal station on the way home!!

 

[lyra]

Sheesh Meresal, buy a fake tree!

Just reading that stressed me out. First off, I might have tackled the old man for the first tree, and that would have been *ugly*!

We go all out decorating for Christmas. We buy more new stuff every year, so after 25 years, we''ve got a ton of one of a kind ornaments and things that started out cheap but now you can''t even find for 10 x the price. One of my favourite sets of decorations are some vintage glass pine cones (German) that I bought 12 for $15 at an antique show one year. Great deal. There are a lot of imitation or cheap glass ornaments out there nowadays, but I like the really old stuff. I prefer glass over anything acrylic or plastic, so that is what most of our tree ornaments are made of. We do multi-coloured lights on the main tree, and white lights on the "decorator" tree. Outside we do tons of lights everywhere, colourful and some white ones. We have fake trees because we are allergic and also we have too many ornaments to fit a real tree.

At the top of the hill in our back yard we have 3 humongous pine trees. This year we''re just lighting the middle one because last year the wattage load was too high doing all 3, and we kept blowing circuits!

The tree is about 12-14 ft. tall now. We planted it 5 years ago when it was barely 4 feet tall. We found a huge 20 inch star to go on top, and some plastic silver balls to put on plus the lights. You can see that tree from a *long* way away.

 

[Mara]

ha ha...that is always why one of us stays by the tree we've chosen while the other goes to get the person to haul it for us...tree poachers!!!

my husband does all the holiday 'manual labor' aka pulling items out from under our storage and bringing my boxes upstairs, hauling the tree, cutting the trunk, positioning it for me just so...etc. i do all the decor of the house and maintainenance and all that. i also put our outside lights on as we have a huge patio and so i just put them along our railing and also i have patio lit trees that flank our door that i setup as well. i love the decor so as long as he puts it all out for me to tinker with, i can lose myself for hours just playing around.

also, once you have done the whole tree thing one or two years with your hubby or bf etc...you kind of have it down for future years. we probably had a few snafus with the stand and all that too the first year we had a tree. but now it's just kind of like a routine!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Stick the tree in a corner and use invisible fishing line to "hang" it between the walls with eye-hooks. Put the bottom in a bucket or your stand and just use that for a water delivery system.

 

[meresal]

lyra- I just can''t have a fake tree. I''ve always had a real one, never let my parents get a fake one, and C has been wanting a real one since he was like 7 yrs old. I had to hold him back from following the guy out to his car. He''s a tree shopping virgin and wasn''t taking it to well. LOL. I''d love to see a picture of that pine tree once you have it decorated. It sounds gorgeous.

Mara- We will never leave a tree unattended again. It was a rookie mistake for sure! This year is the first year to buy all of my own ornaments and everything, so I''m just starting my collection. However, I can already tell it''s going to be an addiction. Do they have interventions for holiday junkies?

Hudson Hawk- I like where your head''s at... I was contemplating putting one of the hanging hooks of the ceiling above the tree and looping fishing line around the top of the stem down the middle of the tree!! Are you the only woman in the house?? I can only imagine!!

Well here''s a pic of the tree. I''ll post another one later; once it is secured, and decorated!! Anyone know know how to enable "Scratch-N-Sniff" picture posts... that''s the true joy of a real tree!!

 

[Mara]

It IS an addiction. I have about 9-10 holiday boxes on a PALLET in our storage area. My husband keeps telling me I am running out of room, I turn a deaf ear!! I always get about 5-6 new ornaments per year..and some I have had for over 20 years!! I love the holidays. I just was at Macy's seeking out a 2nd tree skirt now that we have 2 trees and somehow managed to come home with 3 ornaments as well. I went holiday decor boutique shopping with my Mom this wkd and came home with ummm...7 new ornaments. All my ornaments are pretty unique, I only buy one of everything for our family tree. But our tree downstairs for display is themed red and gold and is more cookie cutter looking. This year is a busy one!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

I actually have to give the tied up credit to my mother who used the trick every year. We have always had real trees and have always had the problem of getting them to stand up straight!

I think the from the ceiling idea works too!

 

[meresal]

Well, I just got back from Lowes and spent a lot on a tree stand. Uggh, but aparently it''s the "Caddilac" of tree stands(cheap movie reference) and has a lifetime warranty. And yes, I am one of "those" ppl that keeps the recipepts in a folder, and I hold companies to it!!! LOL. I''m just waiting for C to get home from the gym to move the tree. I really hope this works. I can''t wait to put up all of my lights and new sparkly ornaments.

lyra--- I can''t use anything but the glass ornaments either. It helps that C''s dog doesn''t live with us right now.

 

[meresal]

Well, it went up in about 5 minutes!!! I suggest to anyone that paying the extra money for the heavy duty one, is totally worth it!! I can''t wait to start decorating!!