Show me your Christmas trees!

[Mannequin]

I just put up my tree this evening and will post a few pics later. It''s my first Christmas in my new condo and even though there isn''t a ton of space here, I definitely wanted a tree in addition to my other small decorations. I picked up a 6.5 foot Artificiola with white lights at a local store. It''s all decked out in red and white and silver ornaments with snowmen on them. I didn''t see any toppers I liked, so I made my own out of some red and silver ribbon. Mine looks like a teeny, pathetic little "Charlie Brown tree" next to some of the ones I''ve seen here so far.

 

[KimberlyH]

We decided to purchase a live tree this year and plant it once the season ends. It's our first Christmas without DH's mom; I am missing her very much this Christmas and so decided to decorate our tree as she would have her own, very simply with lights and her old ornaments (she used to make them by hand, they are fantastic). First a shot of the tree lit up.

 

[KimberlyH]

And now just the tree.

 

[KimberlyH]

And two pictures of the ornaments my MIL made, because I love them.

 

[KimberlyH]

Last one. Thanks for indulging me.

 

[bebe]

somethingshiny

I love Radko, have quite a few. Last year I had to have his new star, I finally found it.
I also have a very old Radko that is dreadfully ugly, but I keep it on the tree every year as it belonged to a dear aunt who passed away many years ago. One of her students gave it to her and she could have cared less that is was a Radko! I now think it is funny and it has a special place on my tree. Star first.

 

[bebe]

Tee Hee, the "Ugly Radko"

 

[Ellen]

Kim, I have an aunt (my favorite ever actually) who used to make ornaments like that. Unfortunately, she quit years ago, so I don''t have any of them to hang. Im sure these are very special to you both.

 

[somethingshiny]

Kim~ That''s a wonderful idea to honor her memory.


Bebe~ LOVE the star!!! HATE the crazy mustacheless Santa!! Too funny! You have several beautiful ornaments on that tree!!

 

[nebe]

Here''s ours! It''s a live baby Alberta Spruce. We''re going to plant it after winter in the front yard! You can also see kittyfaces checking it out near the bottom. She''s only 6/7lbs, so you can imagine how small the tree is

 

[bebe]

Date: 12/1/2007 9:37:05 PM
Author: somethingshiny
Kim~ That''s a wonderful idea to honor her memory.



Bebe~ LOVE the star!!! HATE the crazy mustacheless Santa!! Too funny! You have several beautiful ornaments on that tree!!

a few more ornaments. This year I just threw the ornaments on the tree, I didn''t add all the other stuff I normally do, like the red velvet ribbon and the gold and red balls near the center of the tree (adds more sparkle) I know, that old Radko is ugly!!

 

[monarch64]

Nebe, your baby spruce is beautiful, love your ornaments/colors!

Kim, those are exactly the type of ornaments my brother and I were given waaaay back in the 70's that are keepsakes and I always look forward to seeing mine again every year. My parents still use them on their main tree so when I go home I always make a beeline for that tree and look for mine. I don't think my brother is that jazzed about his, maybe because he's a guy he just isn't that into it. I'm glad you're keeping your MIL's christmas spirit alive by using her ornaments, they're gorgeous.

DH and I are finally getting down all our decorations and other trees from the attic sometime tonight...we kept meaning to all this week and it just didn't happen. Tomorrow I will spend the day decorating, I'm definitely in the spirit now after participating in this thread and seeing everyone's wonderful trees!

 

[nebe]

Date: 12/1/2007 10:16:50 PM
Author: monarch64
Nebe, your baby spruce is beautiful, love your ornaments/colors!

Thank you!!

 

[KimberlyH]

Thanks everyone, for understanding.

Ellen, she made these while caring for her younger, mentally retarded sister, who defied all odds and lived to be 78. She would sit and watch over her at night and keep her hands busy by maknig these ornaments. They are definitely old. We had to throw several away because they were falling apart (pins falling out, 1/2 the beads gone, etc.) which was really sad for my husband.

somethingshiny, wherever she is she is thinking, "The tree isn''t big enough, the lights aren''t right, but she did a good job with the ornaments." We decorated her last tree together, she was 86 at the time, and she ran outside to tell my husband, who was putting lights on her house, that I didn''t know how to put lights on trees. And she always wanted the biggest tree in the neighborhood. Funny, spunky lady.

Monnie, I dropped a few of the ornaments today and was so upset with myself for being clumsy as they come apart so easily. I LOVE them! John thought I''d decorated the tree the way I did for him and I had to admit it was very selfish on my part, it was really all about me missing her. But he gets to enjoy too, so that''s okay.

Nebe, great tree! Hooray for another person planting after the season!

 

[surfgirl]

Kim, what a lovely story about your tree...My husband''s uncle had a live Xmas tree that they wheeled into their home for decades until it got too big to move, then they finally planted it. Each year it was different, depending on the year''s weather. So each Xmas was a crapshoot but I loved the concept.

Here are photos of our tree from last year. It''ll basically look the same this year...

 

[surfgirl]

With lights on at night...

 

[surfgirl]

Ornament close ups...Most of the ornaments are vintage glass ornaments.

 

[Mara]

bebe i absolutely love that star!! your tree has so many ornaments!

everyone''s trees are great. i love how everyone decorates differently. even if i want to do something differently i just never can seem to, i always gravitate towards the same style items. we just did our noble fir 6.5 ft family room tree today...it looks fabulous!! i love having it in our family room with us because that is where we spend the most time typically. i took some pictures, will hopefully upload them this week.

i love the holidays!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

We''ve had a Christmas tree tragedy.

Yesterday Fi and I traveled to the wilds of Little Compton, RI to find and cut a tree from a farm that FI has been going to for the past decade or so. We found a beautiful tree, big, fat, and lush and after it was cut we realized that our tree had scoliosos. It''s trunk was all screwy but the farmer ensured us that it would stand straight once we got it into our stand. So we get the tree home and set it up. when we took the netting off of the tree and let it settle, we realized that our perception of what was "large" in the field was very different from reality. Our tryy is about 8 feet tall and 8 feet across. It''s the biggest tree I''ve ever had! It''s HUGE! We had to go out and buy extra glass ball ornaments because we didn''t have enough to fill the tree with just our own heirloom ornaments. So we decorated the tree last night and went to bed. Fi couldn''t sleep so he got up and went into the living room. It looked to
him like the tree had shifted a bit, but he couldn''t tell for sure because with the trunk being screwy it had a bit of a natural list to it. So as he processed that thought, what happened? The entire tree fell over! Luckily not on him, but it was almost as though it waited for someone to come into the room before it fell. We got the tree back up, straightened in it''s stand with reinforcement on the stand so it doesnt tip over. I''ve also tied the tree to our window casing. The tragedy is that I had several 25-30 year old hand blown glass ornaments that my grandmother gave me as a child (one each year growing up) and we lost them

Fi was so angry with the tree and himself so I had to suck up my disappointment and pretend it wasn''t a big deal to me. My gram passed last Feb, so the loss of these ornaments hurts a little more this year than normally

I haven''t taken any pics yet but I will. This tree is so huge it needs to be documented.

 

[KimberlyH]

Hudson, I''m so sorry about your losing ornaments, how sad!

Surf, you''re so sweet, and your tree is GORGEOUS. Love all the bright colors.

 

[zoebartlett]

I''m sorry you''ve lost so many special ornaments HH! I can''t wait to see pics of the ginormous tree though.

My FI and I put up our tree last night but we''re not sure we''re keeping it. I think I mentioned this earlier but I''ve always grown up with a real tree but my FI''s family has had several artificial trees. I love how a real tree smells and how it cozies up a house, but I have a huge fear of things catching on fire (to the point of rediculousness - sp?). I was almost relieved to get an artifical tree this year. The tree is tall but it''s really thin and there are bare spots all over it. We may keep it and decorate it later, or we''ll get another one. If we keep it, it will be our version of the Charlie Brown tree.

 

[FireGoddess]

That''s really a bummer Hudson. Sorry to hear. I know what you mean about the size of the tree outside versus inside...the first 3 years we got a tree it was always BIG (not as big as yours though!!) because outside it looked so small! This year I forced myself to get one that looked somewhat small when buying it, but it''s the perfect size in the house!!

 

[sumbride]

I haven''t put mine up yet this year and I''m nervous to do so because our young cat Jack is in his "manic stage" right now and I don''t know that it will survive him! So here''s mine from last year! I''m not quite sure where I''ll put it this year as we have new furniture on the wall to the left of the tree, but since it''s a "slim fit" tree it might still work.

I have a collection of bear ornaments dating back to my childhood. We had to add in a few "non-bear" ornaments because my DH thinks the bears are "kind of silly" but I love them and I''m the only one that actually decorates the tree!

 

[sumbride]

Here''s one of my favorite "Christmas photos"! It''s my mom, being a good sport with my Rudolph nose... We all hate the clown painting behind her, but she loves it so I took this to sort of illustrate the similarities between her and the clown... she still loves the painting but now she can laugh at it a bit more... It''s Christmas to me!

 

[Catmom]

Oh Hudsen, I''m so sorry that you lost many special ornaments.

It''s heartbreaking to realize that they can''t be replaced. We had the same thing happen many years ago so now we make sure that the tree is tied to the wall and anchored securely. Is there any way you can do that so that you don''t lose any more ornaments?

 

[Linda W]

Hudsen,

I am so very sorry you lost your precious ornaments. That is just heartbreaking. I have my ornaments my grandma made me, I would feel so bad, if anything happened to them. My heart goes out to you sweetie.

Love to you,
Linda

 

[Mara]

hudson, so sorry to hear about your lost ornaments...i have been collecting mine since childhood in some instances, so i would def be very sad if i lost any. i would love to see a picture of this manic large tree.

zoe, i hear ya on the fake vs real thing. we have a fake downstairs tree for display to the outside people and we got a pretty good one because i wanted something that looked pretty real, so it''s very filled out, but it''s still not a real tree which is obvious to me once we get our real tree into our family room. if we don''t get the real tree then the fake one looks really good but then when we get the real one i am like oh there is just no contest! the real ones look so much better. which is why even though it''s kind of a hassle at times to take care of it, dispose of it etc...i hope we never move away from the real thing. my mom who used to be manic about xmas is totally into fake trees now and this year she wants a SMALL tree which to me is holiday sacrilege after all the big trees we had every year and all the stuff she collects! so i am giving her a hard time!!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Here''s 1

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

2

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

3