A bit early I know but...

[kiwi girl]

I haven't had a tree since I left home, but after 13 years of renting BF and I now have our own home - so I think I'll get a tree this year - probably just a small artificial one though

[emily_in_nc]

We put up Christmas trees early in our marriage but have kinda gotten away from it in the past few years. I grew up in a family where we always got real trees (but never until about a week or two before Christmas, much later than most people seem to these days), so I always disdained artificial trees. Love the smell of real pine! However, they are messy, and if you travel during the holidays as we often do, very hard to deal with the watering situation. So, we finally broke down about 8 years ago and bought a very nice artificial tree. I really didn't want to, but DH talked me into it. We used it once, then we moved into a house where there's just not a good place for it.

Since moving into our new house, the fancy artificial tree is in the attic. I've taken to decorating the house with rustic Christmas decor like wooden and iron figurines (reindeer, angels), baskets of pinecones, garlands tied with raffia, just simple stuff but definitely "holiday". I try to put a little something in every one of the downstairs rooms to make it festive, but no big tree.

We just added a sunporch, though the floor is not in yet (we'll be tiling, right now it's just raw plywood). Since we haven't furnished it yet, we actually have room for a tree out there. I didn't think of it until reading this thread. Maybe I'll get the big artificial tree out of the attic this year and go for it. I do have a lot of lovely ornaments, many handed down or handmade by my mother, and I miss not getting to use them. But I'm kinda lazy about the whole putting the tree up, the lights, decorating, and (even worse) undecorating the tree. We'll see how inspired I get!

Emily

[nancielle]

I love "real" Christmas trees but I live in an apartment and after a few years of hauling them up (and down) a couple of flights of stairs, I finally switched to an artificial tree. One of my local grocery stores gets pine scented candles in every year that really smells like pine trees so I burn those. I love lots of lights on the tree. One year though I had bought a set of lights from BJ's and they were much brighter than I expected. I could have landed a plane with that string of lights. I ended up giving them away to one of my sisters who decorates much more than I do (her kids thought the lights were cool.)

Christmas is the only holiday I decorate for. Love putting everything up, hate taking it all down in January though.

[short cut sally]

When we were first married, we decorated anything and everything, real trees and green artificial were used. All decorated with ornaments from both grandparents and my parents, all the old shiney brites. However,the artificial tree spent more and more time in the closet as xmas rolled around. The 6 foot artificial tree was given away and a few years ago was replaced with a 3 foot silver aluminum tree from the 50's. The tree is decorated with plastic strings of garland,shades of blue ornaments, and the cheesiest of lighting system is used. The color wheel. (Also from same era.) Yes, lucy from charlie brown would be happy. It is tacky but fits in my decor well. I do love decorating the house, i have vintage decorations, and love to get them all out and enjoy, but taking care of everything is such a pain. I think the older I get, the more a chore decorating seems to get. Now I know why my parents and grandparents decorated very little while I was growing up. I vowed I would'nt be like that when it came to the holidays, but the apple doesn't fall far from the tree now. I have good intentions but we'll see how far they get.

[Brandi]

All these stories are great! I love to hear what other people do or don't do. keep the stories going. Post pic's if you have any. Maybe some of us will be inspired. I would like to find a christmas bike ornament. Does anyone know where I can find one?

[Aggie_Ama]

Brandi- REI had some nice bike ornaments last year. That is where we got our paceline. It is a pewter-type. They also had a tandem and I think some others. I had to order it and have it sent to my local REI.

I will take pictures next week when the tree is up.

[MomOnBike]

Veronica,

What catalogue is that? I seriously want that tree. No needles, no fire hazards, no cats playing "You Can't Catch Me" in the branches, the pretties that we've collected and made over the course of the years actually showing, the tree itself is attractive ... sigh....

Really. I need to have that catalogue.

[spokewench]

I usually put up a 5-6 foot tree. I prefer a spruce type tree, but have used pinion, a baby ponderosa, whatever is cheapest type tree when I can't stand to spend the money on an expensive one. I work as a paralegal and one our my clients is a very large ranch in northern arizona. It is a tradition to go out to the Ranch and cut a tree every year. One of the guys usually does cowboy cooking on a fire so it is quite a gathering! So then, it is whatever looks the best as far as type of tree.

Last year, I was not able to go so I bought a small tree at one of the local christmas tree lots.

I don't really care about the ornaments too much. I really LOVE christmas lights so I put a bunch of those on and then a few ornaments. Then, my hubby who is a grinch of sorts thinks there are not enough ornaments and he will fill the branches in with ornaments. It's the only way I can get him to participate in the decorating! He's kind of ADD so it works!

[caligurl]

Ok so am I the only weird one who doesn't put up a tree???

i didn't last year.... and i'm leaning toward not doing so again this year..... we'll see....

[nancielle]

The tree is decorated with plastic strings of garland,shades of blue ornaments, and the cheesiest of lighting system is used. The color wheel. (Also from same era.)

shellyj, my grandmother had one of those trees with the color wheel. When I was very young I thought that wheel was the greatest thing ever! Drove my mother to distraction every time we visited there during the holidays (she lived next street over so visiting was very easy) because I'd constantly stick different objects (including hands/feet) to watch them turn different colors.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

shellyj, my grandmother had one of those trees with the color wheel. When I was very young I thought that wheel was the greatest thing ever! Drove my mother to distraction every time we visited there during the holidays (she lived next street over so visiting was very easy) because I'd constantly stick different objects (including hands/feet) to watch them turn different colors.

There was something magical about those color wheels....especially when the shone on silver foil trees. And the little liquid bubble lights...
Anyone remember when tinsel was made from REAL LEAD strips? I do!
OUr cats used to eat it, it weighed a ton and tore very easily, and we kids loved to roll it into lead marbles to play with. I'm not dead yet.

I just read this:
"In the 1950s and 60s, metallic trees with all the same shape and color ornaments became the rage. The trees were made of aluminum-coated paper, which posed a fire hazard when Christmas lights were placed directly on them, so they were instead lit by a spotlight with a motorized color wheel in front of it."

[Veronica]

Veronica,

What catalogue is that? I seriously want that tree.

Really. I need to have that catalogue.

Solutions

V.

[snapdragen]

Yes Lisa! I remember lead tinsel too.

We have a huge fake tree, it's really quite pretty. The first year we put it up we didn't tell anyone. The rest of my family didn't know it was fake until they got really close, trying to smell the pine! We have ornaments from when my parents were first married (50+ years ago) on up to newer stuff. I usually buy one special ornament each year. Nothing matches, a multitude of colors - my favorite kind of tree.