Monday, December 14, 2009

Christmas Trees

Ah, the Christmas Tree. Of all the Christmas traditions celebrated in our family, it seems as though the Christmas season hasn't really been put in full swing until the tree is up. For the past few years because of costs we've had to use a fake tree, but this year we saved up to get a real live Douglas Fir. Okay, well, it's not alive anymore, but you get the picture.

Let me tell you, I never realized how much I missed the scent of a real Christmas tree. Sure, you can get candles and potpourri that mimic the scent, but nothing can quite measure up. Not even being in the woods itself. For some reason, I can never smell the trees in the mountains. Maybe it's because my nose is usually running because it's so cold...

We decorated our tree on Friday, and I thought I'd share some photos with you. Our tree decorating style is what you'd call "eclectic". We don't have matching ornaments, and we don't have a certain style we follow. In fact 90% of the ornaments we have has a story behind them. Kind of like a charm bracelet. When we go on a family trip we buy an ornament for our tree. So here's the process:

Ooh, look. Pretty undecorated tree.

Next the lights go on. We used both white lights and colored ones this year.

After that the red beads go up. My brother hates putting these on, but I think they look festive. And next the ornaments. As I mentioned, we usually don't have matching ornaments. But this year we decided to just put Disney ornaments up there and see how the tree filled out. As you can see it's pretty full. We've got a lot of Disney ornaments.

There's the mickey head glass balls, the Jim Shore 5 piece set (that's Goofy you see there),

and of course, all of my princess ornaments. That's like 7 of the ones on the tree right there.

So we decided to do something a little different and leave it there this year. It may not be bursting full of ornaments like some years, but I kind of like it. It's festive!

So how did you decorate your tree this year?

7 comments:

Cecelia said...

Great tree photos! This year I left before the decorations were all done, but we put up a record number of lights - somewhere between 800 and 1000 colored lights. Crazy! I can't wait to see the finished product when I go home again.

Wrighty said...

It's beautiful!! I love the way you decorated it and the special meaning behind it. I think all trees are pretty and look nice no matter how they're decorate.

We had an artificial tree the last two years but have a real one again this year too. It's on the porch because we haven't had a chance to bring it in yet. We always get a huge tree that takes up lots of space so I need to move furniture. The first year we were married I asked my hubby to get me an ornament and he has every single year for 23 years. I put them all up along with my kids' baby ornaments and all of the special ones they've made over the years. I have red beads too and the more lights the better! Enjoy your beautiful tree!

throuthehaze said...

Pretty tree! I love Disney ornaments. I have a really cool Peter Pan one where he is flying and a Tinkerbell is suspended in front of him :)

Unknown said...

Very pretty tree with lots of fun decorations!
For the past few years because of costs we've had to use a fake tree, but this year we saved up to get a real live Douglas Fir.
Ha ha ha! I'll have to share with you my story of my family's worsening-each-year experiences with live trees that drove us to eventually opt for a fake tree. I have gone for fake trees ever since.

Alyssa F said...

Sheryl,

That sounds like quite the story! Now I'm so curious...

Unknown said...

Alyssa, check your mailbox.

Kristen said...

GORGEOUS! My tree is lopsided... *sigh*