Tell me about your Christmas Trees!

[BekMonkey]

Growing up, we ALWAYS had a real tree. 9 ft. ceiling, so the tree was probably 8 1/2 ft!  And is was not what my friends refer to as a "Ralph Lauren hoity toity matched tree", it was wild.  Sometimes we would have a theme, but we loaded it with lights, ornaments, candy canes, tinsel.  We had cats and dogs, but we managed to keep them out (just don't hang the breakables near the bottom!)  Dad always wanted the lights to be like LAS VEGAS i.e. chasers, multicolored.  When I moved to college, I got a tiny 2 ft fiber optic tree for my dorm room, and my grandparents gave me K-State themed ornaments.  Nice to have since I had to go home over Christmas anyways. When I moved into an apartment, my new roommate informed me at Halloween that she was allergic to pine so we were NOT getting a real tree.  I decorate for every holiday, so that year my parents bought me a 4 ft. fake as a surprize to take home with me after Thanksgiving. I decked it out, and the K-State tree, and the mantel, and pretty much the whole apartment.  My roommate really liked it, since she didn't have to do anything.  I also help my best friend pick out his live tree and decorate it.
 
 This year I live in my own apartment [no more fireplace ]  So I am seriously contemplating reviving the traditional spirit and bringing home a live one, although I'd like to get a potted one I can plant later.  Crafty holidays are my thing!

[onesmallinstrument]

When I was little we always had a real tree if we were spending the holiday in our home.  It was cluttered with the ornaments that my brother and I had made in school.  I think my parents were just indulging us, though, because as soon as my brother and I were beyond the age of making ornaments, they quietly got rid of most of them and we would string the tree with popcorn, cranberries, silver balls, and white lights.  Now, they have two 2-D crafted trees cut out of wood, maybe 10" wide, 2" thick.  One is about 3', the other 4'.  They are painted green and have a string of white lights on them.  I think they bought them at a craft fair.  Don't get me wrong, I'm all about crafty goodness, but it does strike me as kind of lame.

I was shocked when I first spent a Christmas with my husband's family and found that his parents still have the tree full of the ornaments that he and his brother made when they were young.

Our first Christmas together, my husband and I tried to duplicate Charlie Brown's tree.  We made the stand and shopped around for greenery and found a branch that would bend over from the weight of a single Christmas ornament.  It was my favorite tree ever.

[craft_t_chic]

My roommate and i really think we are something when it comes to decorating the tree. We have a fake one (That's all I have ever known, and I KNOW neither of us would keep up with a real one!) it's like, 6.5 feet, I think....we used to have a tiny one, but I NEEDED a big tree...it's funny how depressed I get being away from my parents' home around the holidays...it takes alot for me to make things right so I don't get sad. ANYWAYS....that's just me...ignore my whining.

We decide on a color scheme, which usually involves going to Kaufmann's in the mall so we can pick out what we love but can't afford...buy a few key things there and then stop by Target for the rest. I always pick up more ornaments than we'll ever need throughout the next months, but hey...they work! We keep the color scheme for at least two years before we decide that we want to change things. We're so anal.

This year is year #2 for the multi-colored (but never multicolored lights...always white!) ornaments...bright jewel tones like we had when we were kids...a huge silver sparkly star at the top...the sequin disk garland stuff from K-mart.(Martha Stewart, sugarplum dreams or something like that!) The scheme before this was blue and silver celestial....very classy and pretty. This year is more fun and funky.

[modpodge]

My family never really celebrated Christmas (I grew up "non-denominational Christian") but my boyfriend's family always made a huge deal about the holidays. So we decorate- one year, we had an apartment with tall enough ceilings, so we got a real tree, lugged it up the stairs to our 3rd floor apartment, and had a tree decorating party. We got a bunch of those clear ball ornaments that you can put things into, and laid out a crapload of magazines. It was really fun. This year, we're pretty low key with our crappy artificial tree (shown next to a plant for scale). The ornaments come from our decorating party and a lot of them are through a christmas ornament swap I did last year. Then we just have some random things strewn about. The toppers are mini donuts I made from a tutorial on this site for felt donuts.

[aluna86jh]

Last Xmas my friend and I decided to make our own tree but we did it out of balloons.  So behold our first attempt at a balloon tree.

[huffnpuff]

that's such a great idea!  i love that

[Eeah99]

We cut down our own tree... and I live in ALASKA!!  last year we took the four wheelers out for a VERY COLD winter ride in hunt for the perfect tree... dont know if any of you have been to the interior of fairbanks, but the trees up here are EXPENSIVE if you buy live, and the wild ones are very thin and tall, and mangy looking, think "A Charlie Brown Christmas"... so its always a challenge, but we are always happy with what we get, bald spots and all!!  Afterwards, we either use for fire, or recylce them, most recycling places have a section for "yard waste" which usually includes whole trees after christmas!  I am so excited now!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas!  I love the giving and the decorating, im not so much into the recieving, although, who would turn down a gift..  :-)

[MissDisney]

we used to ONLY have real trees, but my puppy (whom i love more than breathing) likes to peepee on them, and the mess is too much to deal with...so we went fake, which i dont regret (i buy pine essential oils and put some on the inside, it smells lovely) at all....

the most important part is how i decorate it: almost every year i do it in the *classic* holiday colors....red, green, white and gold (sometimes a little silver) and all the presents coordinate perfectly...i buy 2 rolls of my *main* pattern and then a single roll of each complimetary color..if anyone wraps anything, they have to use the paper i use if its going under the big tree...

this year i will be in FL for a BIG chunk of Dec, so i will have a small tree there too, with decorations and everything, and i think my husband and i are going to exchange a couple gifts while we are there...the same rules apply though

im strict, but x-mas is ALL about the way it looks and feels (we are a close family, i make them spend time together all year long, and it doesnt take any prompting when there are fresh baked cookies and milk...lol)

[marcusandila]

Our christmas tree is a fake tree. I think it's like 5'4 or something. We bought it from a yard sale. We spray it with fake snow in a can. We have silver, white, and blue bulbs all over the tree. ONLY white lights. silver garland. And a blinking star on top that changes colors from white to blue. simple, yet so beautiful.

[anitacj]

Growing up we always went out into the countryside & my grandfather would pick out the tree.We would get it home & each year there would be a big bare spot somewhere.We had to really decorate the tree to hide it.Now we use a huge fake tree we got about 6 years ago.It usually sits in the corner of our sectional couch .It is so huge it sticks out to the middle of the floor & you can't see the t.v it's so huge.We decorated it last year & a friend came by & wanted to know who decorated the tree.We said I did & my mom.He said it looked like one of those trees in a department store window.We put on handmade ornaments,bought ornaments from the goodwill & ornaments we've had for years.
   I hang stockings on a stocking hanger that I made.My husband is nuts about outdoor christmas lights.If we put all up that we have I think you could see our house from space.We always had a ritual that on Christmas Eve,when everybody was asleep.That one family member would sneak into the living room & put all the stocking stuffers into the other family members stockings.Then they would go to bed & the next one would do the same until everybody got all their stocking stuffers put into the stockings.Everyone knew everyone else was doing it but it was still so much fun.
    But I'm not even thinking about Christmas this year.There's a chance we might lose our house .I am so nervous I can't think about decorating for the holidays or doing crafts.Right now I'm just making it second by second.We find out Monday or Tuesday if we got the loan we need to buy our house.So kthe closer it comes the more nervous I am.I hope everyone else has  wonderful holidays and a Happy New Year.