Another Idea for decorating a Christmas Tree

Elzee

Member
Location
Austin, TX

"If you find it harder each year to decorate a Christmas tree, consider buying the fiber-optic type; lights already there and no need for ornaments. Keep some of your beautiful ball ornaments and place in large clear vase as table decoration, crowned with small greenery." ...A tip from the internet.


Now, I just have a small table top Christmas tree. Never did enjoy decorating my Christmas trees and never could get the rest of my family to enthusiastically join in the decorating. We all enjoy having a Christmas tree.

My husband and my sons enjoyed putting up the tree. But my daughter and I were the only ones left in decorating the tree and we found that Christmas chore... well, to be a chore.

When my kids did decorate the tree, they put the decorations every which way. No sense of decor or style and it just destroyed the Christmas Spirit if I tried to tell my hubby and kids how to properly decorate a Christmas tree like Martha Stewart or like in the Beautiful Homes and Gardens magazine. So, instead, we have wonderful memories of our not so perfect Christmas trees.

Since I prefer decorating my mantle more than a Christmas tree, I have a very small Christmas tree and my mantle is over loaded with Christmas decor. Christmas is a time of joy - even in the preparation and decorating. My motto now, relax and enjoy the Christmas season.
 

When I was a kid, we used to have a small real Christmas tree, kind of like the one in the Charlie Brown Christmas, lol. When I believed in Santa, my mom and dad would set the tree up after I was already in bed for Christmas Eve, and then early in the morning, my mother would wake early and plug it in. So when I awoke on Christmas morning, it was very special for me, I never saw the tree at all until then. :sentimental:

When I was older, my mother would string the lights, and we would help decorate. It wasn't a big tree, so it wasn't a big task, but I always thought it was fun, especially the hanging tinsel. I've seen those already decorated and lit trees in Walmart, handy feature for many!
 
Back when I was a child Father would choose Christmas Eve as that very special time for decorating. We would first change the cardboard on the floor that kept the moisture in the ground away from our feet, replacing it with festive rolls of used aluminum foil. We were allowed to light one candle, and the tussling over who got the honor to light it was always great fun!

We couldn't afford tinsel, so we just spray-painted mother's fallen-out hair silver and placed it oh-so-carefully upon the centerpiece of the entire celebration - the tree.

Well, WE called it "the tree", but living in the midst of urban squalor we couldn't very well afford nor find a REAL tree. Father would bring out, amidst hushed gasps, THE TREE - a lovingly-pecan-stained 2"x4" mounted on an "X" brace, with long iron nails sticking out at all angles serving as branches.

Oh, the singing and dancing that ensued! The happiness! The gaiety! Jingles and Spot would chase each other in dizzying circles around the tree, trying to bite each other's hindquarters, then stop and lick themselves.

Of course, being my adopted Norwegian brothers we put up with their odd behavior.

The rats always seemed to eat all the popcorn, so Mother would string leftover sliced mushrooms and we would once again fight to see who could hang them the highest. We couldn't afford those fancy store-bought decorations, of course, so we just spent the weeks befoe Christmas going through dumpsters and hoarding whatever seemed festive enough.

*sniff* Such wonderful memories ...
 

Sounds wonderful Sifu, thanks for sharing your heartwarming memories with us, no wonder you're so special now. :sentimental: From me to you...:christmas2:
 
At least you can remember having Christmas,Sifu ? I ended up in Child Development Studies so I could figure out what I never got and try to help other "wounded children"......?

It has been a life long passion to "save the kids"....and I have quite a list of those I have helped and keep helping..... Now you will probably say that you were just "kidding", after I have taken the time to drag all the skeletons out of my closet? :rolleyes: If you were just kidding....I am telling Santa who could use a "piece of coal"! ;) Merry Christmas!
 
At least you can remember having Christmas,Sifu ? I ended up in Child Development Studies so I could figure out what I never got and try to help other "wounded children"......?

It has been a life long passion to "save the kids"....and I have quite a list of those I have helped and keep helping..... Now you will probably say that you were just "kidding", after I have taken the time to drag all the skeletons out of my closet? :rolleyes: If you were just kidding....I am telling Santa who could use a "piece of coal"! ;) Merry Christmas!

Uh-oh ...

No, it's all true! I swear on the Great Pumpkin!

*sweating*
 
The story of my Charlie Brown Christmas tree...

For one year, we lived in the country with the woods beyond our back yard. Neighbors didn't know who owned the woods, nor did the owners of our rented house. I thought I was going to be environmental conscience that year, as well as save money on buying a tree. I thought I would find a small 'Christmas looking' tree and dig it up and put it in a pail of dirt to use as our Christmas tree. My environmentally conscience plan was to replant this tree after Christmas, by putting it back in the woods where I had dug it up. That way, it can continue to grow after we 'borrowed' it for our Christmas holidays. Such was my good intentions.

The kids and I went traipsing into the woods and found the 'perfect' tree. Just the right size to fit in the pail. With the help of my oldest son, who was 9 at the time, I dug up the roots and put the roots in the pail, along with plenty of dirt. The roots didn't go down so deep and the ground was soft from the rain as this was in western Washington state, so that was an easy task.

Since I wanted my kids to enjoy a long Christmas holiday, we dug up this 'perfect' Christmas tree just before Thanksgiving. We put it in the living room, where in a corner, was a wood stove. We stayed warm and toasty in the living room with that wood stove. I wrapped Christmas wrapping paper around the pail and the kids decorated the tree. It was just the right height for them as it wasn't a very tall tree. They felt that it really was their special Christmas tree.

But despite my kids and I taking turns watering the dirt in the pail, needless to say, by early December, the needles were falling off. And then, some of the ornaments slipped off. The green needles were turning to brown. And the browner the tree got, the more my kids watered the dirt, especially my two youngest kids, who were 5 and 7 years old. My oldest son at 9 years realized what had happened to the tree as the needles turned brown and fell off, along with the Christmas tree ornaments.

By Christmas Day, this pitiful environmental Christmas tree, was ready for the wood stove.

The kids still woke up to presents under this 'tree' with the ornaments tied onto our special Christmas tree. The next day, my husband and I took that tree back to the woods and laid it to rest. We didn't have the heart to burn it as fuel in the wood stove. We thought that the best purpose for this environmental Christmas tree was to let it decay slowly in the woods, in a natural way. Well, as natural as could be for a small tree that was uprooted and put in a warm, toasty room to be used as a Christmas tree.

So much for being environmentally conscience - we now think that cut Christmas trees from parking lots make excellent Christmas trees.
 
Aw, the poor tree! At least you gave it a good burial rather than a cremation. :playful:

When I was a kid Mom and Dad took care of the tree-procuring, of course. When I moved out on my own at 18 I wasn't celebrating Christmas, so for ten years I went without a tree.

No great loss for me.

Then I got married to a lady who loved holidays, especially Christmas. We started off doing the parking-lot thing, too. Nice and easy-peasy. Give the guy money, he throws the tree on the car and off you go. Get home, unwrap it, smack the cats a few times when they climb up it and you're done.

Then we had kids. So now we had to expose our offspring to the true wonder of the holiday season - the traditional Chopping Down Of The Living Tree, AKA Woodlands Murder.

Picture this 30-year-old guy who has never chopped down a tree in his life, going to this special tree farm an hour away, armed only with a rusty carpenter's saw and a pocketknife. You'll get an idea of what happened next ...

Of course it had snowed the night before. Of course it was raining / snowing now. Of course the four-wheel-drive was popping in and out in the Jeep, and of course the wife was chattering away about the beautiful tree we'd have this year while I fought to re-gain control of the Jeep before we plunged over the 1,800-foot drop.

Junior was snoring away in the back in his car seat, dreaming of who-knows-what one-year-olds dream of.

It isn't as if my son would remember this trip. I suspect that kids that age are like goldfish - they have 20-second memories. So with what followed, that's probably a good thing. We got to the farm, bundled up our little guppy (still sleeping) and trundled into the wet, soggy farm to find "that special tree".

"Special tree", Hell! THEY ALL LOOK THE SAME TO ME! But not to wifey - "Oh, no, that one is thin on top", or "No, sweetie - that one is bare on the one side".

After an hour, during which time Junior woke up and was gazing around with wide eyes, doubtless thinking we were going to leave him for the wolves, we (I mean Wifey) found the "perfect tree". I'd like to say there was a halo above it and we heard angels singing, but I'd be lying.

I laid down on the sopping-wet muddy ground, instantly being sucked into it like quicksand. My entire back and butt were glued to the muck, making obscene sucking noises every time I shifted position. There I was, hacking away at the poor tree with my trusty, rusty (and very flexible) saw, gruntiing and spitting out muddy epithets.

Of course it was at this exact time that Junior started crying and Wifey said "... well, wait, maybe that one over there is better ..."

This is just ONE of the reasons I believe in capital punishment.

I managed to convince her, using my mud-covered charm, that this tree that I was half-done hacking through was "the One". I got to the last half-inch, extracted myself from the Superglue-like terrain, pushed the tree and said "Tiiiimmmmbeeeeeerrrrrr!"

Nothing happened. "Timberrrrr!" Nada. "TIMBER, DAMN YOU!" Still nothing. Junior is still screaming, the mud is now inside my jeans and the wife is giving me "The Look". I side-kick that sucker and it crashes down, causing Junior to increase even more his ghoulish screams, simultaneously filling his diaper.

I have sap in my eye. I start blinking, but the lid glues itself shut.

Then we (meaning "I") have to drag the tree UP the hill that we previously walked DOWN. Hadn't thought about that before ... we finally arrive at the cashier, my sweat-streaked muddy face looking like a demonic Al Jolson, my eye still glued shut and frozen snot sticking to my mustache. The temperature has dropped and now there are icicles falling from the skies.

I actually toss the wrapped tree on top of the Jeep's luggage rack on the first try. I get in and start the Jeep, realizing as I do that everything I'm touching is becoming covered in sap. My hands stick to the leather-wrapped wheel all the way home, my pirate-eye starting to throb and the frozen mud in my pants now beginning to thaw from the Jeep's heater.

We get home and I put the tree in it's stand. There are now various and sundry objects sticking to me - an envelope, a screwdriver, the cat - because I'm covered in warm, sticky sap. I schtup my way upstairs, sticking to the handrail as I go, and fall into the shower.

Merry Christmas to all!
 
We used to get a real tree and decorate it properly when I was a kid. My Dad even had a string of those bubble lights he kept going for way longer than most. Finally got down to only one that worked then it quit. That was a sad day for me.
 
We used to get a real tree and decorate it properly when I was a kid. My Dad even had a string of those bubble lights he kept going for way longer than most. Finally got down to only one that worked then it quit. That was a sad day for me.

Loved watching those bubble lights on the tree as a kid, extra special those were! :sentimental:
 
Started just putting lights on a nice pine out in the woods near the house each year, instead. But, when my son was at home, we would cut down a tree every Christmas. The first tree I ever got was with a girlfriend in 1970. We were broke and just decorated it with stuff from around the house. That idea kinda stuck with me over time and I began decorating with small toys and stuffed animals. One tree actually had a bird's nest in it, I began collection other nests to add. I miss having a tree in the house but the lit-up tree out in the woods is pretty special.
 


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