Starting tomorrow with decorating for Christmas. I have friends coming over on Tues to do a craft and so when I am serving apple cidar, the atmosphere would be sooo much more "Christmas"y if the decorations are up also.

Will be different though, putting them up myself... 'Cause my daughter was married this summer and, of course, moved out and there went my help for putting up decorations. She was a big help and also positively critiqued what I wanted to do or did do. Teenage boys and my DH just are not the same as a daughter!

My daughter was the decorator too, and i can't convince her to come back and do my decorating for me! Rotten kid!

Actually, i don't usually do any decorating until after December 1st. I have a "December 1st Box" that i take out as close to the first as possible and then start putting Christmas things out. Several years ago, my daughter gave me a set of Christmas dishes, so i exchange everything in the dish cupboard for Christmas ones - dishes, mugs, glasses.

This evening i went to a Hort. executive meeting that was held at the VP's house, and she has most of her decorations out, and a very pretty tree up already. This makes me wonder - to add to Sierra's question, what kind of trees do people do? Do you do "theme" trees, or "anything goes" trees? This tree tonight had all white minilights and gold, silver and white decorations. It was very pretty, but i wouldn't be able to pull it off. I couldn't stand not putting on all the sentimental decorations that we've collected over the years! Especially not the things the kids made when they were small - those HAVE to be on the tree!

I have an "everything" tree. Everything except the Christmas tree ornaments that we gave our daughter. At one of her bridal showers last summer I gave her a whole rubbermaid container with Christmas stuff, including all her Christmas ornaments that she received over the years. Now that she is married and will be decorating her own home, she may as well have those ornaments also. Still have the boys ornaments though, they have not moved out permanently... yet.

Tonight I asked my daughter to come this weekend to help decorate...too many assignments for university due. Oh, well...

I haven't put up anything yet for Christmas. I like waiting until after December 1st to put up things. Even then I may only put up the outside lights and not start decorating the house until mid month. It will be odd this year having no Christmas tree. We are going down to Vancouver Island for Christmas with both families and will be gone to long to bother with one. I refuse to go artificial with the tree, it just isn't the same. Oh well, I'll have a real tree down there at my parents house.

Which reminds me, I need to tell them to tie the tree to the ceiling so that my puppy doesn't take down the tree. That would not be good, I've had it happen before thanks to the cats. All those nice fragile ornaments at the top where you think they are safe? It is just a longer, harder fall for them so they break into more pieces. I no longer have those clip on birds that were popular in the 20s' or 30s' with tails. Anyone remember those? I had about half a dozen that were my husbands great-grandmothers.

Syreeta

For many years, I went with the theme that everything on the tree had to be homeade. Then a few years ago.....I decided I wanted a different look....so I started buying glass balls......and slowly have switched over to only them.....Well all except for one Christmas "fish"......that is the only ornament that isn't a glass ball on the tree.

I also discovered that wood floors are not as forgiving as carpet when it comes to glass balls. :o

Syreeta,
We also know about cats/dogs knocking the tree over.....ekks......We don't have that problem anymore. I do remember those clip on birds.......my mother and grandmother had them when we were kids.

Sierra

I haven't started decorating yet either. Today is my DS's birthday so we always do his party and all that first. Traditionally we start decorating the day after his party but this year it just does not feel Christmasy at all YET (I KNOW we will get pounded with a winter storm soon enough!)

We usually have an "anything goes" tree but this year we bought a new (yes, artificial) tree that is already pre-strung with mini white lights. We also bought new glass balls in gold, silver and red. I'm still going to have a hard time "sticking" to this new colour scheme though! We have so many ornaments that are hand-made by the kids or that my mom made..... you know all those ornaments you just CANNOT leave off the tree!

I rarely decorate before the 15th of December. I plan for nothing else on that day (usually a Sunday) and that decorating day is my time to remember living in Germany as I have a number of ornaments and gifts from very good friends from when we lived there. The memories that are invoked from all those trinkets are, in all honesty, one of the biggest reasons I decorate.

Christmas was quite a magical time in Germany. Somehow they have managed to hold on tight to the religious aspect and have not made it quite so full of hype and present-buying as is here, nor was there such a great deal of outdoor decorating (actually, I'm trying to remember if there was any at all aside from the decorated trees on the market). We attended a few homes of Germans who had real trees inside and on those real trees were real candles burning. We were pretty surprised to see that.

There's a store in Rothenburg ob der Tauber that is a Christmas village (Kathe Wohlfahrt), year round and is quite amazing. It's a very large building, houses many large trees and have every ornament imaginable as well as all the 'designer name' stuff. The inside has these facades that make it look like you're walking thru a german village. It caters to the tourists, and the prices are to match.

I'm pretty low-key when it comes to Christmas, though. Not bah-humbug kind of stuff, I just try real hard to keep it simple and relaxing.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kathe Wohlfahrt in Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Well we went out Wednesday and cut our own tree (an excuse to go playing in the snowy mountains. Thursday is our Thanksgiving, so decorating the tree was Friday night. It's very early for us here to decorate- my daughter's birthday is the first week of december, so I have normally waited until after that for Christmas decorations. We just ALL had one day off (4 adults, 8kids in 3 schools) so we HAD to get that tree LOL.

I found out that we gcut a tree that was much bigger than usual! I ran out of bead garland and need one more string! With 5 kids, 4 cats, a puppy and 3 rodent pets, I do NOT do glass balls- well there are a few from the 2 years the cats were too big to sleep in a tree (or even try) and there were no "babies" around! The hardwood floors are taking them out quickly this year! I try to put the handmade kids ornaments up for safety, but there are always a few on there I missed. Also, my grandmas old ornaments HAVE to go on, so we get a family tree, rather than a theme tree!

Let's see in 3 days, the doorhanging is already broken and the stencilling of my sunroom windows already have fingerprints -- and i've barely started!

Here are pics, some treehunting, and before and (almost) after. Sorry they are sideways, even though I tried to change them a couple times, they kept going back that way!

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That is a very nice tree Vrie!

Well Hmmmm....I started this thread and uhhhh well I ended up doing more home renovations. Why did we start this now?LOL. Hopefully this will be completed and everything back in order by the end of this weekend. So I haven't had time to take the pics. Still don't have the indoor lights up yet...hopefully this weekend if I can find the time. LOL.

I did manage to buy a new tree skirt and a pretty gold angel for the top of the tree. It was the last one they had....so I had to snag it right off the top of the display tree in the store. giggle

We plugged in the outdoor lights last night....new design this year...let the season begin....hee hee

Sierra..hopeing Santa's elfs will appear and get all this work done soon!

I can't find my outdoor lights! LOL Doesn't matter - if people want a show, they can go next door to my son's. His girlfriend is going all out! The icicle lights look nice because there's a couple of peaked areas on their house, and the tree with the blue lights and light-up gifts underneath isn't bad, but the huge blow-up snowman and the big candy cane arch is a bit much.... LOL

Marcia "Light up gifts" sound interesting. Is that something she bought or something she created herself (such as wrapping a box with christmas paper and then mini lites on top)?

I just got my outdoor lights up today. Usually have the big traditional frosted type of bulbs. I love them because they remind me of my Grandparents but this year I went with the LED lights. I hope I like them. Already I don't like that the bulbs are smaller (though closer together so that might compensate for that) and I like the blue, green and red, but the orange and yellow look dull.

Then I put some lights on my purpleleaf sandcherry shrub. Mostly because it's right across from the kitchen window and most visible from indoors. I also have this wire frame in a christmas tree shape with mini lights on it that I got on clearance last year. It's self supporting, but we'll see if it topples over in the wind.

As for indoors, well, still debating on real tree versus artificial. You really can't beat a real tree for fragrance and it seems more Christmassy, but if I wait too long it will be the artificial one and they get sold out quick. The nice thing about my artificial one though is that it's not too wide (small basement).

Glen

Glen, the light-up gifts are plastic boxes made to look like they're Christmas-wrapped and with lights around them. I can ask her where she got them, but it was probably at Walmart or Canadian Tire.

Today i got out my Christmas dishes and glasses. I figure why just use them one day of the year? So i take them out for the month of December. But i must have put the rest of the Christmas mugs with the outdoor Christmas lights because i can't find them either! LOL

Anyone have those light-up deer in their yard? My daughter sent me this picture of a "Redneck Christmas Lawn Deer". It's not in HER yard, btw, but i'm sure her boyfriend would love it!

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Oh my gawd, is that ever funny Marcia!! The effect of the red lights on the ground ha ha ha, I'm busting a gut here. All right, I am sleep deprived, maybe it won't be so funny after some sleep.

It is that funny after sleep!~ LOL ! OMG my BF would LOVE that-- he'd say that was the ONLY deer he was hunting! My father would've hunted those down and got one for every house in the family!

Safe to say there are a few rednecks around here, eh? LOL