Confession… I totally wanted to put up our Christmas tree before Thanksgiving this year. Some years I’m just feeling the holiday spirit earlier than others… WHAT CAN I SAY!
But since it’s a tradition for us to cut down a live tree each year, Nick convinced me that getting one too early could cause it to dry up all crispy-like and be a fire hazard by the time Christmas actually gets here.
PLEASE PASS THE FIRE EXTINGUISHER!
It’s hard to find the perfect tree to cut down when it’s after Thanksgiving and they’ve all been picked over. Some years we’re on the ball and go early to ‘tag’ a tree… which basically just means you’re putting in on layaway so nobody else can snag your perfect tree. But alas… not so organized this year.
Don’t let the lack of snow deceive you into thinking it ain’t cold. I had my Carhart bibs on, a giant personal-heater-of-a-baby in the carrier, and a coat over that.
Finally we found a tree that’s suitable for our 9 foot ceilings. The needles are a little droopy for my taste, and she’s a little plump …but who am I to judge? Droopy and plump are two prominent adjectives that I would use to describe myself… and I ROCK droopy and plump. I OWN IT.
Scroll back up to that last pic for a sec. On the right… that’s the sunroof open so you can see the trunk of the tree on top of our car. I was so proud of myself for coming up with that angle.
We got that hefty sucker home and decked the halls for the rest of the day. You should know by now that I’m not one of those bloggers that perfectly decorates their color-coordinated tree in such a way that it could be featured on the cover of Pottery Barn mag. Nope. I absolutely L.O.V.E all the eclectic ill-placed ornaments that have memories and stories behind them, or are homemade. I wrote this post last year about WHY… and I still wouldn’t have it any other way.
Even though this is our tradition, I still have so much appreciation for all the immaculately decorated trees that have so much love and creativity involved! What does YOUR tree look like? Do you have multiple trees so you can have the best of both worlds? Let’s chat about Christmas trees! White lights or colored? Real tree or artificial? Matchy ornaments or collected-over-time? GO!
Related:
-
I, for one, LOVE trees. When we bought our home, there were 4 trees on…
-
Friends! The holidays are sneaking up on us, aren't they? This year, more than ever,…
1.) Ddefinitely color lights, the more the merrier! 2.) Artificial tree due to allergies. 3.) Mish-mash collection of ornaments collected over 43 years of marriage, two children, 6 grandchildren. 4.) Always more than one tree – tree in the basement, in the bedroom, on the kitchen counter, and 9 ft tree in living room. I can never have too much Christmas! 🙂 Love and hugs to you and yours this Advent season. Merry Christmas!
We have 2 large trees (1 fake 1 real) both of these trees are decorated with ornaments that have been in my collection since I was 8 when I stated collecting. 2 small trees are themed trees. White House ornaments, and Snoopy Charlie Brown ornaments. This year a left quite a few ornaments off because we have a very active puppy, so the lower part of the large trees are sort of barren.
Oh lovely. I’m do excited for Christmas. Unfortunately we are not going to manage to get our tree up until the very last minuite here as we are moving house so close to Christmas. I also can’t convince my OH to get a real tree :-(. Yours looks great 🙂
What a GREAT photo, and that tree is beautiful!I do have two full-sized trees. The one in my living room is magazine-ready and the one in my family room displays all my beloved homemade and eclectic ornaments. My parents didn’t fight much, but always seemed to argue over selecting, setting up, and maintaining a live tree. So we have artificial. My husband is not into the trees, so I wait until he leaves the house and spring into action.
PS. You are not one bit plump or droopy, lady!
We have an artificial now, but used to get the real thing until the year before Jake graduated from hs. Your tree is pretty, Beth, and let’s see how many years Nick can go lifting a daughter to top the tree with the star!! Keep that tradition!!
What kind of camera do you have? Your pics are gorgeous (as well as the subject matter of course 🙂
Christy… THANK YOU! It’s actually just my phone. I walked into the Verizon store and said ‘give me whichever phone has the BEST CAMERA’ …and they handed me a Samsung Galaxy. It’s so good!
Hello, your tree looks great! And it’s fun to cut a live tree, we do that too. Put here ist the tradition, that we decorate and put on the tree only on christmas, 24 dec. And all our ornaments are plastic ore ome homemade, the nice glace-ones are gone withe de toddlers… 🙂 Greets from Switzerland, Lena
Great tradition! Your tree is wonderful, it represent family that should make you feel so amazing. This is how I did my trees when my kids were little and home. Now an almost empty nest I don’t do a tree. The kids are grown and I decided to simplify. I keep the nativity the focus and add in fresh greenery and a wreath all centered around the fireplace.
First of all, how fun is it to top your tree without a ladder?! So cute! Our tree is covered mostly with homemade ornaments or ones that have been gifts. Maybe someday I will feel the desire to have a fancier tree, but for now I couldn’t bear not putting up everything my kids have made!