Christmas Decorations

[DubaiSis]

Growing up, the tree went up on the day after Thanksgiving and came down on January 1st. (yes, fake or flocked trees so they would last that long). We virtually always had the mishmash of homemade ornaments, cheapies bought when that's all my parents could afford and then a few fancy ones that would have been gifts. Does anyone really need sterling silver or crystal Christmas ornaments? If nothing else, they're always too heavy and droop.

I haven't put up a tree of any kind in several years, but I did see a cool tree shaped metal frame at Crate & Barrel from which you could hang 6 or 8 ornaments. If I wasn't worried about us moving AGAIN, I'd have bought that and a couple interesting ornaments. They also did an AMAZING display, hanging charcoal grill grates from the ceiling (perfectly clean and shiny of course) with ornaments hanging at varying lengths.

It seems to me the trend lately is to have 2 or more trees in your house, one being the old-fashioned mix of personal ornaments and one or more being a theme ranging from beautiful to freakishly pretentious.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by DubaiSis

It seems to me the trend lately is to have 2 or more trees in your house, one being the old-fashioned mix of personal ornaments and one or more being a theme ranging from beautiful to freakishly pretentious.

There's a house near us that seems to have a tree in every room. I'm not making that up -- I counted 8 trees last year that I could see from the street. Add to that garlands and lights everywhere. Nothing goes undecorated.

I don't get it.

[dekeguy]

With my family we follow an old French tradition. Tree is put up for the last week of Advent but left undecorated. On Christmas eve we decorate the tree with lights and ornaments before going to mid-night Mass. Gifts are placed under the tree but not distributed until Petit Noel (King's Day). Tree is left in place at least through Twelfth Night.

At my place I have a sort of Charlie Brown tree, more like a leafless branch, and suspended from the branch I have one .45 ACP bullet. "A cartridge in a bare tree"!