[SandiC.]

I love a real tree, but my DIL is so allergic, we just can't. She couldn't even be in the house for a visit for more than a few minutes when I did have a real one. I have to say, the convenience of a prelit tree has spoiled me. We have an eclectic mix of ornaments that have accumulated over the years, handmade, photo ornaments, cross stitched, crocheted, and some lovely purchased ones too. I got about 20 when I was in Scotland that I adore. We have ornaments that have been gifts and some that are just fun and funny....the Jerry Garcia Santa for instance. We actually do up to 5 trees. I have a small one in a pot in my room, decorated with chocolate brown bows with gold edging, a few small gold glass ornaments and blue glass beads. The one in the basement TV room is a homestlye type tree, lots of wooden ornaments and ones the kids have made. The one in the loft upstairs is a small one, just ordinary balls and garland. The one in the hearth room is one of my faves....all nature woodsy type ornaments, perfect for a cabin in the woods. That's the whole theme in the dining/hearth room/kitchen. Then the big one in the front room is the "formal" one and has no real theme, just tons of cool ornaments. I think that tree is a 9 foot one. Its not up yet, maybe over the weekend. that and the one in my room are the only ones going up this year. All of us are too busy and its just too much. Maybe next year we'll do it up big again.

[princessrunningfingers]

We put up two trees this year, both artificial, as I have a lot of allergies. In the living room/dining room we have a 7 foot skinny prelighted green tree with mostly old fashioned ornaments, and a few dolls. A porcelain doll is at the top. The packages go under that tree.

In my sewing room, which has a window on the front of the house, we have a 6 foot prelighted green tree, with all white ornaments. My village goes under that tree. There is a Santa with a white hat on the top. I used to put up more trees, but since we downsized to a smaller house, there is only room for two.

I don't use tinsel on my trees. I use snow. Much to my husband's dismay, I snow all over the place. Then, I track it around the house on my fuzzy house shoe/socks. He is constantly pulling the dustbuster out and going behind me.

I really enjoyed reading about everyone's trees and how they like to decorate.

[Smiles]

They all sound wonderful!

[BarbaraC1977]

We mostly do Live, Colorado White Fir trees. They last and last--the unsold ones at the garden store get saved for the spring Garden shows, and look great. At the lot where we try to buy, these trees are often the least expensive, because they don't look dense compared to Balsam, Noble and Fraser Firs. I like them because they are open, and show off the ornaments. The needles are super-soft, and very few drop in three weeks. I love the color--a soft grayed, blue-green.

We laboriously swapped out lights so that we have six strands of alternating blue & white lights--now you can buy them that way! We string aqua iridescent beads and silver iridescent beads, plus copper foil garland around and between branches. We have some terra cotta ornaments, silver pine cones, silver and navy blue glass balls, and some gold/iridescent/white/mirrored ornaments from pier one. Then we add the homemade and gift ornaments. A friend made a beautiful angel doll for me more than 20 years ago--she reigns from the top. So, blue-green, aqua, dark blue, copper & silver, white & terra cotta. I love it, and so do our guests.

No tinsel--we have cats. Wish I had the "water lights" that I grew up with--does anyone remember those? I may have to spring for some of the new versions one of these days.

[BarbaraC1977]

I just realized, that if my siggy tended more toward blue-green than blue-violet, it would be color-coordinated with our tree!

[Bride]

DH grabs his saw and we head out toone of the local tree farms and walk the acres until we find the perfect tree, then we cut it and drag it back to the car and tie it to the top and bring it home. DH then goes to the barn to resurrect our very old tree stand that we say each year we need to replace. He trims the stragglers off the lower trunk and puts it in the stand then we bring it in and place it on a small rug that gets hidden when I wrap the bottom with a tree skirt or an old star quilt.
Lights are next - I prefer plain, non-blinking, white ones to closely resemble the "candles" that graced the trees of years gone by. Our ornaments are a mix of homemade and store bought. A few of my favorite ... I have four delicate glass lambs (I love sheep!!) and they always find a special place on the tree. Also a glass blown snowflake a friend gave me years ago. Several years ago I made wool felted ornaments decorated with stitching - cardnials, upside down mittens and stockings stuffed with fake greens and cinnamon sticks, and snowmen with button "ear muffs". I also make (though not every year) ornaments made with cinnamon and applesauce and rolled out like cookie dough and cut with cookie cutters. A hole is poked in the top to thread a ribbon through once it is dry ... it makes the whole room smell of cinnmon ... mmmm! Growing up we had a star on top of our tree - not sure where that star went. When I was first married mom gave me a crocheted angel that was stiffened with a sugar/water solution - unfortunately when we rented the farmhouse before building the mice thought it was their personal dessert and she was not repairable. Every year I say I'm going to get or make something for the tree top and forget ... so for now I either use a huge bow with ribbons streaming down from the top, or I use one of the larger angels that I made from antique cloth napkins and hankies. I'm thinking this year I may go out and cut some red twig dogwood and fashion a star out of the sticks for the top .... hmmmmm .... creative juices flowing!

[glassbird]

We have 7 cats...no tree!

The last time we even tried, we had 5 cats. We tried tieing it to a eye bolt in the ceiling...which made it into the perfect huge kitty toy. They were up and down it all day, until we discovered that they were all flecked with drops of pine pitch. Which caused the most amazing mats...

No more trees after that.

CT