| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| cecelia |
Posted - Dec 08 2004 : 4:28:47 PM
Does anyone have a special way of decorating your tree? We usually do the ornament, tinsel, light thing. Have to watch those low ornaments (cat!). One year, before I was married, and had the time, I decided to go ala Martha (who didn't do her thing until much later). I decided to have a "traditional" tree, complete with real cookie ornaments, strings of popcorn and cranberries. What a mess! You haven't lived until you try stringing popcorn - I think 10 times as many popped kernals were on the floor as there were on the string. And you haven't lived until you've tried to wash cranberry juice off your fingers the night before Christmas!
Cecelia
ce's farm
"Curiosity is one of the forms of feminine bravery" Victor Hugo |
| 10 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| jpbluesky |
Posted - Dec 12 2004 : 09:49:34 AM
I do have some vodka, but we never drink it. Thisyear, I guess I will give the tree some christmas cheer! Thank you, Meadowlark!
jpbluesky
Love those big blue skies and wide open spaces. |
| MeadowLark |
Posted - Dec 12 2004 : 05:58:57 AM
I think the tree forms a film on the bottom that prevents it from absorbing water. I have the same problem. On our local TV station I saw a clip about putting a cup of plain vodka in your water! It supposedly "preserves" the tree, and keeps the needles in place and green. I'm not going to buy a pint of vodka for my Christmas tree, but if I had some already in the house ( We only drink wine on occasion) I'd probably treat my tree and see what happens.
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Rumi, 13th century. |
| jpbluesky |
Posted - Dec 11 2004 : 11:19:27 AM
I just checked the water in our tree and it was bone dry! We put it up a week ago Wednesday, and filled the tree stand with water then. I am so upset - I filled it up again, but does anyone know if it will drink anymore water now that it is gotten dry on the bottom? It has to last two more weeks! And it is so pretty. It is a fraser fir.
jpbluesky
Love those big blue skies and wide open spaces. |
| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - Dec 10 2004 : 3:08:33 PM
We have a rusty big punched tin star for the top, small lights...lots of them..no twinkling..that gives me a headache!!
WE decorate the tree (always a real one) with ornaments that we have collected over the years. Each year I buy each child a new ornament for their collections. If I can afford to I get them a hallmark one or something nice like that with some significance for that year..like a soccer one for their first year playing, or an elf with a crayon for the year that my son Travis did nothing but color all year, or two little raccoons with a tree for the year that Steve and I got the tree all alone..the big kids were grown and busy and the little kids wern't in the family yet. Some years we make ornament and some years we buy them. This year we got little matching blown glass santas..they are really cute. Our tree has to be really big to hold all the ornaments. I plan to give each child their ornaments when they are grown to start their own tree off. Oldest son has his now, after he got married. SEcond son is 24, but not yet married and not to be trusted with them yet so they are still on our home tree. The kids love to see all their own ornaments as we unpack them. I am so sentimental about that sort of thing. When I moved out and got married my mom gave me 4 ornaments from my childhood...3 that I made and onet that I bought with my own money when I was 5. I cherish them and they are at the top section of the tree where I can see them clearly. I never have done the "new ornaments each year thing" since I couldn't bear to leave the old ones packed away!!
We always put up and decorate the tree the weekend after thanksgiving and take it down the weekend after Christmas.
Jenny in Utah
Bloom where you are planted! |
| MeadowLark |
Posted - Dec 10 2004 : 07:50:15 AM
The old fashioned bubble lights always did it for me. My mom had a set from the 50's that lasted 20 years. The newer ones don't last because the liquid always seems to dry up.
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Rumi, 13th century. |
| Idahospud |
Posted - Dec 10 2004 : 07:10:48 AM
jpbluesky, my memories of my mom hanging tinsel strand-by-strand are probably very similar to yours--we still have pictures of those trees (mom's been gone nearly 30 years), and they were quite a wonder--silver tinsel hanging straight and thick, with the lights shining through underneath.
I used to have a tree obsession--I wanted a different theme with different (and often homemade) ornaments every year. I'd start scheming for the next tree as soon as we'd take down the (NEVER artificial!) tree in January: Americana (with hand-cut and painstakingly rusted metal stars!), Victorian, birdhouses and berries, teddy bears, Santas, etc. Well, all that changed as we acquired more kids and they got older and wanted to decorate the tree. And of course they never want white lights--always colored! I must admit it is rather liberating to just get out the boxes and let the kids go at it. It's interesting to see the jumble of Christmases past all over the tree, but they all have their favorites and they have a great time. Okay, so once they go to bed, I admit I do a little rearranging of the various "clusters" that form because the little ones can only reach so far, but all in all it is more enjoyable than my former obsession about the tree!
Okay, so I admit that I do decorate the little (gasp! artificial!) 3-foot tree that goes on the entry table, with white lights and some sort of theme or at least color scheme. This year it is a revamping of my Americana tree, in honor of our troops. Okay, and so I do spend more than a little time deciding how to paint the front windows . . . oh, and well, there might be a little obsessiveness in my arrangement of the garland and such along the stair rail . . . . |
| jpbluesky |
Posted - Dec 10 2004 : 06:24:19 AM
When I was little, it took a week to decorate the tree. Dad took days on the big colored lights, with reflectors attached (aluminum stars and colored flower shapes). Yellow bulbs had to have a yellow reflector, etc. Mom took days with the tinsel, hung thick on each branch - and each strand had to hang down straight and not be tangled at all. One year my sister's boyfriend threw a glob of tangled tinsel onto the tree and I thought my mother would have a heart attack right there in the living room.
When the tree was done, and before presents were placed underneath, I would scooch, flat on my back, underneath the tree so I could look up and into the center of it. What a wonderland in there!
And each year, when we took the tree down, we would painstakingly remove the tinsel, keeping it flat on the cardboard holders, to use again next year! But it was fun and a labor of love.
Our trees were always real and heaven forbid, never flocked! :)
jpbluesky
Love those big blue skies and wide open spaces. |
| cecelia |
Posted - Dec 09 2004 : 1:02:39 PM
Margret, here's another funny story. An aunt decided to have an artificial tree, when they first came out (the fake green ones). Her's came in 2 parts, top & bottom. She told us that the top looked crooked (after it was decorated) so she crawled under it, reached up to try and straighten it out. The tree came apart, she was holding the top in one hand, the bottom in the other, kneeling under the tree. Dog barking at her, no one else home! She had to decide whether to let go and let the whole thing fall to the floor, when the mailman came to the door with a package, rang the bell, and she screamed for him to come in (luckily her door was unlocked). Can you just imagine what he must have thought??? He saved the day though!
Cecelia
ce's farm
"Curiosity is one of the forms of feminine bravery" Victor Hugo |
| prairiemaid |
Posted - Dec 09 2004 : 07:33:11 AM
I tried stringing popcorn one year too. I thought it would be old fashioned and homey. I never did it again! What a mess, is right! and so time consuming!
I've thought about changing my tree decorations. I've got the mini colored lights and have always liked the mini white lights. But I'm too cheap to buy new when the old are perfectly fine. Especially at this time of year when there is already so much spending going on, I'm not going to buy something I really don't need. The kids have only known color lights and now think one color lights are stupid. lol
I've enjoyed reading your stories! I don't have any stories to tell except one year we had a tree that was completely flat on one side so I put it up against the wall.  We have a cat and a dog so I tie the top of the tree to a hook in the ceiling. That came about the year the tree fell over. Actually, not by fault of the cat, it was just that crocked, it couldn't stand. LOL We've had some very sorry looking trees over the years but once they were decorated, they were the most beautiful thing you ever saw! |
| MeadowLark |
Posted - Dec 09 2004 : 06:43:31 AM
When my husband and I moved into our home the winter of '83 we were basically broke with a baby girl and morgage so we roughed it and thought how "Christmasey in Connecticut" it would be to go to a pasture and chop down a red cedar for our first tree. It was horribly cold and there was a foot of snow but we bundled up the babe and went trudging and found a perfect 6ft tree. Got it home, set it up in the living room and when it all thawed out and I was ready to put in the lights, I FREAKED! There nestled in the branches was a half frozen nest of baby mice, barely alive. My hubby heard my screams and I was pointing to the tree. Out the mice went, and the tree. That winter, our furnace was not operating to keep up with the -20 temps and -80 wind chills so we spent the Christmas week with my parents. Now there is a mouse ornament hanging on our tree every year in memory of that winter of '83...
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Rumi, 13th century. |
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