BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Budget Decor How do you decorate your tree?

I love to look at decorated Christmas trees. How did you trim yours this year?

We have 2 trees and I vary which one I use each year. This year we put up the green tree and all the ornaments I've collected for the kids over the years. Everyone has their own set that represents something they did during the year.

Some years we just decorate with popcorn strings, pinecones, red velvet bows and candy canes. Very natural.

The last few years I decorated with a white tree and lots of pretty pink, blue and gold ornaments.

We always have lights and plenty of candy canes.

Donna

This is my first christmas tree away from home in NH. I have been collecting ornaments from all over, eBay, artsy stores, WalMart, I even raided my parents collection when I went home in October.

My tree will have lots of vintage looking ornaments as well as lots of earthy type ornaments...very ecletic. plus my collection of stars from years of buying one each year (though this year with the fabulousness of eBay there have been MANY stars purchased).

There are also random childhood memory ornaments, such as the one I found of the Abominable Snowman from the clay mation Rudolph. Hand made tatted snowflakes a great grandparent made. Ornaments I made as a child too.

In my xmas card this year my mom sent me a pewter ornament that reads "Seasons Greetings - New Hampshire" that I thought was really sweet. I'll have to take pictures.

Lights, sparkly snowflakes, red bows and an angel on top. I like to keep it simple. Anyone who's had a cat climb up the center of the tree or had a big dog go sliding into it knows what I'm talking about.

This year it's pretty simple with all the plastic ornaments since the two-year-old has learned that she really likes decorating the tree. We have mostly character ornaments from Disney but do have our first Christmas and a few others we've gotten through the years. The breakable ones will have to be displayed up high and somewhere out of reach.

We had a real nice artificial tree last year that the cats really loved. They thought that was their gift.

Just the past two years, I've used predominantly red and gold ornaments plus white lights. It really looks pretty, if I do say so myself. (Now that the kids are grown, I'm freer to go with a plan that doesn't utilize every ornament we've ever collected.)

To disguise the base I arrange a large Christmas table cloth loosely over and around the base. Using a table cloth allows me to have a one-of-a-kind tree "skirt." I drape it so that it doesn't dip into the water, and I just leave a fold easy to pull back for watering access. Also, I tuck the end of my light cord under this cloth to keep the electrical wiring from upstaging the tree.

I do two or three trees depending on my schedule. My main tree is always a victorian English tree with a theme. I have collected Smithsonian carousel ornaments, I have angel ornmanets, old fashioned ornaments, country style wooden teddy bear ornaments, pink, gold, silver bulb collections. I have garlands in glass beads, crystal beads, pearl beads, wooden beads. I always use ribbon to decorate around the tree and place a box at the top. My favorite Victorian is pink and silver bulbs, pearl beads, and carousel ornaments mixed with angels.

Anyway, I always get wonderful compliments on the main tree. The other trees are usually decorated by the teens and my husband. One is always different motorcycles on the tree and bubble lights.

I thought I'd bump this up from 3 years ago and see how everyone is decorating their trees this year. We put up both of our trees this time instead of alternating them from one year to the next. We have the green tree with all the kids ornaments and multi-colored lights in the family/living room. We put our white tree in our small library/den area. I left it simple this time with just white lights, gold garlands and red & white candy canes.

What does your tree(s) look like this year?