Christmas Tree – Traditional vs Themes

Over the years Christmas trees change with the times. When I was growing up we had a shiny silver aartifical tree. You poked long wire limbs into a shiny Carolina chrome wooden pole and waalaa…you were ready to plug in the spinny four-color light that would shine and shimmer like no tomorrow. Later my little brother would use that groaning lamp as a grow-light…but that’s a whole other story!  My favorite ornaments were bright turquoise glass that were shaped like a long teardrop. All of the balls were glass and we sure broke our share of them each year. The ones with the fake snow on them were always favorites, although I’m really not sure why because they always looked pretty dingy. Decorating the tree was a family affair, but I’m pretty sure my mom got stuck taking it down every year. 

Once our extended family became large, we made hand-made ornaments to exchange each year. It was lots of fun and Mom, my brother and I would start working on them late in the summer so we could have them all done by the big Christmas party. For years before I left home we were able to decorate our entire tree with homemade ornaments. Each had a story.

I still have a set of those ornaments and I love to sit in the floor and go through them. I can still almost remember who made each of them, and I’m always filled with the best feeling as I relive those memories.

I’ve had a live tree for as many years as I’ve been on my own…yeah we won’t do that math … but this year I threw in the towel and bought a small table-top fake tree. The reasons were two-fold. My husband being sick and unable to join me in the big search combined with the fact that this will be our 10 month old yellow Lab, Cheyenne, first Christmas … was enough to make me give it a try. I ordered the tree online and it was delivered just two days later, right to my porch. Easy as pie. It has realistic limbs and it really is quite lovely. Thank goodness, Shining Sol candle company made a pine and spice scented candle so I am not missing out on that aroma. If I squint I can almost fool myself into believing it’s real.

I have one box of tiny 1″ glass ornaments in an array of colors just to spice things up …. but every ornament on my tree aside from those are western themed. My tree is filled with boots, saddles, stars, lasso’s, stirrups, lucky horseshoes and more cowboy Santa’s than you can count without taking off your shoes and borrowing your neighbors digits.

Here are some of my favorites!

  

If you’re still in the planning stages here’s a fun website with lots of cool ideas.  http://www.altogetherchristmas.com/decorating.html 

Do you decorate in a theme? A favorite something, color, or maybe even all homemade?  Tell me all about it…better yet…post a picture!!

Hugs and Merry Christmas~