I like to do more than one, for that reason. A traditional family one on the great room. A pink vintage fun one in the dining room. A high fashion one in the living room. A kids one sometimes, too.

They don't all need to be huge!

What a wonderful post May! I gave most of our family ornaments to my children but kept a few particularly cherished ones. I have burgundy and gold satin balls but have added quite a few beautiful handmade ornaments as well. I loved tinsel but don't use it anymore. I wonder if they still make it?

I love the color blue but I just can't see blue for Christmas because I like the traditional reds, burgundies, greens, silvers and golds. I would love to see your tree, I'll bet it's beautiful!

Unpacking our ornaments is like taking a trip down memory lane. Every ornament has a story. I used to record all of the ornaments in a notebook as we acquired them; where and when it was purchased (or from whom it was given), but slacked off over the years. Maybe this year I'll try to record the "newer" additions.

Our ornaments range from fancy to homemade, sentimental, goofy, Hallmark, artisan, craftsy, whimsical, etc., but they all seem at home together on our tree from year to year.

Cat_mom, I do the same. I love decorating my tree because of all the memories. I make myself a cup of coffee or tea, with Amy Grant's Christmas playing on my iPad, and enjoy every minute of it. I am always saddened though when I take the decorations off for another year.

As I get older I know my Christmases are fewer so I want to pack a lot of happiness and cheer into each one!

We married the day after Christmas, and my aunt gave us a dozen really nice ornaments. Paper mache and hand painted wooden. I use those and a few others from when we were raising our three on a smaller tree in the kitchen (on island). I wanted a more traditional tree in the great room, and one with ornaments that reflected DH and I at this point in our lives. I would never toss or donate our old ornaments and had offered them to DD2 previously. She wasn't interested. DS might like them this year for his family. Will offer soon.

My mom made several dozen colorful felted animal ornaments (two of each pattern) for a second tree when I was young. I was really hoping DD2 would use them last year, but she opted for bristle woodland ornaments. Completely opposite end from what I thought she would want! I don't think she will use them many times.

Oh, May -- you are a person after my own heart! Our tree is like our childhood tree -- BIG colored lights, some bubbles, ornaments that span the decades including ones from my childhood (including two styrofoam balls I made in Camp Fire Girls) and REAL tinsel! Real METAL tinsel. (Found it at a flea market and we are VERY careful with it) -- it shines like no other tinsel!

We gave our DD an ornament a year and when she graduated from college, we gave them to her that year so she had ornaments to start her own tree.

And now that I have a grand girl I'm making her a needlepoint ornament every year with her name and date.
(So far one and this year's - - her second Christmas)

I went to a Christmas store this weekend and looking at those trees to me was like fingernails on a blackboard! Perfectly matched and colored coordinated and instead of a sweet German angel with a wax face or a star on the top of the tree -- the "picks" coming out of the top was like the tree was exploding from the inside!

But there are some that like that sort of look and think my tree is a bit old fashioned -- so to each their own!

Martha

We always do traditional, kids' handmade ornaments and all. The problem is, I find myself wanting less and less to spend the time it takes to hang 41 years of collected ornaments. I remember laughing at my parents who, after DB and I moved away, would put their tree, ornaments and all, in the basement covered with a sheet, to be resurrected the following Christmas morning.

I remember reading on GW years ago about someone building a new home with a Christmas tree closet just for this purpose, and thought, "That's genius!"

And, mtndredux, the Christmas that stands out most in my mind is the one where my DF brought home a pink tree. My mother was horrified. The tree was donated the next year to the church, who used it one year, but the tree never had a repeat performance.

Multiple trees for that reason. Only one big tree and the rest are under 4'.
However, the main tree is a combo of the trends I like and ornaments I have had for many years. The most special ones.

To do more than one tree would mean artificial trees, and being a traditionalist, I couldn't do that. It's enough work putting up one tree, and I usually take everything down after two weeks. My goal is to put it away before it can accumulate dust.

"I went to a Christmas store this weekend and looking at those trees to me was like fingernails on a blackboard! Perfectly matched and colored coordinated and instead of a sweet German angel with a wax face or a star on the top of the tree -- the "picks" coming out of the top was like the tree was exploding from the inside!"

Yes, that's exactly what I mean. It's the sort of tree you'd see in a bank lobby.

My ornaments follow a general theme, but it's my own personal theme :). DH did not want colorful multicolored ornaments when we first began collecting/ buying them. I liked that idea as well. So, I decided that I would buy ornaments that reminded me of ..winter...snow...ice...a clear midnight sky full of stars...a moon lighting up a field of snow and giving it a bluish glow....things like that. Things that seemed magical to me as a little kid (and as an adult)

Our ornaments range from clear, white, silver, black, to blue. I have lots of glass snowflakes and icicles. Clear lights to represent the twinkling stars in the night sky I buy one or two small things every year and now have about 26 years worth but just enough for a 6-7 ft real tree. :)

Oh my gosh, May, I am so right there with you! Although I do put up several trees, the main one in our living room is the one we call "The Story of Us Tree". Like you and many others here, this is where we hang the ornaments passed down from our parents and grandparents. Every ornament that our kids made for us in grade school hangs on that tree. I took their Fisher Price crib mobile apart after our youngest outgrew it and those animals now hang from our tree, too. Same with DD's fairy slippers that I made her for her first Halloween. During every special family vacation, we've picked out an ornament that reminds us of that trip to hang on our tree. So many happy memories! It truly is the story of us and our lives together as a family. It would never make it for a magazine photo shoot. There is no symmetry to it. Nothing is color coordinated . . . but, to us, it's the most beautiful tree in the world.
Lynn

This post was edited by lynninnewmexico on Wed, Nov 12, 14 at 10:02

Our bigger tree, which is always real and in the family room, has traditional ornaments from over the years. They range from the cute ones made by our kids when they were little to fancy ones purchased on vacations. (Sadly a few years ago our tree fell on its face, crushing most of the ornaments in the front, which were many of our favorites.)

We also use a smaller (maybe 7' high) artificial tree in the front room; it has a bird theme. Having a theme tree happened by accident because for a few years in a row the really cool ornaments we found were all birds - fancy with peacock feathers and the like. It's amazing how many fancy bird ornaments we found for a few years running, but now I don't see so many.

I remember making ornaments with my very frugal Grandma as a kid: plastic lids from old Tupperware with rickrack glued around the edge, and pictures from old Christmas cards glued to the flat sides. When I grew up a bit I thought they were kind of embarrassing, but I wish I had them now.

Last year was our first Christmas without my darling DH (he passed away from cancer in March 2013.) I really didn't feel like mucking around with a real tree but my DD, then 17, was horrified at the thought of 2 fake trees and no real tree. So we did the real tree, dealing with the tipping, trimming, spinning, and finally wiring to the wall so it stayed up. (I bought the biggest stand they had at our local hardware store; it still didn't seem sturdy enough.) I found out later that a different local (high end) hardware store will deliver and set up the tree for us... I may just do that this year. Kind of a hybrid between traditional and lazy. But easier on me!

This post was edited by chicagoans on Tue, Nov 11, 14 at 17:04

We have multiple trees for that same reason as well. Our family room has only non-breakable ornaments made of wood, paper mache, wool, straw, metal and some (shhh) plastic or resin. That tree has all our ornaments from when DH and I were first married and those acquired each year for eventual distribution to our kids. It goes up in our library and for me, it is the most meaningful part of Christmas decoration. Even though the ornaments are not breakable we wrap each one very carefully and put them away like the crown jewels. I've thought long and hard about keeping this one decorated and wheeling it into a closet for storage, but at least for now, the process of unwrapping those ornaments and putting them on the tree still has a lot of meaning for me personally.

Our DD has an American Girl tree that came complete with all ornaments, star, garlands and tree skirt.... it is darling! I gave it to her for her apartment several years ago but she rarely puts it up :-(

We have a blue themed tree that I love in the blue bedroom, and a green and gold tree in the MBR. This year we now have a "woodland bling" tree in our renovated lower level. All the ornaments were purchased over a period of a few months, but many of them are vintage, including the 1956 Shiney Brite tree topper.

I put up multiple trees. The first year we lived here I went way, way overboard for Christmas decorating in general. Our big tree is decorated in silver, white, red, sometimes gold and last year the addition of green. There are crystals and all types of fussy ornaments. Very blingy. I put one on the island or out bedroom with ornaments from when DH and I were kids. I actually prefer a more homey or rustic tree. One of these years I'm going to put a 'pretty' tree in the foyer and the big tree will be more nostalgic. We put a tree in DS's room last year with vintage ornaments from my grandparents along with his. Loved that.

Deee... It never occurred to me you thought the actual tree was pink! Lol, we only do real trees, because the scent is a big deal to me. But all of the ornaments were vintage pink ones from Etsy.... and big pink bows, too .

We have only had fake trees when we traveled, and that was all we could expect the hotel to arrange (once a remote island in Australia and once in Vietnam ). Spindly little things, too.

We have three trees, all artificial. We decorate the mantle with fresh greenery about a week before Christmas so we have all the wonderful aroma from the evergreen without the dry tree. The mantle greens come down on the 26th. Our traditional tree is set up in the Living Room and holds all the various ornaments from our past and present life, many one of a kind, very sentimental. Dating back to both my parents ornaments. This is my favorite tree and I love looking back at all our happy times whenever I decorate this tree.

We also have an aluminum tree that we set up in a room that we use as an office/media room, it is decorated in with a retro MCM vibe, so the tree fits in quite well. We have vintage shiny brite ornaments and use an old color wheel.

Then we have a small table turquoise tree that my daughter usually has in her room, it is decorated with sea themed ornaments.

I do have a friend that does theme trees, actually this extends to all her Christmas decorating. Every year she buys all new Christmas decor the house and new ornaments, for her theme of the year. Not my thing but if they are happy so be it. Helps keep the economy rolling. They do have a small tree in their family room that holds ornaments made by the kids, but the big tree and room decor changes theme every year.

Unfortunately, this year our house is for sale and we have all the Christmas decor packed away in the very back of storage. We expected to be in a new home by Christmas but the sale of our home fell-through, so I am not sure what we will be doing. definitely not three trees.

I miss having a real tree. Not the dropping needle part, but that smell! I just developed my allergy to live pine trees about 20 years ago. If I touch them, I develop many, many hives up and down my arms. Every year, though, DD comes with me to buy two big, real wreaths. She handles them and sprays them daily for me to keep them fresh longer. We were just in Oklahoma for OU's Dads Weekend and we picked up a big Fresh Balsam candle at Bath & Body Works to help bring in more pine scent. I do what I can for my family and me, but no more live trees.
Lynn

Yep, two trees. One is loaded down with old and sentimental ornaments, lots of multicolor lights and topped with my Mom's old cardboard and plastic angel that just borders on tacky, but I love it. Still kicking myself for giving away a fabulous old felt tree skirt that had all of the old sequins and glitter and rick rack on it, because it would be the perfect finishing touch.

The big tree is all silver and glass/crystal. In all of the years of collecting ornaments, I had a ton of the old plain silver balls that had oxidized beautifully. I think that old oxidized silver is just one of the most beautiful things ever...whether it's a candlestick or jewelry or Christmas ornaments. Anyway, I added in a lot of crystal and glass icicles, a LOT of white lights, and the whole thing just shimmers at night.

I'm not against themed or coordinated trees at all, and some can be just stunning, but they just don't have the soul that the old collected look has. One of the prized ornaments in my family is a horrible little wad of paper mache covered in glitter that one of my brother's made when he was a very small child. It always gets a place front and center on Mom's tree.

LOL Franksmom, I think we all have one of those ornaments!

I'm facing this very quandary.

Christmas colors look horrendous in my living room. So, I went a little themey and got new ornaments. Then, we finished buying furniture, so we had to put the tree in the adjacent sunroom. That required a narrower tree. The tree arrived, and it was much narrower than we expected. It's like a glittered toilet brush. The whole setup looks like it belongs behind the ladies' foundations counter at Macy's.

Part of the problem is the horrible quality of Chinese ornaments. Even compared to ornaments from East Germany I bought at Crate and Barrel years ago, they're awful. I hate to touch them.

LOL mtn---thought it was a kitschy thang.

I love real trees as well, but discovered, after being sick several years in a row, that I was allergic.

And, to note a precaution to those who cut their own: My DIL had to throw her entire beautifully decorated tree in the trash last year when she nearly died from poison oak (I think is was oak, not ivy) wrapped around the tree trunk. They replaced it with a blow-up tree.

I worked in a home/kitchen/gift store during college, and decorated SO many trees for the store in whatever was trendy & fashionable at the time. I think in reaction to all those trees, I'm not a big fan of trendy, themed, or decorator trees.

I have mostly jewel tones, German glass, and antique ornaments I've picked up over the years. And lots of suns and moons for some reason. I just inherited more German glass ornaments from my sweet grandma, who passed away in the spring, and left them to me because she knew I loved them.

DH & DS go out in the forest (with a permit of course) and cut a tree for us. They insist on coloured lights. I put our more "fun" and sentimental ornaments on a garland around a big doorway between the kitchen and living room, where they are more visible.

My DH has a growing collection of vintage Christmas blow molds for the yard. Kinda tacky? But fun, and my son loves them.

Marcolo: I giggled out loud at your post :-)

The tree has to be green. Multi-color lights with ancient ornaments. Guess that's traditional. As I last remember, German friends still put candles on their tree.

One more traditionalist here. Our ornaments are vintage...and so am I..!

Like many of you ...for over 50 years our collection of ornaments came from trips we have taken as a family, from places we have lived, from the beach, from school projects, from grandchildren, grandparents and great-grandparents...and more...Each one with a story that must be repeated! To help...over the years,,, I have used a "Sharpy" to put the year the ornament came into the "family" and, where applicable, the initials of the child or grandchild that either made it or to whom it will eventually belong to... (Now that we seem to buy somewhat smaller trees...many ornaments have happily already gone to the homes of our children)

On top of the tree is an ornament that my parents gave each other the first year they were married...as the eldest I now have it and will pass it on to our eldest grandson who collects Christmas ornaments as his name is Nicholas! When our children were young they had a small tree in the Nursery playroom that they decorated with strings of popcorn, cranberries, candy canes and whatever they made in school....This tradition was passed on to the grandchildren who put their own "wee tree" on the porch...later the birds feast on the cranberries and popcorn.

Our favorite Christmas was the year that all of our Christmas ornaments, stockings, decorations, etc. were in storage as we were in the middle of a move and were in rented digs. We made everything from scratch.. a creche, ornaments, garlands ...the works...thanks to lots of greens out back, felt, wooden clothes pins, wool, etc. ..most of those ornaments are still in the "collection"..That year we also made all of the presents for each other...only Santa brought the Legos and other goodies.

This year when the ornaments come down from the attic I will think about all of your trees...May's traditional tree along with holly-kay, Cat_Mom and others, Love Lynne's "Story of Us Tree"...and mtn's "pink" tree...and as ever...am still dying over Marcolo's description of the tree at Macy's! Priceless!

Cheers!

I'm still figuring out what I want in a Christmas tree. I've been unhappy with my tree in the last few years so I grabbed photos of the last six or so trees and compared them. As it turns out, I don't really like white lights and the red berry garland I've been using. I also don't like using any old ornament I have just to fill the space. I own some truly hideous ornaments.

This year, my tree is getting a makeover. I'm buying big, colorful C9 lights. I used to have some and loved them but they got dangerously hot. I'm leaving any ornament I don't love in the box and only hanging the meaningful and homemade ones. I'm taking my girls to a nice Christmas store so they can each chose an ornament. I bought really pretty glass icicles. I think the tree will be colorful, but have lots of green showing. I think I'll like it.

I also plan to do a second small tree upstairs. I haven't quite decided on real or artificial, but that will be decorated with pinecones, a felted garland, and colorful felted acorns.

For the last couple of years we have use two huge (very realistic and very full width) tabletop trees and a larger tree, which goes in the sunroom. The larger tree is still a smaller version of what I used to do, but we really enjoy it. That is the traditional tree with collected and vintage ornaments. I have collected vintage "tinsel and scrap" ornaments for several years. We have alot of glass ornaments in honor of special times or people in our lives. Have a crystal bell given to us the year we married (etched with the date, etc.). After the first couple of years married, we did away with the red and green. Has never worked with our decor. Our trees tend to have alot of white (pale colors), silver, gold. The tabletop trees are done in shades of aqua and some of my smaller vintage ornaments along with glass balls adorn those trees. I made a topper for one from a gold star topper and a piece of a tinsel/scrap ornament. I also use a few of the little trees that will go in pots, etc. scattered around the house. On those I only use lights, strands of stars, etc. They fit in various size flower pots. I love all the greenery along with a little sparkle. The mantle is one of my favorite things to decorate for Christmas! This year I am adding in balls, feathers and I think dried hydrangeas to the evergreens. I use fake, lighted greenery but add in fresh magnolia. Too many allergies in our family/friends and we leave the trees, etc. up too long for real. (From Thanksgiving to shortly after Christmas)

I've been enjoying this thread so much! Christmas trees are truly a personal thing and, of course, there are no right or wrong kinds of trees. Fresh or artificial, color coordinated, themed or old fashioned . . . they're whatever makes us and our own families happy.
Let's start a Christmas tree photo thread sometime after Thanksgiving so that we can actually see these wonderful trees, shall we?

Marcolo: your imagery It's like a glittered toilet brush." had me spewing out my tea this morning . . . loved it!!!

Same with Linderhof's description of a tree she saw in a store: " the 'pick' coming out of the top was like the tree was exploding from the inside!" . LOL!

Deeinohio: I was the one who mentioned that our good friends actually had that closet especially designed for their new home. It's right off their great room, so they just unplug their tree every year after Christmas and slide it, completely decorated, into the back of the closet. What makes that closet even better is that one side of it has built-in shelves to hold other decs. The other side (it's a long closet) is completely set up for gift wrapping. Be still my heart . . . that is one brilliantly thought out closet!

May: your tree sounds so pretty. I'm anxious to see pics of it!

Daki: your Winter-themed tree sounds so beautiful. I hope that you'll share a photo of it when we all get around to posting pics of our trees.

KSWL: I would LOVE to see pics of your DD's American Girl tree! When my own daughter was younger, we both enjoyed all of the AG stories. I'm already trying to imagine what your tree might look like.

This has turned into a really fascinating thread. Thank you, May!
Lynn

years ago, I helped with the decorations at the Disneyland Hotel. There were beautiful trees in the ballrooms that each had a different theme. Some of the larger hotel suites had trees. The guests loved having a tree in their room. We would go late at night and check on the ballroom trees and fix lights and replace ornaments that "walked off". A few weeks in, the ballroom trees started looking really bad and needed lots of work to get them looking great again. After some questioning, we found out that the staff was hauling them down the service hallways and leaning them down and stuffing them into the service elevators, then dragging them to meeting rooms and back again to the ballrooms.

I thought it was fun to work on the trees at the resort because each area had it's own theme and then I could just enjoy my traditional tree at home. The hardest thing was replacing entire strings of lights at 2 am on a tree loaded with decorations outside in the cold.

LOL glittered toilet brush!

Mayflowers I love the bubble lights too - my Mom has them on her tree. Not so magical when you step on one in the middle of the night though....

I'm in the traditional/old family ornaments camp mostly because for me Christmas is about reliving my childhood. One of my favorite things in the whole wide world is Christmastime in Santa Fe - the smell of pinon smoke and the glow of luminarias. **sigh** now if I could only get that Santa fellow to come back we'd be in business....

We have a fake tree from DH's grandma but recently we've been kicking around the idea of buying a potted pine (charlie brown tree anyone?) and then planting in the yard once the soil thaws in the spring.

Traditional. And deep into the tree. The display trees have everything on the surface of the cone, the branches so thick that nothing really dangles and quivers as you walk buy. I prune out branches to make room for the ornaments. And we get our trees fresh cut from a farmer who never prunes them, so they are gappy and each one an individual.

Lots and lots of glass birds, the old ones from Germany. I used to buy from eBay every year but now I have enough. The Chinese ornaments are ungraceful and over-complicated.

For a long time, our tradition was glass ornaments above four feet, unbreakable below. Now all the children and even the dog can be trusted, which is kind of sad - oh let me have grandchildren, so the glass goes up high again! And more pre-school ornaments thick with paste and glltter below.

I've made or bought name ornaments for all my family - but the meaning of the name, not the letters. So Joseph (he shall add) has a handmade miniature abacus and Elizabeth (house of God) has a glass church. And the memories, and the prayers for the ones gone, when those ornaments come out...we have nativity and religious ornaments, too, so decorating the tree can be a prayerful experience.

My mother has a few ornaments on her tree that are more than 100 years old, from when her mother was a baby, and ornaments that they bought together in Germany when my grandfather was stationed there in the 1950s.

My parents' tree has always been color-coordinated with their decor, but our handmade ornaments as well as a few ornaments that commemorated special occasions from our life were always hung on the tree, too.

I have several boxes of ornaments. Too many to use unless I buy more trees. I have kept ornaments from 1970 when the kids were born and beyond. Some of the kids ornaments I have handed off to them when they got married so they had a start on their own trees but I kept a couple from each child as I love a big, traditional memory tree for our family. It is no longer a 'real' tree but still big. I also have a fairly large collection of glass Santas, most of which get hung on this tree. A collection of German glass ornaments bought on a trip in the 80's and a lot of needlework ornaments I made back in the 70's-80's but haven't used those in a while. When we travel we try to pick out something (not necessarily an ornament) that can be used as a tree decoration that will remind of us of that trip.

I have a couple of small table-top trees I put in the spare bedrooms and a lighted tree on the floor of the dining room.

LOL at the glittered toiletbrush & ladies foundations. Marcolo, you owe some people a clean, new monitor today!

I'm with you May_Flowers - twinkling multicolored lights, those old-german-wood ornaments - I LOVE THEM! My motto is the more colors on the tree, the better. And many of my ornaments are gifts, memories from childhood, etc.

I actually grew up with very intricate glass ornaments and real candles, oh, and lametta (tinsel) strands. Oh, and real candy rings that were plundered when the tree came down.

Our tree now is a mix of old inherited ornaments, those we picked up during our travels, and some our kids made, including the tree-top angel from preschool. I just can't get rid of it, even though we also have a real tree top ornament. Other than that, I sometimes try to focus on a color theme, e.g. red, gold, and straw, or silver, blue, and glass, but the favorite ornaments are always included, even if they don't fit that scheme.

We do a combination of both, we decide what color/theme we want the tree to be each year and sort through all of our ornaments and pick out the ones that match. It will all be general color scheme but will still have the vacation, handmade, nostalgic ornaments that match as well. It's always fun to decide, blue and silver, red and gold, or some years hodgepodge-everything. We may not see every special ornament every Christmas, but we rotate through them all eventually.

For Inspiring Decor Chrismast
check this

Here is a link that might be useful: Design Decor Chrismast

I like simple trees that fit in with the beautiful Connecticut countryside. So natural decorations or at least good fakes: berries, pine cones, bird ornaments.

My favorite tree was one my son, his BFFs, & I threw together one evening. I was very late getting a tree up because I had been nursing my husband after hip surgery. So my son, home from college, & his girl friends went out & bought a tree, and I baked plain gingerbread cookies, cut out in bells, stars, & gingerbread men, to hang on the tree (& to eat). The tree was decorated with white lights, candy canes, and the cookies. It was surprisingly pretty -- simple, rustic, homey. And it was so easy to take down the tree weeks later because most of the decorations had been eaten :)

I always decorated our tree in a theme. Always had it planned well in advance.

Then we started having kids. I still tried to decorate the tree in a theme. It worked for awhile. Then the kids started going to preschool and bringing home all of their crafts. Each one I cherish and keep. They started putting them on the Christmas tree. I moved them to other places. They kept bringing home more. And more. And more. Year after year.

And year after year I kept giving each one a special ornament that they might like on Christmas Day. I never really thought about why. It just seemed like what you do. Their 'bought' ornaments would go on their trees in their rooms the following year - preserving my perfect tree.

So we found a work around. We would decorate the tree my way and as each day went by they would add their stuff until Christmas Day our tree would be an explosion of kid craft.

Well our kids are now 11, 8 & 6 and last Christmas while we were decorating the tree it finally hit me. I watched as they pulled their ornaments out of boxes and recounted the stories of how and when they got them to each other and to me. It was perfect for me. We saved all of the Christmas craft ornaments for the end. I take a few pictures and then they put all of their stuff from years past on the tree.

And
It
Really
Is
Perfectly
Perfect
!

A perfect mess of all of our likes and memories.

I love this thread and I hope everyone posts photos of their trees.

We only do one tree, and it is getting chock full of ornaments. I think that in a fire, they would be one of the things I would really want to save. We have all the kids' ornaments, some from travels too. Every year we have a family Yankee Swap ornament party for cousins and close friends. So every year there are four new ornaments to add. The last few years I've been editing a little what goes on the tree, as there isn't as much room, but I will keep them all and treasure all of the memories.

I'd really like to see everyone's FAVORITE ornament as well.

I buy what I like and throw it on the tree. The junkier, the better. I do run to traditional Christmas colors - red, green, and gold. But my tree is a hodgepodge of ornaments. Everyday I walk over to it and admire my favorite ornaments.

I love Christmas.

TheRedHouse,

Your post about getting c-9's reminded me that one year DH was on a furniture delivery near an antiques/ flea market mall so he and delivery partner decide dot stroll through. He found a booth that had a ton of C-7 & C-9 lights in all sorts of colors so he bought every box as a surprise for me. Years later I smile overtime I see them because of the memory. I've never really had anywhere to put the colored ones (I use a mix of miniature, C-7 & C-9 white lights on our tree) but this year I think I'm going to wrap the swings in the back yard w/ them. Something fun to look at in the back!