I use the original red ornaments that husband and I bought 34 years ago for our first tree but I have added white, silver and glass ornaments with, of course a few different colors thrown in through the years. I don't have anything red in the house but I think my tree is beautiful, maybe you could do one or the other, red or green.

I was a little bit relieved to pull out the Christmas tree skirt this year and see that it did NOT clash with my new red rug. That's as far as I go--feeling surprised and pleased when things don't look too bad. :)

We have mostly light colors in our home - alot of aqua. I have never used red/green for Christmas decorations because we've never had those colors in our home. (Obviously I have shades of green, but not "Christmas" red or green!). We have collected many vintage ornaments over the years, mainly in pastel shades with lots of white/silver/gold. Outside does have red/green as our shutters and door are a deep green. I use colors I love in our home and even for Christmas decorating.

absolutely goes with my décor colors no red & green here, been there done that, went thru many diff combo's over the years as did my interiors, but always coordinating.

Joanie....give yourself permission to get new things to go with your decor!

No. My 'Christmas' does not match the decorating style of our home. Christmas here is decorated for the children that visit. I kinda like it too! And the many adults who visit during the Holidays always are comfortable too.

I redecorated my mother's living room so that it would have Christmas colors all year, but I only visited at Thanksgiving and/or Christmas, and so Christmas ornaments always looked appropriate. My own living room is decorated in African/tribal motif, and so I put up Kwanzaa decorations instead, but I do not light the candles.

Yes. However, there is no bright red or bright green. Instead they are darker hues plus other colors that just seem to naturally coordinate with Christmas.

No and there is major clashing going on. My colors are of the rust tones...with the traditional RED...well it is what it is.

Well, more yes than no. Our house is decorated with Southwestern décor. A combination of Cowboy, Spanish and Native American . . . which is what our great state is, a proud mix of three cultures. My colors throughout tend towards rusty reds, black, browns, forest greens, with silver, pewter and (punched) tin accents, warm cream (painted) exposed adobe walls, and brick floors. Southwestern rustic Christmas decorations would look better if I was going for a magazine-ready look, but I'm a purist when it comes to Christmas. Give me bright red and green with some silver, gold and white. The usual Santas, snowmen and angels. Our main tree is a happy, homely, wonderful "Story of Us" kind of tree, which fits us to a tee, as do the rest of our Christmas decs. The only rooms where I do concentrate my SW decs, is in the guest room and bath, and one smallish tree in an out of the way corner of our living room. Now, Spring pastels on the other hand, look really out of place anywhere, any time in here (LOL)!

Our tree is a collection of ornaments dating to childhood. There is no color scheme and we have big old fashioned colored bulbs on our tree. The rest of the decorating is greens and fresh greens go with any color scheme IMO.

To be honest I prefer a traditional Christmas tree. I've never tried to match it with my decor over the years. Styles and colours change around the home. However, the green tree, red and gold ornaments, lots of tartan ribbons, which looked lovely over the years. New ones were added, older and shabby ones replaced, yet the style remained the same. I've given my sister my huge tree and ornaments. We've down sized and now have a more appropriate sized tree.

I have lots of green in my LR but no Xmas red! Yet somehow it always works. In fact, I think my LR never looks as pretty as it does at Christmas. Here's a picture from a few years ago - it will look the same this year!

You've described it as junky looking. If YOU don't like them, get new ones.

Yes, my Christmas decor tends to match my interiors. But I'm more into the matchy-matchy style of Christmas decor than the collected look. I've changed the style of my Christmas decor at least 3 times in the last 15 years. And I've considered buying all new ornaments again this year.

One of my grandmothers had a silver tree with red metallic balls. Very 1970s "modern". No handmade ornaments, nothing that didn't match. I LOVED that tree. Everyone else I knew had mishmash, sentimental decor. I wasn't close to that grandmother. But I always wanted a tree like hers. The rest of the family hated that tree. It was mocked for years. (She was my grandfather's second wife, and was not a warm grandmotherly type, some considered that tree to be a reflection of her personality.) But to me, it was soooo pretty. Now, my trees have a theme, or colour combination. And it's very much in keeping with what the rest of my style is at that point in my life.

I prefer red, green, silver, golds, and copper for Christmas decorating (and white depending) and think it happens to go well with my home. I can't really see myself decorating with another style and colors where it clashed horribly. If I eventually did ever find it jarring I'd probably eliminate the offenders and amp up the other colors.

One of the first years in our house DH had requested blue on the tree. I went with colbalt blue, silver, and white. It was a beautiful tree but it felt very cold and out of place in the house. My tree has morphed from fancy to more traditional and somewhat homey. (FWIW, DH has been happy with the tree every year. If the blue was something of great importance to him we'd compromise and I'd have a tree with blue somewhere probably rotating the location!)

I love any Christmas tree no matter where it sits! But ours matches our decor, however this is the first year that has been the case-for the past 25 years we have had the sentimental tree with a mish-mash of ornaments that were what the kids had been given over the years, and to be honest, no one really loved for more than the beauty of a lighted tree, which indeed is special enough.

But this year is different. Our Christmas tree is decorated with red and white ornaments in our living room. Since last spring, we have white sofas and a crimson area rug with a black coffee table in the family room which is next to the living room. The walls in my dining room are red with white wainscotting. Even our front door is red. I love red, though I never wear it preferring berry or burgundy instead : / ? go figure!

Three of my trees match the decor, not necessarily by design but because I like what I like. I don't care for the color purple, so you won't find it in my home and I wouldn't choose purple ornaments for a tree.

But one tree is still dedicated to the homemade and gifted ornaments for my kids. You just can't dictate taste to a preschooler with gluestick and glitter, or to a grandmother who has generously given a keepsake ornament to each of my kids since birth. But these ornaments are precious to my DH and me.

Kind of - I have some darker, more muted bluish red furnishings that clash with the traditional bright Christmas red. I love red and green for Christmas though so I always go for the darker, muted reds and similar darker more pine green vs bright green. I no longer put up a tree but I have other Christmas decor including some ornaments in a clear glass bowl. I did try something different this year and got a couple boxes of mixed colors that are primarily blue. I do have some blue furnishings but the ornaments are brighter and don't really match any of that. I just picked them because I loved the colors - blue is my favorite.

It never occurred to me that Christmas decorations needed to match anything. Our decorations are an explosion of things gathered over time, all of which have family/friend memories attached. A decorator's dream it is not, but it is cheerful and homey. Anyway, after you put enough red and green things here and there throughout the house, voila!, matching.

Second thoughts: if you're just not an explosion sort of person, make the decor match your comfort level. It's all good.

Only one aunt ever made her Christmas tree match her LR - it was a metallic silver tree with all blue ornaments and everyone else HATED it, but it suited her. I don't think I've ever even thought about whether my tree "matched" - it's Christmas which means a riot of colors to me!

I would add that when I did put up a tree it was all about ornaments with personal history and meaning - nothing much that I bought at a store. Many things from childhood, gift ornaments, some I bought as a remembrance of a place I visited, etc.. So it had no color scheme and didn't match anything.

My tree is very neutral so I guess it matches:). I usually buy an ornament or two every year and have done so since ~ 1988. The first year, DH's request was he didn't want a lot of clashing colors. We started off with some cheap silver and white balls and silver beaded garland. I still use them. Over the years, I tried to stick to a feeling of a quiet snowy moonlit winter night. I don't consider it to be a theme, but it is what I try to think of when choosing something to add to the tree. So, color-wise, I have: white, silver, clear, black, deep blue, and a bit of brown (RH brown faux fur tree skirt - it fit my winter night criteria). Nothing fancy or elaborate.

No, lol!! My colors in the main rooms of my house are cool....greys, light blues, browns...and I have a minimal, uncluttered thing going (not modern-minimal, more Phoebe Howard kind of minimal.) Anyway...Christmas is a riot of red, green, gold & silver! When we were first married I tried using a gold and cream color scheme. Then I started collecting sterling silver ornaments. Then we had kids...boom! Christmas decorating (and all of Christmas, really) no longer was about me and my decorating taste....it was about the kids & makng it fun. Our tree is a wonderful collection of memories, and my Christmas decor is mostly gifts from dear friends & family. If you would have asked me if I would like all the red with my normal decor I would have said, "no," but actually it looks pretty awesome! Warms my house up & makes it look cozy...which isn't really what I'm going for the rest of the year! :)

Daki, I did a small tree similar to that one year. I ran a blue strand of lights close to the stem, and then white around the outside. I'd bought moon and stars ornaments in white, silver and gold, and hung those, along with some "crystal"/clear sled ornaments someone had once given me.

However if and when I do a full-sized tree, I am perfectly content to let all the colors just take over and have fun with it for the four weeks the tree would be up. I have too many really nice inherited quality ornaments not to do so.

I also like using lots of greens - ie, live branch clippings, in the house.

PS: this year there will be no interior decorating. I'm not entertaining this season, and I'm busy sorting and packing and figuring out what I need to downsize from, so my living room is a mess of decisions and empty boxes. Yes, I hope to move... someday... soon?

"I have such a mish mash of stuff collected over the years, mostly red and green, and it seems so junky looking and sticks out because I have no red or green in the house.

Sometimes I think about getting rid of all if it and just getting gold, silver and white which will go in any color scheme. "

I totally resemble this remark! I've always used a tropical/nautical theme for my ornaments but also for years picked up various Christmas stuff on clearance in various northern oriented styles like snowmen, reindeer and so on in red/green etc. That was mixed in with kids' homemade craft ornaments and holiday ornaments I'd been given.

Finally I had an epiphany when I realized that not only are green and red not on my preferred list, I literally do not have a single item of clothing or decor feature in those colors and why the heck was I putting up a bunch of mismatched things in that decorating style--not to mention that snow/cold/frosty oriented things also have absolutely nothing to do with not only what I love but where and how I live and decorate which is subtropical all the way.

So I got rid of all of it, and switched to using only silver, white and glass ornaments. And I put away the homemade stuff and use only my nautical/tropical/seashell/sea life themed ornaments now too. I have a touch or two of gold (garlands mostly) but otherwise no green or red to be seen. I lovelovelove my holiday decorating. It definitely matches my house's color scheme and decor style and more importantly it matches mine ;).

One of the things I enjoy the most when putting the ornaments on my tree, is remembering when/where I got each one or who gave it to me. Since I got married for the first time 50 years ago, my tree is pretty much the story of my life - travels, friendships, interests. I could never let any of these ornaments go - they just mean far too much to me, but then I'm a VERY sentimental woman.

Our tree is traditional multicolored ornaments, white lights and gold garland. No, we don't change it to match our decor, but rather we enjoy the traditional ornaments that we have acquired though the ages. We are very sentimental about our Christmas decor and very little changes from year to year.

Yes, my library tree is done in aubergines and golds with white lights to match the decor. Same with my mantel piece.

Yes, or it will. We don't decorate until mid month. But we will be using lots of pink and olive, white, cream, gold and silver. I do have two red tin soldiers, about 2 ft high. They usually guard the door, I may put them at one of the gates outside this year. Otherwise, ZERO red, a color I just do not like.

Not at all. I'm a believer that for Christmas "more is more". Someone started my ornament collection when I was born and I've been collecting them for 51 years. This is the only pic I have on my phone, from 3 years ago. I've since gone up to a 10ft tree.

No, nor would I ever use my Christmas colors of *pink*, lime green, white, and gold, though this year i'm leaving off the lime green. I've been doing *pink*, including pink lights, since I found them on sale 40+ years ago, and thanks to a great Christmas shop in San Diego, had no problem with replacing strings. Now it's thru the internet. The *pink* tree is the tree used in the great room, and while I have several pink ornaments, the majority of decorations are ballerinas, cats, bunnies, angels, fairies/elves, and 'things' I find that are mostly pink. The 'topper' is a 2 1/2' ballerina bunny. In the dining room the tree is a champage color with w/ivory/gold/black ornaments, with a mini black lampshade and a feather duster as a topper. It resembles a majorette hat. The tree on the kitchen counter has ivory/gold ornaments, and is the typical green tree. Powder room gets a black tree with ivory/gold. My MB and DD's bedroom also get trees, usually with white/iridescent ornaments, but I did blue last year. Besides the trees, there are railings, a mantel, and other vignettes here and there. Needless to say, i'm still decorating, but would love to post pictures when I get to the finish line. Although time consuming, it's a labor of love.

Forgot to mention the upstairs family room, which is a mardi gras tree, purple, greem(lime!), and gold.

Oh patty_cakes! I would love to see your pink tree!

ETA: I can't wait to see all of it.

We had a pink tree one year - my father waited too late to buy one, and that's all he could find. My mother decided that only blue balls would look good on it, and so we had a pink and blue Christmas that year. I really liked the pink tree.

Haven't put up the tree yet, getting it this weekend. But the colors are gonna be red, gold and silver. My house is so neutral though, any color would "match."

Didn't even realize I have no green other than the outside garlands and wreaths.

The entire inside of our house is black, white, and gray (except for the kid's rooms); it's a modern house from 1979. Kind of a tree house made of glass, if that makes sense. We have two x-mas trees - the living room tree is black (clear lights, silver ornaments) and the kitchen tree is white (clear lights, no ornaments). When we first moved in to the house, we couldn't find our boxes of ornaments - we ended up making a ton of paper cranes with silver wrapping paper instead of getting new ones. That ended up being gorgeous - the lights on the tree projected the shadows of paper cranes all over the room. We still use those, with little silver balls interspersed. When the tree lights are on, it isn't obvious that the living room tree is black - it just looks like a large, dark tree. And white trees can go tacky really quickly, which is why it's naked except for the clear lights. Both are lovely against the gray walls, black floors, and white trim. They work well with our minimalist/modern house.

Browncoat, that sounds so beautiful and sophisticated. My house was built in 1978. I always feel like it's disappointed I'm not being truer to its roots.

Anglophilia, I'm envious of your green velvet sofa. Love it!

Browncoat, I'm envious of your discipline. My house has no architectural style at all but if it did, I know I would not have the restraint to do what you've done and I know it must look wonderful.

Our tree has childhood ornaments and vintage Shiny-Brite style ornaments and all kinds of colors, but the rest of my Christmas decor (various candles, a little village on the sideboard, all of my poinsettias, etc. are ivory, cream, gold, silver--no red or green. Like everything else in my life, there's a bit of a struggle between the 'trying to be grown up and dignified' and "Shiny! I like it! Throw that on!"

I use a tree skirt that matches my LR's earth tone decor--it's a crewel/tapestry-type child's poncho that I found at a church basement sale more than 30 years ago. One seam has been opened, to allow it to go on after the tree is set up. I place it under the tree, then step away and let my kids do whatever they want, which means that's where the matchy-matchy ends. ;)

Someone needs some eggnog...... :-)

My life has been so scattered, three countries on two different continents, 26 different places after age 26, and my beloved ornaments from my childhood were lost somewhere along the way. I also grew away from thinking of red and green as Christmas colors, although I always had greenery around the fireplace and elsewhere, with gold ribbons and gold and white small balls, in addition to a tree. Now I just have a small tree that my husband had before we met, because my feeling for Christmas is not the same, I'm not exactly well, and there is a very small family circle. Still, so many good things and so much to be grateful for! (I must boast, my husband painted the large picture on the right.)

Lovely painting, Ingrid :)

Can we please revive this thread/post???!!! I have the same question! Hubby and I remodeled and everything is white, on white, on white. We have embraced the minimalist approach (to say the least). Help!

Sooo sounds like you are all set to do whatever....what's your challenge? Gotta say too where the heck did all the threads on outdoor Christmas decor go????

I love seeing the names we miss from the forums these days!

And Iris, with a white backdrop you can do minimalist one or two colors, or go whole hog!