Our tree is up along with all the decorations around the house, two weeks ago. That was the earliest we’ve ever decorated our home for Christmas. I blame the cheerful Christmas movies playing on T.V. Or maybe it’s the thought of having our Christmas tree up so we can enjoy it a bit longer. Also our tradition of setting up the tree is something we look forward to every year. Church in the morning, a lovely dinner, baked cookies and hot chocolate with marshmallows. All while decorating the trees and listening to Christmas music throughout the day. Yes, you heard right we have two trees, which is very common these days anyways. We have one tree in the basement for the girls to decorate and enjoy. That one includes a lot of homemade ornaments that we have made throughout the years. The other tree is on the main floor and as of now I get to decorate it all by myself. Partially because this tree has a lot of sentimental ornaments and breakables, but also just because I love it.
Although I like real trees, I prefer artificial ones but I have to say our tree looks pretty real in comparison to others. When we moved into our house, I knew exactly where our tree would go. As I mentioned before, we have this nook right between our upstairs and downstairs. A perfect spot for our tree to be seen and enjoyed all through the season. Therefore we purchased a pre lit, eight foot slender tree complete with acorns. The only down side to this tree was that eventually the lights died. So we recently purchased new lights and added them to the tree, I opted for warm white. That way the ornaments stand out which is exactly what I wanted.
First things first, once the tree has been assembled on it’s stand I begin by spreading each and every branch apart. I take my time doing this, so that the tree ends up looking fuller and ready for ornaments to be hung. This year I had to add lights to it, so I started from the top and carefully placed the lights on a downward spiral. I left some slack in the back to be able to plug it into the outlet. Then the fun part can begin, the decorating of the tree. I should mention though that since my tree is slender, I prefer not to add any overwhelming garland to it. However I do love decorative picks that I can insert accordingly. Therefore I start off with that first. These silver ones in the picture below I purchased last year from Walmart.
From there I begin to add all the ornaments that are sentimental, to be honest we have a lot for such a slender tree. But without each and every one, our Christmas tree wouldn’t be as magical. I start with these ornaments first so that they all have a special spot on the tree. I even go as far as placing the ornaments in such a way to tell a story. For example, I start off with an ornament at the top of the tree from Bahamas that we picked up on our Honeymoon. From there I move slightly down the tree and I add an ornament from our first Christmas together.
Other sentimental ornaments include baby’s first Christmas, which again is added to the tree next. Along with ornaments that have been gifted from family and friends. Such as this lovely moon and star that was given to my youngest from her Godparents.
I even have some handmade ornaments, that my mother made for our tree. Which coincidentally are in my accent colour that I have throughout our home. Along with those I purchased a few more ornaments to continue my accent colour to our Christmas tree. The beautiful hummingbird seen below, I purchased a few years ago from Canadian Tire.
My parents a few years ago upgraded their light fixtures around their home. The old fixtures had real crystal strands and my mom knew exactly what she could reuse them for. Therefore I was fortunate enough to get a bunch for my Christmas tree as well.
These are just a few detailed pictures of my favorite ornaments. To be honest I look forward to collecting more, even if I’m running out of space. Furthermore once I’ve placed all my sentimental ornaments I continue on with hanging the rest. I have a wide variety of ornaments from different shapes and sizes to ranges of cost. I make sure to spread out similar ornaments and leave no blank areas on the tree. I also make sure not to group same coloured ornaments together even if their different. I even overlap ornaments and sometimes I use the same branch to to hang more then one. Larger ornaments like balls, I hang on the lower half of the tree and medium to smaller balls on the upper half of the tree. As for my tree topper, it’s a large silver beaded star from Home Sense that I purchased years ago.
So that’s how I decorate our Christmas tree, I hope this blog inspired you in some way. Whether it made you want to put up your tree right this very moment or perhaps just decorate it differently. Either way it’s still the most wonderful time of the year, or a least in my books. I truly enjoy this season, spending it with family and friends and making wonderful memories. All the traditions that come with this holiday are thoroughly enjoyed in our family, such as decorating our Christmas trees.
