Christmas Trees--heavy decorations or no?

In My Humble Opinion
21

I used to be partial to the tastefully understated method of decoration, but after 13 years of children in residence, we have an astonishing collection of tacky/homemade/far-too-cute/sentimental ornaments. What makes it all truly amazing is that we didn’t even put up a full-size tree until last year, since our old house was too small for one. We used to decorate a 3-foot Norfolk Island pine tree with the lightest ornaments and just put the others away. I didn’t miss having a big showy tree, since the kids’ grandparents always get a real tree and we spend Christmas Eve and morning with them anyway.

Last year, after we moved into a house that’s big enough for our family, we bought a six-foot artificial tree, a couple of strings of lights, and three boxes of simple glass ball ornaments. I also broke down and let the kids each get one box of four painted glass ornaments. I thought that the tree would end up being simple and elegant. Much to my surprise, after the children dragged out all the ornaments that we’ve been saving all these years, it turned out to be a huge display of tawdry sentimentality.

And I love it.

22

So far as I’ve heard, lights on an aluminum are a no-no since they pose a fire hazzard, much moreso than other artifical trees. That’s why they have the color wheels for them. I may have been misinformed, but that’s what I was told by all three people I know who have them…

I like the multi tree idea. The tree in the living room has ornaments from every decade since the 60’s and is rather heavily decorated. The tree in my room is much less decorated, and only has blue and white ornaments on it. They both look like Christmas to me :stuck_out_tongue:

23

All the tree decorations are neatly packed away in boxes. These are numbered 1-22. Considering that I have only reached box #8, I would have to assume that I will soon have a heavily decorated tree. And every year I buy more decorations. I went with simple for the longest time, but the dear old SO kept insisting "more!, more! In his opinion, a tree isn’t decorated until you can no longer see any green.