Last year we discovered we had so many ornaments to choose from that we just used the purple ones.
The year before we used only ones with flat sides, no balls.
This year’s theme is “don’t let the new dog knock it over”. We have three guidewires holding it up to the ceiling so when the moose bounds over to the front window to bark at every living thing it won’t fall over - and we’re debating whether or not to put ornaments on it. Right now it’s just lights. Lots and lots and lots and lots of lights. And some ribbon and garland. It’s really kind of pretty. 
Nope. I grew up with a hodge-podge tree, as did my husband. We buy what we like and put 'em all on there. We do try to balance colors and shapes as we decorate, but it’s pretty random. We’ve discussed doing a theme or color scheme, but that’s just not us.
We lost a lot of ornaments last year, thanks to my failure to lock both latches on the cage and the dog’s enjoyment of playing with the pretty balls all over the floor. She also broke branches off and chewed up the lights.
My theme is every ornament I’ve been given in the last 27 years that hasn’t been damaged beyond repair and thrown away. I started my collection at 1 month old and I have a bazillion ornaments each with its own little memory…
…All very carefully wired to the tree to keep the cat from stealing and hiding them.
Almost all our purchased decorations are red and gold. There are other colored decorations thrown into the mix too.
Mine does this year, for the first time ever in life. (Sorry, been watching the Fresh Prince of Bel Air too often.)
Mostly, it was because we have very few ornaments so far, this being our third Christmas together. The first year, we got a bucket-o-balls for the tree, just your standard multi-coloured round ornaments in varying sizes. The next year, our families began giving us ornaments for Christmas. This year, as I was pawing through our slowly growing Christmas rubbermaids, I discovered we had quite a few matte white ornaments. I had a large blue organza ribbon from our anniversary, and the only two sets of lights I had left after decorating the apartment was a long white strand, and an orphaned strand of blue icicles. I buried the blue ones deep in the tree, letting the icicles hang down so the colour was uniform, and wrapped the white ones normally. Our tree is white - because it was the only one we could find on short notice our first year together, that was within our price range. It’s not much, but we grew to like it.
So now we have a “Winter” theme tree. You can see pictures of it here.
If you call, sparse and lopsided a theme. Then, yeah, sure, we have a theme. We could also call it,The “*6’, $16.00, cats knocked ornaments off, dogs ate them, topper’s too heavy, not enough lights, branches bent from cats using it * as a perch-tree”
It provides many laughs.
My tree has an apple theme. When I bought the tree, there just happened to be some beautiful apple ornaments nearby, so I bought them, and it’s taken off from there. I’ve got apples of all sizes. Shiny apples, sparkly apples, gorgeous crystal apples, silly apples. . . whatever I find. There’s other stuff on the tree too, mostly red. There’s a secondary theme: cardinals.
The tree is in a store room, where it can be seen from outside, but is safe from the dogs. I really really want to put a second tree up in front of the living room window, but after reading the other posts here, I realize I’m kidding myself if I think the dogs won’t destroy it. The dogs get very excited about anything that moves in the front yard; every window that faces front has had to be replaced with unbreakable plexi-glass after being shattered by the dogs. The tree wouldn’t stand a chance.
“Controlled Chaos”
Growing up, our family tree looked like dad stood across the room and threw the box of ornaments at it, and whatever stuck stuck. On the other end of the spectrum, I think my grandmother could have done the Queen of England’s tree it was decorated so perfectly. I swear she used a ruler as part of her decorating equipment.
My wife and I try to find some middle ground between these styles, and hope that our son and/or dog doesn’t wreck it.
Here’s a picture of our tree three years ago (it’s the only one I have on hand), so you can see what I mean. See how it’s nice? Not too messy and not too neat? See the pretty lights? How about that star?
See the child about to fall backwards into it and knock all the ornaments off of it?
Our tree is decorated with gold wire ribbon, rather than shiny garland, and white lights. I only use ornaments that are sort of ‘stuffed’ (little Santas, angels, snowmen, etc.), crafty, homemade and homemade-looking stuff.
No balls. I detest balls. That’s all we ever had on our tree growing up and I won’t have them on MY tree now!
My mother loves antique ornaments, so our tree tends to have lots of antique and antique-style ornaments on it.
My aunt, on the other hand, used to have a Star Trek themed Christmas tree, complete with an Enterprise for an angel.
We had that tree! Once I was looking through a batch of pictures at my Mom’s house and I ran across this photo of a crooked, beat-up little Charlie Brown Christmas tree. I laughed and said, “Hey! Whose lame, pathetic excuse for a…oh.” It was mine.
We have two trees.
Upstairs in our living room where we spend most of our time is a large, 7 1/2 foot tree with hundreds of lights, and hundreds of red round ornaments and a few in silver.
Downstairs we have a smaller tree, with old fashioned ornaments and tinsel.
Speaking of tinsel, I learned this year it is really a bad idea to stand holding tinsel when the televsion is on and you are only a few inches away from the tv. Really bad idea.
Same here.
Yes, my Christmas tree does have a theme. The theme is “cheap plastic.”
I’m very particular about Christmas trees. Fortunately, my wife is Jewish, so I have free reign.
- Real tree
- Lots and lots of tiny white lights, no blinking
- Only hand-blown glass ornaments
The overall effect is sparkly and magical.
The ornaments have been purchased a few at a time at after-Christmas sales. Finally, after ten years together, we’ve accumulated enough that we’ve been able to retire most of the plain colored balls we were using for filler.
And if you only buy ornaments a few at a time, each one has a memory associated with it. The kids get very excited each year as certain favorite ornaments come out of the tissue paper.