I use an artificial tree because my mother is allergic, so I grew up with a fake tree. My fiancé is also allergic, so I’m not going to be changing. I might be allergic, for all I know - I’ve never been in a house with a real tree for long enough to find out.
I will not have an angel on my tree. I find them unattractive as an adornment, most of the ones available for sale are horribly tacky, and it brings too much religion into what this atheist celebrates as a secular holiday.
This Christmas, I will have glass ball ornaments on my tree for the first time in my life, as I am finally living in a place where there are no pets or small children to which vintage mica-frosted Shiny Brites will pose a hazard.
Live tree, live candles. Yes, you have to be careful. No, we´ve never set it on fire.
Decoration: wood and red, a few figures, straw stars. Classic Scandinavian style.
Live, table-top sized tree, purple chile pepper lights mixed with white lights. Non blinking, because that drives me crazy, although Mr. Spooks likes blinking lights. Mexican painted tin star on top.
Farolitos (luminarias) out on the roof and along the front path.
Rico and I will be coming up on our 3rd Christmas together. So far we were able to both compromise on the previous Christmases. Let’s see what happens this year
I like to change the lights each year. Sometimes I like them solid, sometimes blinking. Both years they’ve been steady. I think it’s time for blinking or running or blinking to music.
I also have enough lights to have multi colors, solid colors or mix a couple colors or have white. The first year we had blue/white and last year we had multi. I’m thinking red this year. But to tell you the truth, as I’m sitting here thinking about it, I’m not sure where I’d put the tree in our new apt. so there might not be one this year. Or maybe one that I used to put on my desk at work.
As for the tree topper, I have an angel and a star but the one that I like to put on most often is a cream/gold old world santa.
Decorations: must be unbreakable! and no stringy things that can be eatten by curious cats since we have 3 of those. They all seem to like to explore the tree, try to climb it, etc.
Most of my decorations are more a celebration of the season so to speak rather then just Christmas. If I’m going to the work to decorate, it’s going to be up for awhile so I try to make it a celebration of pretty much everything that is celebrated between Thanksgiving and New Years… including a couple menorahs.
If Christians are willing to adopt such a fine pagan tradition, why shouldn’t I?
We usually buy a tree that is too large, cut it down to size, bring down enough decorations from the attic to decorate twenty trees, go out and buy a new tree stand every damn year because the previous years model has mysteriously disappeared again, spend two hours trying to get the tree to stand upright, and then we decorate the thing with ornaments(including every Star Trek ornament Hallmark ever put out), upteen strings of almost-working lights, and enough tinsel to hide every fighter jet the U.S. has from radar. A Hollywood hooker on a Saturday night looks less gaudy, I swear!
Colored lights, non-blinking; my daughter and I go out and hunt a real tree every year. Our ornaments range from ancient fragile glass lovelies that have been handed down from our parents to the Hallmark figurines which just look so damn cool.
5-foot artificial tree and a combination of mis-matched ornaments and blinking/non-blinking colored lights. All of which are put on the tree with such skill and artistry that it looks like some sort of huge mythical creature spewed on the tree. (If, indeed, huge mythical creatures spew mis-matched ornaments, etc.)
And I agree with Czarcasm…gotta have tinsel. LOTS of tinsel. Load it up until you have enough tinsel to stop an anti-tank round from point blank range.
White, non-blinking on a good quality 6’ artificial tree, the rest of the decorations are blue and silver themed. Although i think that red and gold would work, especially if i had lots of little versions of the puzzle box from hellraiser hangind off it.
I rarely get to have a tree, sniff. I loves that old time religion. (sorta, not really, I just think Dec 21 is the happiest day of the year, I’m all about celebrating days getting longer!)
Lights, colored or not AS LONG AS THEY DON’T BLINK. Blinking lights will make me do very bad things. Very bad things that will result in no lights at all.
Ornaments, I’ve got el cheapo glass balls, not so el cheapo German made vegetable shapes, a few little Hallmark thingies, a few home made things, a few tea balls with Rosemary, Cloves and Cinnamon sticks in them to add to the aromaticness of it all.
I’ve got neither an angel nor a star. Hmm, I’m liking that Mexican Tin Star idea, next time I’m home.
Special Message to Spooky: Ese bro, nice farolitos! Do you have any bizcochitos to spare?
cajela It must be where I live - in the redwoods of California. You may have heard of tree-sitters protesting logging? Julia “Butterfly” Hill and Luna? I live in that neck of the woods.
'Round these parts there are some circles where it is considered poor form to cut down a tree for any purpose - even those planted as a cash crop, though the same folks are often vegetarians who don’t feel bad about eating vegetable cash crops. Go figure. Anyway the done thing is to have a tree in a tub which you can then plant after the holidays.
