thinking ahead: how do you decorate your tree for christmas?

I am super excited for the holidays this year because it is the first year we will be getting a real christmas tree. I started thinking about getting new ornaments which made me think i better figure out how i'm going to decorate it soon so i can buy little by little.

We have the same ornaments / style every year. We try to get an ornament from every place we visit. However, my mother has a different "theme" and color scheme every year.

do you change your tree's scheme every holiday? or do you stick with the same ornaments every year?

Re: thinking ahead: how do you decorate your tree for christmas?

I need to have a color scheme.
I can't stand when there are 400 colors going on on my tree.
I need the tree to match the decor of the room it's in.
So all my ornaments, decorations and bows, etc must be in the same color scheme.
And white lights.

Re: thinking ahead: how do you decorate your tree for christmas?

I've always wanted to try a rustic themed tree...with burlap and pine cones etc. but then my glass ornaments will be too shiny and glitzy for that, I think. I stick to traditional christmas colors...pearly white, gold, red, burgundy. Although the ornament we got from our anniversary in montauk has sky blue in it and sticks out like a sore thumb lol.

last year my mom did a "mardi gras" theme. She had a black tree with teal, purple, silver and pink decor with some peacock feathers in it. It's not something I would have considered but it did look pretty cool when we were done decorating.

Message edited 9/25/2013 10:11:29 AM.

Re: thinking ahead: how do you decorate your tree for christmas?

I stick with the same theme (silver & blue) but we collect ornaments so I have those on there as well.

Re: thinking ahead: how do you decorate your tree for christmas?

When DH and I had our first Christmas together... we each had a few ornaments from our childhood or from parents etc, but not enough to decorate a full tree...

So we splurged at the dollar store to fill up our tree. Mostly just various colored glass balls etc.

But each year since - we always buy ornaments when we're on vacation or see something we like and have now replaced all that dollar store stuff with sentimental ones.

We mostly have alot of shapes, colors and sizes of glass ornaments...some old style metal ones from DH's mom...lace snowflakes, lots of snowmen and santas.

And last year for the first time DH won the tree topper battle... I've always had angels and that's all I wanted, but we found a great crystal star that I fell in love with.

So needless to say - our style is random and eclectic... but that's what DH and I are so it fits!

Re: thinking ahead: how do you decorate your tree for christmas?

The only things I change are the topper, ribbon, tree skirt (sometimes) and I will add different colored balls depending on which color I'm leaning more towards that year. But on the whole, I don't do something completely different because for me, 90% of my ornaments are very special and have meaning and I want them on the tree EVERY year.

So when I do get bored with the look of the tree, I just change up the ribbon or tree skirt and add a few different balls for some color. Those simple changes give the tree a different look while still having my special ornaments hung on it.

ETA - I ALWAYS use white lights, a combination of some steady and some that slowly twinkle. Never colored lights.

Message edited 9/25/2013 10:30:31 AM.

Re: thinking ahead: how do you decorate your tree for christmas?

I don't have a "theme" at all. Some years I do white lights, some years I do colored lights.

As far as ornaments go, I have been collecting ornaments for over 20 years. I refuse to buy "boxes" of ornaments. I buy one or two unique ones at a time. DH and I also buy at least one Christmas ornament from every vacation we take - I have some beautiful murano glass ones from Venice; a Beefeater that I bought in Harrods, etc.

I love decorating our tree because it brings back so many amazing happy memories.

thinking ahead: how do you decorate your tree for christmas?

this year, we're getting rid of everything except the sentimental stuff. with our upcoming move, i don't want to drag that stuff with me.

we'll be decorating with home-made ornaments along with those old sentimental ones.

very simple this year.

Re: thinking ahead: how do you decorate your tree for christmas?

I don't have a theme, just a ton of ornaments bought over the years. I try to buy a new Santa ornament every year.
White lights are a must, as well as the star lights.
I don't like too many different colors on the tree, or crazy ornaments.

Mostly I wind up with silver ornaments including old silver glass pinecones, red mushrooms, and my mom's collection of Santa ornaments that I kept going after her death.
Some blue stars and gold hearts complete the look.

Maybe this year I'll change it up, put up the old wooden and pewter ornaments from Germany.

thinking ahead: how do you decorate your tree for christmas?

Always the same. Red and gold are my color scheme. White lights. And then we have the special ornaments that color doesn't matter for, but in general the color scheme is always red and gold.

Re: thinking ahead: how do you decorate your tree for christmas?

i always use white lights too...BUT I think one year i'd like to do a retro christmas tree with colored lights. Or maybe i'll just do a retro christmas tree for the kids in the basement. I don't particularly want elmo and big bird on my christmas tree so last year i had 2...one for my son in the basement with the "kiddie" ornaments. and one in my living room.

thinking ahead: how do you decorate your tree for christmas?

we have white lights and almost all of our ornaments are maroon and gold and some green. there are a few sentimental ones as well. I also have a maroon and gold bow on top with ribbon down the sides

thinking ahead: how do you decorate your tree for christmas?

Ain't nobody got time to theme a tree. I dread having to put it up every year and would gladly skip it but DH likes having it up. It is pretty but then taking it down is torture. The only thing I do is get an ornament with the year on it every year.

So we have year ornaments, ornaments from trips we've gone on, plain balls, icicles, and red bows.

Message edited 9/25/2013 10:48:51 AM.

thinking ahead: how do you decorate your tree for christmas?

theres a lot of different colors and types of ornaments but its a lot of silver and gold

thinking ahead: how do you decorate your tree for christmas?

my sister has all lenox ornaments

Re: thinking ahead: how do you decorate your tree for christmas?

I've been collecting Hallmark ornaments since I was 10, so that is the majority of my tree. I'm not big on the round glass colored ornaments. I have a pretty decent variety of colors and style, but the majority are the hallmark ornaments. Last year I strung popcorn and it looked amazing! I have an angel for the top. I don't use tinsel or garland, just the popcorn.

Since DD is little, we do colored lights to make it more fun for her (but not the big colored lights with the vibrant blue, the little colored lights that have yellow, red, green, and a faint blue).

thinking ahead: how do you decorate your tree for christmas?

My tree is prelit and its white lights. My tree is a hodgepodge. The expensive sentimental ornaments go on top. The lesser expensive ornaments we rotate each year because I went ornament crazy over the years and the bottom is balls from target and the dollar store. We have cats so with the bottom ornaments there are always some casualties each year.

Re: thinking ahead: how do you decorate your tree for christmas?

No theme.

Multi-colored lights, red/gold garland wrapped together, mish mosh of ornaments.

I may switch up the garland this year and that's about it.

I loooooooooooooove tinsel but hate the mess.

Re: thinking ahead: how do you decorate your tree for christmas?

No theme, all my ornaments mean something to me. I love taking them out every year and reminiscing about when I bought them and what was going on in our lives at the time as I decorate the tree. I'm pretty obsessive about how I decorate it too. It takes me like three hours to decorate it.

Re: thinking ahead: how do you decorate your tree for christmas?

I wouldn't say we have a theme, but a majority of our ornaments are red & green. We also have some ornaments from when we were little, as well as ones that we've collected throughout the years we've been together. Every year we purchase a personalized one with the date, when we go on vacation we pick up one from our vacation spot, only use white lights, and gold tinsel.

thinking ahead: how do you decorate your tree for christmas?

I would love love love to do a theme, but dh won and we have what I lovingly refer to as a mish mosh tree. I do collect Lenox ornaments though, and once we redo our house with a master suite ill be putting a second tree in our bedroo each year with white lights, gold balls, and all of my Lenox ornaments. I can't wait lol

Re: thinking ahead: how do you decorate your tree for christmas?

Re: thinking ahead: how do you decorate your tree for christmas?

We have 2 trees...one in our living room with white lights, red plaid ribbon, and crystal ornaments, the other in our family room with colored lights and all of our kid's/family ornaments...

Re: thinking ahead: how do you decorate your tree for christmas?

We don't have a theme but all of our ornaments are pretty sentimental. Every year since we first started dating we've bought a personalized ornament. The ornament usually depicts something that happened that year - engagement ring for the year we got engaged, key for the year we bought our co-op etc. We also have an ornament from each place that we've gone on vacation and lots of Beauty and the Beast & Superhero ornaments since those are our obsessions! LOL

All white lights.

Re: thinking ahead: how do you decorate your tree for christmas?

We don't really have a theme, but DH has a collection of Hallmark ornanmets tha tis family has been buyignhim sicen 1980, s othey were domiantiong our tee, We now put up half--the odd number d ones in odd number years and the even ones in even number years, plus the previous year's ornament.

My other ornaments sort of have a rustic and vintage them, because I like those & buy those, but there is also a lot of random stuff on the tree.

We do add in new ones and purge a few things, but we don't overhaul it every year.

If you want to change the overall look, the easiest way is the garland, skirt & topper. We have been doing cranberry beads for a few years, but we did ribbon before that. I wouldn't buy a new skirt & topper every year, but you could get 2-3 and rotate to change the look.

If you use ribbon as garland that is inexpensive enough to change every year.

ETA- my LR is light green and everything else is neutral, so it doesn't clash with the tree. We go back & forth with colored vs. white lights.

Message edited 9/25/2013 1:24:49 PM.