What is Your Christmas Decor Theme?

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...I figure one day they will all be gone and I can have everything decorated just the way I like it - and I'll probably be crying my eyes out that the house is so empty!
And the following year you will decorate with all the tacky stuff to bring back the memories!

I guess you could say that I'm about halfway between traditional and tacky in my decorating tastes!

:)Barbara
 
Predominantly Red and Green here, but I like lots of shiny silvery glittery stuff too, I even put a small tree in my Lab ;)
 
I love all the colors and I have collected everything from angels - santas - snowmen- candles & holders - stockings - you name it.
I guess I have more snowmen than anything. each year I pack everything very carefully because a lot of it is glass or fragile. It all goes in the shed after new year.
I didn't have the energy to put up the lights last year. My property is surrounded by trees and you can't really see much of the house from the road so if I do it it's mostly just for the family. Not gonna run extension cords to the trees. I do like the indoor lights, so festive.
 
In 2008, I had the honor of getting to know this sweet lady. She reminded me so much of my mom that I felt drawn to her immediately. She helped me through some tough times and I just had to show her how much I cared for her.
This thread was to see what all everyone did, but, my goal was to see what CJ liked at Christmas. Fitting too that angels were her favorite. I found a beautiful angel doll and sent it to her for Christmas. She loved it. I hope she put it out every year and remembered how much she was loved by this Texas girl!!
I will miss you so much CJ!! The Toso family will always be in my prayers and my heart. God Bless!!!

I love Christmas and enjoy putting up my tree. My oldest daughter always comes and helps with the lights and setting out my angels..My tree is done in silver and gold, crystals, the only colors would be the robes on the angels, we have a lot of balls that are mirrors, lots of icycles and white lights...My dinning room buffet is white and silver ...I do this mostly for the little ones, you should see the ooo's and ahs when they see it the first time. It's as if it's brand new and you don't mind the work so much. Dh is a darling about helping take it all down so I don't mind and after being sick and wondering if I would even put up a tree last year, I'm looking forward to this year...I'm wishing everyone some joy and peace and a quiet evening just looking at your tree and the flickering lights and remembering how it was when we were children.

kadesma
 
When I was little we always put them up on the Sunday before Christmas Eve but when I first became a householder in my own right I followed the German/Austrian tradition of putting them up on Christmas Eve. Not that I and German or Austrian, I just liked the tradition. Now I've gone back to the Sunday before Christmas Eve as I follow the tradition of keeping them up until January 6th so they are up for Christmas, New Year and Twelfth Night (in case I run mad and have a party over the holiday). For me, November is far to early to decorate. If absolutely essential there could be an excuse for putting them up on the first day of advent but I feel that is still pushing it a bit.

This year in shops and magazines the fashion seems to be white and gold. Very pretty and an improvement on last year when it was black including black Christmas trees - I know some people find Christmas depressing but that was going a bit far! I usually go for red and gold and a real tree, with the mantel over the fireplace got up with off-cuts of fir branches and holly from the garden, artificial berries if there aren't any real ones around and pine cones sprayed gold. And, of course, Christmas cards.

Over recent years a practice has grown up around here of decorating the outside of your house with fairy lights and illuminated Father Christmases, snowmen, reindeer and, for some reason American type steam railway engines with cow catchers on the front. In some districts this seems to have become a competition to see which house has the most garishly lit with every plant in the front garden festooned with coloured lights. (Oh dear, I hope this doesn't make me sound like an awful snob!)

Talking about muddling your festivals, the local supermarket here had hot cross buns on display a month ago (for the uninitiated these are a sweet yeasted cake made with dried fruit and spice and with a cross design on the top, traditionally eaten on Good Friday, the Friday before Easter Sunday)!!!!
 
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When I was a lot healthier, I would have all the grandchildren over the day after Thanksgiving. All my decorations for the tree were made of wood and child safe. I would put the lights on the night before and then let the go to it. I had some very interesting trees over the years. I always let my kids decorate the tree.

When they were done I would take the Pillsbury cookie rolls, cut them in half and each kid got to make cookies. When they were done, I had a big pot of cocoa to go with the cookies. At the end of the day, I collapsed. :angel:
 
TexasGirl - I am so glad you re-posted Kadesma's Christmas post from 2008. It is very touching and appropriate as she passed away right before Christmas. Thank you!
 
I have a green tree and a white tree and my tree looks different every year. I have boxes and boxes of trimming in the attic, labeled with different color themes. I guess I have about 6 different themes that I rotate. This is probably the first year in a while that I haven't bought a new color theme. The rest of the house is also decorated to go with the color scheme of the tree. Last year was "Candy Tree." I used the white tree. The garland was made to look like gum drops strung on a string. I baked ginger bread men women and children ornaments and my husband painted them. I bought any ornament I could find that was "candy" related. Ribbon candy, candy canes, toffee, and actually hung some chocolate candy santas and snowmen that people could take off and eat if they wanted. It was cute. This year I'm doing "Old Fashioned Tree." I have a few old ornaments, but most of them are just made to look like the ornaments of the 50's. One year I printed out a picture I found online of a Thomas Kinkaide tree and went shopping and bought similar ribbon and decor to duplicate that tree. It was pretty. I get a lot of my ideas from looking at the display trees the stores have decorated. I definately have too much time on my hands.
 
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At our Knoxville place we have a blue tree. No ornaments. Just a blue tree. We think it looks prettier without ornaments.

At our Gatlinburg place we have a lime green skinny tree with ocean-themed ornaments. We call our place The Beech House and decreed no mountain-based (bears, moose, etc.) will be displayed when we bought it. Instead we made it a coastal theme. We figure if we ever buy a house on the coast it will be called Bearfootin' and we'll have rustic furniture and black bears everywhere.
 
My theme is Cat Proof and Cat Compatibility and Cat Friendly. I moved a table away from one of their favorite windows to make room to set up the tree. I hang non breakables on the lower branches with long enough cords so they can bat them around. The most fun I';ve had so far was actually putting up the tree. They both kept hopping in all the boxes of stuff and preferred that as opposed to the activity.

Lots of lights on my tree, and I usually light the fireplace this time of year. No other lamps on, and it's pretty cozy in the living room.
 
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I have a few different themes and I really need to get them organized in their own bins this year.

This year, the year of our wedding we did the tree in our wedding colors, teal blue and purple, it's a new theme.

I have a red and gold theme, a blue and silver theme, and a silver and gold theme.

Some years I just do a mix of stuff and make it look more old fashioned and non themed to showcase the ornaments that are special to us, that tree has multicolored lights.
 
Most of the time the tree is decorated pretty traditionally and I like lots and lots of shimmery icicles. The kind that have to be draped over the limbs and get all over the carpet as the holiday goes on.:rolleyes:

This year, the big hand-carved nativity that Buck and I put together on our many anniversary trips to Shepherdstown, WVA will be replaced with most of my nutcracker collection. We'll have lots of little ones around this year and I'm going to turn this year's theme a bit to whimsey.

Most of the rest of the house gets decorated with plenty of greenery (artificial) and many, many tiny lights. I really enjoy the sparkle they give when they're tucked in here and there.

I've included some pictures of this year's outside front entry decor. It's done in a slightly childlike manner, which I think the grandchildren will enjoy. The front door wreath is one we've had for several years and love.

We also have 3-foot tall lighted "L-E-O-Ns" flanking the studio. Looks pretty at night, along with the little lighted tree in the sleigh on the table and Frosty who changes from soft red to soft green. There's also a large Moravian star on one side of the front, which gives off a gentle white glow.

If you didn't get the LEON reference, it's just my twisted sense of humor. They're candles that have "N-O-E-L" embossed vertically along the length of the candle portion of them. I can't help myself, for years I've been calling them, "LEONs."
 

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I just picked up our newest tree.

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For those of you who have real trees, what do you do with them after you take them down? A few years we stuck ours in the snow out in the back yard and filled it with balls of suet rolled in bird seed and then hung on the dead tree. It kept the birds fed for many weeks. It not only gave the birds food, but a place to hide from the cold wind. My kids loved sitting in the kitchen window watching them.

Now, our city will provide free a large bag to place your tree in for pickup. :angel:
 
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