Thursday, December 15, 2011

Oh, Christmas Tree!



Today I am sharing our Christmas Tree. I wanted to have it ready for last week's Christmas Blogger Block Party, but, good gracious, I couldn't get it all done! There is just so much going on and I love it, but blogging got pushed to the back burner :-).

Over the past years, I have occasionally done a themed tree. I have a huge storage box filled with everything for a beautiful tree in which all the ornaments are silver or pewter. For a while I alternated: one year the "silver" tree and the next year my "real" tree. The silver tree is lovely, but, for me nothing says Christmas like a traditional Christmas tree! Mine has evolved over the years. At one point I had a few quilted ornaments and some that seemed a little "country". For quite a few years I added small bunches of dried baby's breath placed randomly throughout the tree as the finishing touch. It was so pretty! Probably the funniest one I ever had was the year I decided to have a "depression" tree. It was the year I moved to Hattiesburg, MS and I bought the sweetest little house you have ever seen! It was a little cottage that was built in the late thirties or early forties with tall ceilings and hardwood floors. Anyway, I got this idea to have a tree from that era (in my head this all made sense!). I still laugh as I think about my mom telling me "Lisa, in the depression, please probably didn't have a Christmas tree! Nonetheless, I went ahead with my plans. I got a large cedar tree and added huge old fashioned colored lights. I used my sweet, simple ornaments and added vintage looking, shiny, very breakable, glass ornaments. I even added tinsel! My sweet Daddy got me a little red wagon to put underneath the tree and I also added teddy bears around the bottom. I wrapped all the presents in plain brown paper. It was adorable! Sadly, this is the only tree in my twenty something years of having my "own" tree that I don't have a picture of to keep as a memory. The poor cedar dried quickly! When my parents came to see me right before Christmas, my mother insisted that we take it down before I went to their house for the holidays. Somehow I had neglected to take a picture! I can still see it though!

Today our tree is filled with traditional red and green ornaments. I try to add a few new ornaments each year. Some years I treat myself to a new Radko :-) I always look forward to choosing my wrapping paper. This year I couldn't find paper that I loved, so, thinking back to my "depression" tree, I decided to use brown paper with simple red and green ribbons topped with red berries. Sweet and simple is best!

My mother made this little felt ornament many years ago!
I love Radko!

I made this little ornament in Sunday School when I around 7 or 8 years old.

I love this poinsettia ornament because it belonged to my mother.




This blue Radko cross is so pretty!!



Brown paper packages - love them!

I can not get a clear picture of the tree! This is just included so you can see the entire tree instead of just bits and pieces!

What are your favorite Christmas tree decorations? Traditional family favorites? Fun and trendy? Themes? I would love to know which is your all time favorite!

As always, thanks for visiting Buttercup Bliss!

This week I am linking to the following:



3 comments:

  1. Lisa, your tree is beautiful. Isn't it so special to have those little mementoes hanging there to remind us of our mother's unending love? I have wrapped in brown paper and used brightly colored ribbon and even whimsical ornaments on my packages countless times over the years. I had trouble finding paper I liked this year as well and almost resorted to my tried and true brown paper. My tree is so blingly this year that my momma can surely see it from above so I settled on some equally blingy wrapping paper and ribbon. Will get it posted at some point..... Are you counting down the days to the holiday break like I am????

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  2. Your tree is beautiful, I love all the ornaments and the brown paper wrapped presents are awesome!
    I love ornaments that the kids make! My favorites are the gingerbread ones on my kitchen tree though.

    Merry Christmas!

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  3. Lisa, You're tree is beautiful! This year my daughter Taylor called to get the recipe for homemade cinnamon ornaments for her own tree!! Time sure does fly, and it IS the little things your childre will remember when they start their own traditions away from home!! ----karen

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Thanks for visiting Buttercup Bliss! Your messages mean so much to me! Lisa