December 3, 2009

Oh Christmas Tree!

I've spent the morning doing two things -- sleeping to make up for a night awake with a sick baby and pouting over my serious lack of video production skilz. Though I've got 33 minutes worth of footage from the tree decorate-a-thon, I will be showing you absolutely zero of it. Instead, here are a few lame still shots of my tree in sections.

Here's my formula for a beautiful {to me} tree:
1. It has a color scheme. {mine is blues, browns, silver and gold}
2. White lights. Sorry, just not a fan of the colored kind, although they would be appropriate for a kids tree.
3. There is a general theme - mine is aviary in nature. But I added a twist and along with nests and flowers took the liberty of adding lots of shiny baubles since I know birds are attracted to shiny things.
4. Since my tree is artificial, it was important to cover up the "trunk" of wires and tags. I accomplished this with dried hydrangeas from my mom's yard and twig balls from Michael's Craft. These filler pieces help to cover up the large areas of dead space towards the center of the tree.
5. A great tree topper. Mine is a vintage St. Nick from a thrift store. I love his peacock blue cloak and beautiful beard.
6. A nice tree skirt. This is essential for artificial trees. With live trees it helps to have access to put water in the stand. My skirt was bought on clearance from Target two years ago and is cream wool felt with embroidered snowflakes. I love it.

And here is the tree all lit up! I could sit here by the tree for hours. At night I love to have all the lights off and sit with the Hubby chatting and enjoying the golden glow of the tree. I am always sad to take it down as it makes the family room seem so naked and lonely.

What about you? What's your formula for a beautiful {to you} tree? Will you send me a picture?






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10 comments:

Aiketa said...

Love it!
As you, I don't like the colored lights... white lights make the tree much more elegant!
I haven't put my tree yet... but maybe this next weekend since it is a long one, since it's holiday on Tuesday in Spain.

Mariona

Aiketa said...

And I also love to turn all light off but the ones on the tree... It's a magical moment for me.

Mariona

Christa said...

What a beautiful tree you have. You have such a wonderful knack for decorating ANYTHING. My tree is not decorated yet, but when I get there perhaps I will send you a picture. I realized that I don't even have one picture from last year. The Christmas tree certainly turns our family room into a magical place when lit at night, I so agree.

Dan and Bec said...

Beautiful tree! This morning I had to put all the ornaments up HIGH so that TESS couldn't reach them (she keeps taking apart the shiny baubles!). I didn't think I'd have problems with a 3 year old playing with the tree this year! So my tree is very much a kid friendly tree right. But I have high hopes of having two to three trees in my home one day, Oh, how I love me some Christmas trees!

Apis Melliflora said...

My favorite thing about the Christmas tree is watching the joy in my children's faces when they find their favorite ornaments. Our overall theme: joyful chaos with a nod to German wooden ornaments, jewel toned balls and ornaments that weren't originally intended to be ornaments.

Don't get me wrong, though. I really admire how pulled together and beautiful your tree is. I sometimes fantasize about what I'd do if I had two trees.

Kasey said...

Beautiful Tree!!! I like your color scheme and choices of ornaments.

Jessie said...

It's just so lovely and very classy. It's creative and unique without being tacky or bizarre. Nice job!
Sorry about the sick baby. Always so hard.

Unknown said...

What a beautiful tree. I do 2 trees also but mine is 1 small one with all white lights and pine cones and 1 large one with lots of colored lights. The balls on the tree date back to the early 1920's and each year we get another dated ball. We have had an angle on the top of our tree as long as I can remember. I will put pictures up on Facebook this weekend.
Thank you so much for sharing.

Tobi said...

Beautiful tree! I love your tree skirt too. If I could have a theme for my tree it would be snowflakes!! With lots of sliver and light blue baubles.

Lori said...

Beautiful tree Sam...I was surprised to see we have similar taste in tree decor...I have a little family history tree that I do with the same blue balls and blue beaded picks you have on your tree...GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE RIGHT??? :-) I will post pictures of it soon. I am waiting for a special delivery in the mail (from Germany) that I ordered to add to the tree! I need your email address again...I sent you a blog invite, but I must have something wrong in your address cause I don't think you got it! Send it to lorizenger@comcast.net