Tree Decorating

Decorating the Christmas tree is one of my favorite past times.

Growing up in a Catholic family, we celebrate St. Nicholas Day on December 6th each year.  That night, St. Nick (aka my parents) would fill our stockings with candy, fruit (which I never ate), and an ornament.  They always chose an ornament that was specific and meaningful to each of us kids as individuals.  Every year we decorate the tree, and reminisce over our past years' ornaments (while watching Elf).

What this means is that we don't have one of these intricately themed trees

via

Sure, I love the gold and red color-schemed trees.  Or the silver and blue trees.  But to me, there is nothing more beautiful than the trees that are filled with mismatched ornaments.  A hodge-podge, if you will, of random ornaments.  Trees where every ornament presents an individual and a moment in time.  Some of my ornaments reflect a specific time in life, such as my scrapbooking-obsessed days, my first Christmas back in '84, or my first year in college at Mizzou.  Others reflect my every day life, such as a wine glass (no shame).

This is a tradition that I have carried over into my marriage.  Nick never celebrated St. Nicholas Day but he was more than willing to participate in this tradition.  Not only because it's fun, but it's a good way to build our ornament collection.

As soon as we got back from St. Louis, we put the tree up.  Sadly, it sat, naked, staring at me for a few days.  I was working every single evening and by the time I got home between 9pm-10pm, I was just too exhausted (ie crabby) to partake in such a fun event.

Which kind of worked out for the best, because we needed a new tree skirt and I didn't have time to buy a new one yet.  You see, my husband is a hater of the color red.  Yes, red.  He's not even willing to deal with it during the Christmas season.  I make him suck it up in small doses because it's one of my favorite colors. He also loathes glitter.  (Which, I can understand.  It is the herpes of Christmas.  It spreads like crazy and you can't ever get rid of it.  Just when you think it's all cleaned up, you find more.  And now it's spread to other parts of your body and you inevitably leave the house with glitter on your face.)  Finding something that's not red and is glitter-free, for Christmas, is damn near impossible!!!

But last week, I stopped by Hobby Lobby after work and found the perfect tree skirt.  A sapphire-like blue, no glitter, but it did have sequins so it satisfied my girly side.  We bought a new tree topper last year and this blue tree skirt was going to match perfectly!

Home I went, put that bad boy around the tree, put on my awesome Christmas Pandora station (that I've perfected the last 4 weeks) and we got to decorating.  Of course there were lots of "awww"'s when we picked up ornaments that had a lot of meaning to us.  Those ornaments usually provoked some bickering over who got to put it on the tree.  (Things such as the Cardinals snowman or our ornament from our Jamaican honeymoon.)  And of course there was some yelling at our all too curious Weim who isn't aware of how large her ass is, almost knocking over the table of ornaments.  And some whining from me because Nick wouldn't stop taking such heinous photos of me.

Once it was finished, we cuddled on the couch, with nothing but the light of the tree and read.  A simple, relaxing evening.

( no flash | flash )

Yep, only the best tree topper ever!  We aren't big angel fans (mainly because they usually look super creepy or are a little too vintage-y for our taste) and all the stars look like they were made for a third grade craft fair.  Anything remotely attractive is upwards of $50 and we're frugal.  To me, over $30 is just ridiculous for a tree-topper.
A saw this hat last Christmas and realized this would be the perfect tree topper.  It puts all other trees to shame.

And now that the tree is decorated, I'm sad.  I have to wait an entire year to decorate it again!  Not cool.  At least it's pretty and I get to admire it every night while I sip on my wine or my spiked hot cocoa.

(It's time for Honest Hour.
If I'm being 100% honest, we'd like four more trees.  I want one for our bedroom.  We have a large space in the corner that could easily fit a tree.  Who wouldn't want to lay in bed and have a beautiful tree to stare at?
Nick  also wants a mini-aviation Christmas tree (he has so many helicopter and airplane ornaments).
We'd like another large one for the loft (which I envision being one of those beautiful and ornate trees I mentioned at the beginning of this post.)
And just one more...in the dining room.  Since it's in the front of the house and currently does not have a dining room table in it.  It just seems like the logical thing to do.
But, I'd say buying three large trees and one small tree aren't really in our budget this year.  Which makes me a sad elf.  My plan is to hit up Goodwill's after the holidays and various stores when they're all clearanced out.  That way, next year, I can have this ideal Christmas house full of trees.  Some might say it's overboard but to them I say, 'Go home, Scrooge.  No one likes a South Pole Elf!')