08 December 2010

It's beginning to look a BIT like Christmas

I've been working on setting up my five Christmas trees. This is no small task! When I first decided I wanted to have multiple Christmas trees in our house, my initial plan was to have a themed tree in every room. I'd still like to do that, but for the past few years I've been stuck at five trees. When I think about the amount of time it takes to set them up and take them down, plus the amount of space it takes to store them, I generally come to my senses! Of course, I'd much rather have real trees but I have my doubts that that will ever happen.

Although they're a lot of work, I enjoy how the trees look when they're all festively decorated and lit. I especially like to see the sparkly lights of multiple trees through the windows of the house. Even Scrooge would say that they're cozy and welcoming!

We purchased the large tree with money we received for our wedding, so you know we've had it for awhile! In fact, we may replace it one of these days. For the past few years, I've been setting it up in our entryway. There is plenty of room for it and the lights can be seen from the street. The big tree has a variety of ornaments, many of which are handmade. This year, I set up four ceramic village houses under the tree. (So far, Lily has stayed away. We'll see how that goes!)

I also have two "fat" 5-foot trees and in recent years, I've been putting one in the dining room and one in the kitchen. When my grandma passed away a few years ago, I received all of her Shiny Brite ornaments. I dearly love them and have been displaying them on the dining room tree. This year, the kitchen tree has more of a folk art theme, with a set of Cosmo Cricket ornaments, red apples, and tiny red hearts. I sometimes tie metal cookie cutters to this tree, too.

I have two 5-foot skinny trees which have moved around a lot through the years. When Daughter was young, one was in her room and featured a variety of colorful ornaments. Some were from my old college tree, and many were handmade or given to her as a young girl. This year, I put a pencil tree on the landing and decorated it with a variety of gold ornaments. It fills the space and provides a little bit of sparkle as you look up the staircase. The other pencil tree is in the living room this year. A set of old world Santa figurines hangs on this tree, along with a few Shiny Brite ornaments.

Over the years, I have collected a LOT of Christmas ornaments, although I've bought very few myself. Many have been given to me as gifts or passed on to me from someone special. I have easily enough ornaments to decorate three to five more small trees. I enjoy mixing and matching the ornaments to create different themes.

This year, I came upon a large glass jar in our basement which had belonged to my grandma. I filled it with a few blue ornaments. Some are from the set of blue Christmas ornaments we bought when we were married and a few are Shiny Brite. It's a great way to display a few more ornaments and add a bit of color!

Many of the ornaments I've collected have a special history associated with them. One of my goals is to write all of those stories.

But not just yet. I still have a Dickens Village to set up! :)

1 comment:

Kristina said...

They all look lovely!