The type of tree you have can say a lot about you. First off, real or fake? Although there are merits to both, the people here at The Belair Road Blog Project prefer their trees living at the time of selection. On the other hand, the people here at The Belair Road Blog Project also prefer not to have to water the dying tree every day- like I said, merits to both. If you do choose the living guy you have another choice to make: which kind of living tree? This year, we went with a blue spruce, which we have never tried before. I give this tree a 10 for branches -- many strong ones for hanging heavy ornaments -- but a 4 for needles -- the prickly little guys complement my personality, but they stab little Pepper on the nose when she tries to sniff our shrubby friend. Still, the blue spruce is a nice addition to the living room, and as Dad put it, it looks very German. Okay, Dad.
The first thing to don the tree is lights.
Pictured are some classic white lights with green wire. Another option is to use colored lights, but for the past few years this has been a white-light family. (For a few years we had a string of all white lights, except for a few pink, blue, and green bulbs thrown in. Random? Yes. Reason? None that I'm aware of.) From what I've heard, untangling and testing strings of lights can be tedious and time-consuming work, but I wouldn't know (thanks, Dad!!).
Next, ornaments. There are a few basic types of ornaments that are usually seen on most Christmas trees.
First, the homemade or personalized ornament. These can range from ornaments with family members' names, as shown here, to ornaments made during a class Christmas party. Our tree has both types, plus a few others.
Next, the store-bought ornament. Cute and loved by collectors everywhere. The very best place to buy Christmas ornaments has always been Hallmark. They always have quality ornaments and cute series ones too (like the Snow Buddies seen here). This is one of my favorites -- you knew I'd have to sneak an owl in here somehow!
Finally, the simple, always-classy Christmas ball. Christmas ball ornaments are great because they come in a variety of colors and you know they will look nice no matter what. Sometimes you can even get balls with pictures or unique surfaces (for instance, we have a set that comes with faceted ball ornaments). This type of ornament is a must for the classy collector.The final piece is the tree topper. For our topper, we use the belle of the Christmas tree ball, the angel.
Please excuse our angel, who looks like she is about to take a midnight flight. An angel is a good option if you want your Christmas tree to be guarded at night; however, I have always found angel-toppers a tad creepy. For a more secular Christmas, substitute a star for the tip of your foliage.
No tree is complete without a creepy Santa head!So, real or fake, blue spruce or frasier fir, white or multi-colored lights, homemade or store-brought ornaments, Christmas trees and their decorations are an integral part of the Christmas season. Tonight, give your tree a big ol' hug for being so gosh darn wonderful. (Or don't. I won't be hugging mine, because that is one big prickly jerk.)
Laying under the tree, a la Grey's Anatomy.
Option 2: Scrap the whole tree thing and decorate a mini one, complete with mini ornaments, mini lights, mini tree skirt, mini train, and mini (but empty) gift boxes underneath.
Faster set-up, more compact, and less clean-up. :)
Merry Christmas!!
This is the best blog post I've ever read. I like how our angel looks like she's had a little too much eggnog. She should take a cue from the flying Santa in our room...
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