Christmas Trees!!!

Has anyone put their Christmas tree up yet? Any piccies?

I love Christmas trees. This years' theme for us is hard to define. I've got black, brown and dark orange (or 'saffron' ) tinsel; black, brown, saffron, yellow gold and cream coloured baubles and some glittered twig-type stars. Non-coloured lights. Cream coloured base trim. Brown and cream ribbons.

Wil post pix when I get it put up!

I was going to put mine up this weekend, but I slugged out instead. I did have to redo my living room to accommodate it. It's an artificial tree that's seen better days. Mainly because Smokey thinks it is there for him to climb.

Not going to do a tree this year because of my kitten.

You could have a wee artificial one -- stand it atop a shelf or something.

We haven't put up any yet but the recurring theme at Christmas in regards to decorations is redneck tacky.

Redneck tacky? Is that like loadsa lights and stuff?

The bigger and more obnoxious the better. They've gotta keep the neighbors awake at night and cause passenger jets to land in the road out front.

Summerteeth, watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation if you haven't seen it already. Clark Griswold was tame compared to some of what I've seen.

I've said it before but here's my family's Christmas tree tradition:

The tree gets set up like, a day or two before Christmas--nothing on it, just a nekkid tree.

Then on Christmas eve "Santa" decorates it. So when you go to bed it is just a plain tree but the next morning it is magical and Christmas-y. Now that us kids are grown up, the Santa illusion is more or less gone, but the tree still gets decorated on Christmas Eve.

Then it stays up until the Feast of the Epiphany. Or whatever day that is that the Magi finally caught up with them.

we have a similar tradition...

well not really

but we put up our tree a day or two before Christmas, not because Santa decorates it but because we just don't get around to it.

but we leave it up until epiphany also.

They recently had a feature article on Yahoo! about the 15 best Christmas Trees from around the world. I thought I'd post them here...

Personally, I think this list is kinda dumb. They have an unknown place with three pathetic looking trees, and some of those places seem like they're there just to include as many places and cities as they can. I know of a few places in my city that have trees that best some of those. Still, some of the locations are cool.

Mine is up and decorated...will post pics later!

You want redneck tacky? Behold, Lanzman delivers!

I'm not sure if I'm awestruck or disappointed.

If you put some coloured glasses/bottles behind the green ones and then have lights in them that could look very nice when light-up...
Here in Holland most people don't put the tree up until december 6th because of Saint Nicolaas' "birthday" on December 5th...
So we don't have it up yet...

Been to Gubbio (know a guy there) but I wasn't there during Christmas. I have a poster of this tree display on my bedroom wall.
Gubbio has a cool tradition in May called the "Corso di Ceri" where three different teams carry huge wooden structures up to the chapel on the top of a hill (not the hill in the picture). The point is not to come in first (order of the teams is set before the race) but to carry the thing without bumping into the least amount of stuff/people.

I'll post our tannenbaum in a couple of days (gotta get a new camera)

Lanzman, is that really your tree? If it is, I am truly impressed. It should've made the Yahoo! list, IMHO!

It looks like you put some tinsel inside the bottles there, but I am not sure whether or not it's just the reflection I see.

Shit! Dan celebrates Festivus!

I put thee tree up last night, and got the lights, tinsel and baubles on it. Was too exhausted to finish it off though, so will do that tonight!

I'm disappointed though, it doesn't look as good as it did in my head. The orange kinda jars on my eyes

Not to tell you how to celebrate your holidays, but it is odd to me that you chuck your ornaments each year and start fresh. Is that an English thing?

In America, especially if you have a family, you collect ornaments. That way each year, you can remember how old someone was when you got that ornament. We've got ornaments on my Mom's tree that my (long-dead) grandparents got when they were little.

No, it's my own personal retarded thing.

I don't chuck them from the previous year, I keep them in colour co-ordinated boxes and pick a theme. The only ones I've bought this year are the black ones.

I also get drawn by shop window displays and magazine pictures. I'm such a sucker.

My mum and dad have all the heirloom decorations from my dad's family. They'll probably go to my sister as she likes them more than me. My grandparents on my mum's side had a house fire and lost everything, so none from there.

So my Mom and Dad had one of them aluminum trees. Like a 3' hokey little aluminum tree from the '60s, with red balls. I decided it would be cool to have, but I was living 90 miles away. So my Mom sent my brother to drive it over. He never showed up. Allegedly he got lost a couple blocks from my place, gave up, and went home (this was in the era before cell phones).

Now they're cool, retro, and all the rage and my brother has it in his bar. Fucker.

Well, my place is still a bit of a mess and we're still working on stuff but you get the general idea:

No, it's not my tree. We're not putting up a tree this year. It's a picture one of my uncles emailed me. Probably ricocheting around teh intarwebz even as we speak.

My family had a good collection of "heirloom" Christmas ornaments. Somewhere during one of their moves (this being after I was moved out and living in Maryland), the boxes with the ornaments went missing. We've no idea what happened to them all. My mom was NOT happy.

It's so.... small.

my family wisely decided to switch back to real trees this christmas and then plant them after the season.

needless to say, i am stoked about going home.

Annual conversation, early December...
Other half: 'When do you want to put up the tree?'
Me: 'Christmas Eve'.
OH: ''
Me: 'Why ask then, you know that's what I always answer!
Invariably, the tree goes up a couple of days later...
We only ever buy baubles and decorations as and when old 'uns need replacing. We've still got some daughter made in Nursery.