Thinking of Christmas

Christmas Dreams

source: Country Living

I don't decorate for Christmas till after Thanksgiving.

I think it's just wrong to do before.

Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday all it's own and 

I hate how it gets lumped in with Christmas and doesn't get paid enough attention all it's own.

However...even though there are no decorations out in my house,

I am thinking about it.

source: Country Living

source: Country Living

source: Country Living

source: Country Living

I am getting anxious to pull out all my storage bins full of my vintage ornaments.

After this Thursday I'll feel panicked that I don't have my outside lights up.

But I just try not to think about it till Thanksgiving is over. 

For me Christmas is all about the decorating and pretty much nothing else.

I'm obsessed with it. 

How I'm decorating.

How my friends are decorating.

How the decorations look around town.

I know there is a deep reason for the season...

but I just care about how it looks.

I'm shallow like that.

Really, I'm not shallow but how things are decorated is of the utmost importance to me.

I'll forgive anything but a poorly decorated Christmas tree.

My Christmas Tree Decorating Rules

follow these rules for an extraordinary tree

1. Lots of lights and they need to go up and down the branches if your tree isn't already lit. 

Get them by the trunk and work out towards the end of each branch.

(this isn't as big an issue as it used to be since most trees come prelit these days)

2. Big balls go towards the bottom and tucked inside the tree towards the trunk.

3. Put balls inside the tree, near the trunk. this gives the tree depth. 

Balls all up and down each branch

(pet peeve of mine is a tree with all the balls out there on the tips...no...no...no)

4. If your ornament collection is of all different types of ornaments in all kinds of colors...

go buy several boxes of plain colored balls to disperse throughout the tree. 

Like 60 red balls sprinkled throughout or 60 silver ones. It will tie the whole tree together. 

I love a tree with special ornaments on it collected over the years....its very special...

but when you add a unifying color...the whole tree will come together suddenly 

and not look hodge podge.

5. You'll need smaller ornaments to put at the top of the tree

6. You need way more ornaments than you think you do. 

My tree limbs will be drooping under the weight of it's ornaments.

7. Oh..most important...use floral wire to attach your ornaments to the tree. 

I have a white tree so I use white wire.

Using wire you can make the ornaments closer to the branch and vary how much ornaments hang down.

This looks so much better than hooks.

And you can leave the bits of wire on when you put the ornament away. 

They'll be all set to use next year.

8. Use something unusual as a tree stand. I use a large urn which is my favorite but I've also used
large galvanized buckets too which look great. 

Fill the urn or bucket with white rock or I'm currently using those glass pebbles that all craft
stores sell with the floral stuff. Walmart has them for the very cheapest.

Cut a pvc pipe that is larger in diameter than your tree post and put it in the center of the container
andfill the pebbles around it. Then your tree pole just slides into that pvc pipe.

Then I cover the top of the pebbles with faux snow and white glitter.

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