General Chat

Uzzi :-) I nearly spat my coffee laughing at "I have 10 window stickers and a 6inch tree " lol each to their own, it's the spirit inside which is more important ( and no I don't mean the alchohol lol).

Thankyou for all the replies, I've still only got as far as starting to write a list and put up a card holder :-|

Oh that is not nice Bob. ;-)

Poor fairy, she only comes out, like a Deb, for about 2 weeks every year, shoved on top the tree with a light up her skirt.

No wonder she has an impassive expression on her little chubby cheeks.

:-D

Rose I go for minimalist and then have fun if you come to my house and find a deccy you can have a drink :-D :-D :-D only joking (just)

I have 10 window stickers and a 6inch tree

bah humbug

The reason for the fairy on top of the tree. On the run-up to Christmas one year, Father Christmas was run off his feet, in a really foul mood, some of the elves had gone on strike, Rudolph was at the vet, Mrs Christmas was nagging him something awful. In the middle of all this, in came the fairy and asked "Father Christmas, where shall I stick this tree?" I don't need to tell you what his reply was, do I?

When the kids were small we used to have those long rolls of crepe paper chains.
I spotted that each year there seemed to be fewer - eventually discovered that|OH took them down and threw some of them away :-S

Of course, by the time it was obvious they were no longer made. :-|

We always used to have a real tree, at least 6-7' tall, and put all kinds of decorations on it ........ a few old, some bought by us over the last 48 years, some made by daughter, etc etc

but we haven't bothered since she got married 15 years ago, largely because we are usually away for Christmas, and there doesn't seem any point in putting up a live tree the weekend before Christmas, going away, and coming back to clean up the needles and put all the decorations away!!

In fact we have only spent one Christmas Day at home since she married ........ and that was the when OH had had colon cancer and a large part of his colon removed, so we were banned from leaving the city for 3 weeks. A friend felt sorry for us, so brought over a tiny ready-decorated table top artificial tree for us to have!

All the boxes of decorations are still stored away in the basement.


We do buy a live green wreath for outside ................ I used to make it myself, but don't have access to all the greenery that I had when I was working at the Garden. We now attach it to the outside of the railing around our sundeck, so it can be seen from the street.


I talked to our daughter earlier today, and they had just been out to a tree lot where they chose the tree, then cut it down. Like us, she usually decorates it with all kinds of ornaments acquired over the years, several of them ones given to her, her husband and their son by parents or godparents more or less from the birth of each one

Awwwwwww, poor fairy.

I have a fairy friend, love him dearly & he's 66!

btw......... I'm not being awful, he makes jokes about being the fairy at the top of the Christmas tree!

We/I tend to decorate the tree in 2 colours out of red, gold, green, blue and silver. Depending on the Choice for ths year, it'll have either a gold or silver fairy on top. The only 'old' decoration we'll add to the baubles is a robin my mum acquired.

As we aren't expecting visitors until into the New Year we've toned it down.
Any cards we receive get blue-tacked to the living room doors, the plastic wreathe will get hung on the front door & OH will be persuaded to put up what he calls the Blackpool Illuminations. They're only a string of twinkly fairy lights around the porch!

To a certain extent those 'perfect Christmas ' programmes paint an unrealistic picture. 'Normal' people don't have the time, skill or space to create a magazine setting. When we can't achieve the media promoted expectations it can make us feel depressed. Bah Humbug.

We have a tree (artificial over 25 years old and still looking good), these days mainly red, silver, white and gold on it, have had phases of colours in the past though. then I have two floral(artificial) arrangements, a couple of cut glass bowls/vases filled with coloured baubles, and about five foot long coffee table height arrangement of snow scene with cottages, church, shops (6 of them) and small figures. We have lights in the back garden on the fence and apple tree and round the front of the house.

When my parents started dating in 1978 my dad bought my mum 5" high soft red mouse called Charlie. To this day Charlie still hangs on a tree just below the star. My mum goes through phases with the tree some years we just have two colours of baubles on the tree and other years everything gets flung at it.

We always have garlands on the fireplaces though and a wreath on the outside of the lounge door and a metal hanger on the inside of the lounge door for Christmas cards. :-)

Good luck with that Von :-D :-D

Rose
That reminds me we do have a lively puppy visiting over Christmas :-D :-D :-D

Joan we had one of those paper balls for many years, till it couldn't be repaired any more :-) and I do still have a mobile with red apples made in the same way.

The fairy went I'm afraid, as did a little pipe cleaner doll made by my primary school teacher in about 1964.

Von, that would be nice, I used to spray poppy seedheads and the seed heads of yellow iris ( when dry they spread out) and they looked nice mixed in with holly and such.

One bugbear is that I don't have any window ledges which I used to decorate with china ornaments and jugs.

Which reminds me lol, Dan and I did a snow scene with hills and little ornaments etc on the deep ledge of our bay window in our old bungalow, which our neighbour much admired, but it lasted about half an hour before the cats discovered it and decided that the white 'snow' which was made of white packing material ( a bit like cotton wool) draped over 'bumps' would be the cosiest place to sleep :-)

Rose
Like you I'm low on Christmas enthusiasm as well. :-0
but I am thinking I might make a few changes this year.

Having said that I did watch Kirsty but wasn't very impressed but I did like the arrangement on the mantlepiece which I might try. ;-)

I usually put the same ornaments, collected over the years from Christmas markets, out on various surfaces.
We'll see :-D

Oh what a shame Rose. All decorations have a memory attached to them.

Our fairy still sits on top of our tree with a light up her skirt. :-D

We have had her about 40 years.

You know the expression............No-one loves a fairy when she is forty?

Don't believe it.

<3

Your decor sounds nice MotownGal :-)

I did loose some of the oldest decorations in a fire about 9 years ago, but my favourite tree decoration is a clear red plastic star within a circle which we've had since I was little ( nicer than it sounds especially when it's positioned in front of a fairy light) and a cardboard robin garland that was bought about 20 years ago from Past Times.

We don't have decorations strung around the rooms like we used to when the kids were small. They used to do the paper chains and Beloved hung them up, along with all manner of other sparklies.

We do have two big mirrors, one in the living room, one in the dining room, and we hang a wreath and decorations on them.

We have a big tree, and I hang every bit of tat I can find on it. All the decorations that the kids made at school, ones they bought me over the years, and others I have acquired over the years. Fairy lights and tinsel too. No lamenta though.

A family member has a very 'tasteful' tree, just one colour for all the decorations. I have never seen such a miserable tree in all my life. Mind you, I could be biased.

:-D :-D :-D

Just trying to whip up some enthusiasm for Christmas ( non existent at the moment) and wondering whether you go for subtlety in your decor or whether you go all out for glitz and glamour? Do you like traditional or modern? A colour 'theme' or just every bauble and old decoration in the box ;-)

Did you watch Kirsty this week? :-) I'm not a big fan of 'alternative' trees with crocheted chains, barbie dolls, or plastic cars hanging off. My heart yearns for all those beautifully decorated huge trees you see in the movies, roaring log fires, sweeping staircases etc...none of which is even remotely likely as a large tree in this house would mean we couldn't get in the room, there is no fire, and the staircase is orange pine 1980s and has rails not spindles :-(

But I do like my Chinese lanterns :-)