Oh Christmas Tree…
When it comes to Christmas traditions and decorating for Christmas, the Christmas tree is the first thing I think of. If I do nothing else, we have to have a Christmas tree. One year we arrived in Germany the end of November and we were in temporary housing for Christmas, but we made sure we had a little tabletop tree with mini decorations, because it just isn’t Christmas without a tree. Another year my kids had a big mess in their playroom blocking the entrance to the attic and being the brilliant mom that I am I told them I wasn’t going to get out the tree unless they cleaned it up, thinking I was a genius and that was the only incentive they needed. When they didn’t meet the deadline (as in didn’t do it at all), I then had to be the good mom that follows through with consequences and I didn’t get the tree out. However – it still wasn’t Christmas without a tree so I had a small tree on my front porch that I brought in on Christmas eve to put the presents under. I’m a good mom, not a total Grinch.
I grew up with mountains and my family would bundle up and trek up into the mountains and my dad would cut down a tree and drag it down the mountain. Our first Christmas together we lived in Cheyenne, Wyoming where it’s something like 140 below in December and the wind blows 24/7 which makes it feel even colder and if you step outside your nose instantly freezes into solid ice. But it was our first Christmas and I had to have a real tree so we went to a tree lot to pick out a tree. The wind was bitter cold and because I’m a perfectionist there was something wrong with every tree we looked at. My poor husband had finally had enough and told me he was going home if I didn’t soon make a decision, so in a huff I just grabbed a tree and we took it home. That poor tree had a large branch that took a sharp 60 degree turn about halfway up and not matter how much sawing and cutting he did, he could not make that tree stand up. (All of this he had to do in our little apartment with a hacksaw, by the way.) That was our last real tree. He finally gave up and told me I could have any artificial tree in the store I wanted. I picked out a really nice one, except - do you remember when you had to put each branch individually on an artificial tree and add your own lights? Yeah – it was one of those.
The next year we lived on base and we got out our 7 1/2ft Christmas tree and it was too tall for our 7’ ceilings. We traded it for a car and then bought a shorter one which we used for several years until we bought a lighted one that came in 3 pieces instead 125. Over the years we’ve had toddlers and tabletop trees, kittens and shatterproof ornaments, trees with no ornaments on the bottom 1/3 of the tree, and one year we had a fence around it – whatever it takes to have babies and still have a tree.
This year, I have no toddlers, no kittens, and I have vaulted ceilings. I can have a 9 foot tree for the first time ever. One of my kids asked me why I wanted a tree that tall and I told them “duh! Because I can.” Last year I priced 9ft trees and nearly choked. Then I waited. One day in January I was walking through the store and there was a 9ft tree for 75% off. This made it $100, plus I got a 10% military discount, which made it $90. It barely fit in my car, but I snapped that baby up and brought it home.
We plan to have Christmas by the fireplace downstairs, so I’m putting up my smaller tree with all of our traditional ornaments down there, so I decided I wanted a designer tree that matches my room for my tall tree. I decided to go with a blush, white, and silvery blue-green color scheme. The problem was coming up with enough decorations for a tree that tall without breaking the bank. The solution? Ribbon. I started collecting ornaments as soon as Hobby Lobby put out their Christmas stuff a few at a time. I bought 36 balls – 18 large ones for the bottom of the tree and 18 smaller ones for the top, 24 other ornaments in 2 different shapes and colors, and 24 snowflakes. To fill in the gaps I bought wire-edged ribbon and picks. The picks give it dimension, and ribbon can do the same thing, depending on how you use it.
What I wasn’t prepared for was how long it would take climb up and down a ladder umpteen times to wrap all that ribbon and put on the decorations at the top! Below I have posted links to two videos showing how to use ribbon on a tree several different ways. I did three types here. The blue-green ribbon I used as garland and wrapped it around the tree. Then I hung the iridescent mesh ribbon loosely in a cascade vertically to add dimension. After I put on the ornaments and some blue-green picks I used the blush (not pink - I hate pink) ribbon curls to fill in any blank spots.
You can find the first video here: 5 Ways to Hang Ribbon on a Tree
And the second one is here: 4 Easy Ribbon Tutorials
Just watch your step or you could fall down a rabbit hole of hundreds of ribbon and tree decorating tutorials. I watched one where someone had 4 trees in their house, all with different themes and apparently they change the themes every year. I feel lucky to get one tree up the day after Thanksgiving and hope to get my traditional tree up downstairs in time for Christmas. And don’t expect next year’s tree to look much different than this year’s. Why improve on perfection? Unless…
I find a fantastic deal after Christmas on a flocked tree, and then I will sell this one in a heartbeat. The flocked trees today are not the flocked trees I remember from the 70’s. So start decorating that tree and get some ribbon to go with it.
