To Christmas tree or not to Christmas tree…
That is the question. I’ve been trying to decide if I feel like dragging the Christmas tree out of storage this weekend and putting it up. I know I should but honestly it sounds like a lot of trouble. Sabrina is too young to care one way or the other and we will be out of town for the holidays. But, my mom is coming to celebrate after Christmas so I feel like perhaps we should put it up. I really do love decorating the tree every year. I just hate putting the chickenbussing thing together, fluffing the 3o24 branches, and putting lights on it. That and the fact that the tree is so big and I’m not sure where it will fit. I thought about just buying a little baby live one (think Charlie Brown’s tree) but that would require me digging out all of the Christmas boxes to decorate it and then cleaning up needles for 7 months. Right now the only sign of Christmas is our advent calendar.
We aren’t because we have a tornado here that would destroy it(not to mention the cats!). I have a small one I’m thinking of putting on top of my desk.
A little one is a good idea, but I know what you mean about still having to dig out the decorations.
When I was a military wife, I celebrated some holidays alone due to deployments…or we went “home” for Christmas. So I decorated the house without putting a tree up. It looked festive.
Eliza loves the tree… we have it hooked up to our lamp light outlet and it turns on by the switch… she loves flipping the switch every day (sometimes multiple times)
It is her 1st Christmas home… I say even if you have to buy a small potted evergreen to decorate… go for it.
(*** I HATE THE NEEDLE CLEAN UP TOO***)
I am having this debate with myself too. We always get a REAL tree, but it is all just so much effort. Bah Humbug.
I have to unlurk…put up a tree of some sort!! I just bought small trees and small ornaments for each of our kids’ rooms. It really didn’t cost that much, and the kids love them. You just can’t have Sabrina’s first Christmas in the US without a tree!!
We put ours up this week and I have been so surprised that Pilar hasn’t messed with it at all. In fact, she doesn’t seem to notice it too much… so I know what you mean about Sabrina being too young to care. However, some pictures of your cutie by the tree would be sweet. Maybe get a small fake one?
We put up our old fake one this week. I hate fake trees. We usually have a real one and a fake one up, but my husband doesn’t want a real one up with 2 cats and 3 kids. I say it’s not fair since I’ve always had a real one and the kids haven’t even touched the tree. You might be suprised, she may not touch it.
I couldn’t face dragging the big tree out of the attic, so I bought a new one at T@rget – one of those skinny ones? it’s really cute and i picked up some red ornaments in a box to use. it took 3 minutes to put the tree up and about an hour to decorate, all for about $100. i wasn’t excited about spending extra money this time of the year, but in the end, it was so worth it. it also saved me a day of digging around in the attic.
cheaper than a real tree, too!
We still havent put up the Big tree. If it were up to me it wouldnt go up. I hate the whole process of putting it together. We are either going to go cut one ourselves or just buy a real potted one we can plant in the Spring. We have 3 trees up in the house 4ft, 3ft and 2ft. The kids have each claimed one and have decorated theirs how they want. I vote you go to JoAnn Fabrics and just buy one of those skinny tall ones with the wood trunk that are prelit.
Hmmm…well…if you dig out the tree and put it up and it doesn’t fit, you’ll be up a creek…hmmm… I say get a small live tree or a small table top tree and put it up. A single string of lights will set you back maybe three bucks. Just having a tree with lights and no ornaments is very pretty. We had a small table top tree in our bedroom every Christmas for years…just lights, no decor and it was very pretty and festive.
We did put up our tree this year. I made a fence-o-presents around it to keep Miss Emma away… Because like Alleen, I have a tornado on my hands.
God bless.
Put it up!
17-month-old Elise swoons at every tree we’ve passed in every store this month. Sabrina won’t remember this year’s tree, of course, but she will enjoy the lights–and YOU will enjoy and remember them both.
I haven’t put up a tree in 5 years. I don’t miss it. 🙂
Put up a tree. Doesn’t have to be your big one. Our thirteen-month old is loving it….and we love watching him and his 5 year old sister enjoying it.
just get a small little one. They are only like $30 and just don’t keep it up for a month and you won’t have to worry about needles.
We got a really small one at a local discount store this year – it’s maybe 4 feet tall and it was pre-lit. For quick storage, and laziness, after Christmas I’m going to put the whole thing in one of those small Christmas tree storage bags.
I usually am quite the X-mas decoraor – I have a TON of stuff and usually am excited and enjoy placing all over the house – and do not even mind putting it back up
OK – this year
UUUMMM– not so much!!!!
The thought of fighting with a seven month old Diva that can crawl and pull up on any and everything in our hous~~ that is NOT on my list of things I want for Christmas!!
I usually put up three – YES three trees – this year – I have one little dinky tree in a room the littlle guys NEVER enter:)(thank God for gates-right?)
so
my house looks like it did this summer – with the exception of ONE tree.
I feel wierd about it – but I am just too dang tired to do it any other way!!!!!!
Julia:)
We haven’t managed to get our big tree up, decorating is hard with a 15 month old watching every move. But I was inspired to do a theme tree after purchasing some ornaments from Erin in Antigua. So I bought a prelit 4ft white tree from Joann’s for $29. So it is decorated with items from Guatemala and/or adoption related. It is on the coffee table in the family room. Alexis loves to look at it but she has not touched it yet. Hope I didn’t jinx myself by typing that. But I can’t imagine not celebrating our first xmas home without a tree. Plus where is Santa going to put all of Sabrina’s gifts 🙂
i’m a big fan of the real tree (we even did a live tree one year, but that’s another looooong story) but we’re skipping it this year. the boy gets into everything and i can’t be fishing pine needles out of his mouth for a month. we will put up lights and stockings and such though- like jane says, it can be festive and not a pain in the, um, fanny.
Call me scrooge, I haven’t gotten mine out yet either. I don’t have the gumption this year. Oh who am I kidding, its a fight every year to fet the damn thing up, lol.
i also got a small 4 ft tree that was pre-lit. kaenen loves it!! it makes for some frustrating times when he constantly pulls off the ornaments, but also some really great pictures! it also warms my heart to see him look at the tree and all the ornaments with such wonder and excitement!!
it is a pain to do the tree, but once it is up, I don’t regret it at all. I bet Sabrina would love the tree…and what better time to teach her that the ornaments ARE NOT in fact balls that you throw. 😉
Thank you for your wonderful blog! I’ve been following it for months now.
My blog has gone private. If you would like an invite, please email me at
sweetangelplus4@yahoo.com
And by the way, we drug out our artificial tree. Our newly adopted 2yr old daughter loves playing in it ;o)
Hugs, Esther
Okay, pull out the tree, leave off most of the back branches so it fits in a corner and doesn’t take up as much space, put any ornaments that have any sentimental value on the top half of the tree, tell Sabrina “don’t touch”, drink a nice glass of wine and have yourself a merry little Christmas!
Michelle, seriously, you have to do a tree…even if it’s a small one. She’ll only have one “first Christmas”…go ahead and do it!
dont ask me
not a menorah nor a dreidel in sight here in the ATX
We have a very nice small one from Hobby Lobby. It is all one piece and comes in a pot-like base.
Gail
Oh – just go to Targe’ and buy one of those fancy sparkley pop up ones. No lights, no bulbs – it’s got the glitter and sparkle all in one! Your done!! That’s what I would do if we were going to be gone!
You don’t have to fluff a real tree. And we have hardwoods and live in the land of pine needles so it isn’t much of a bother for us.