How do you decorate your Christmas tree?

Help!
I’m no decorating queen—combining colors and stuff just isn’t my thing. We just bought our Christmas tree, and somehow I think the ornaments I have in the basement are kind of lame.
I’ve always decorated the same way: either red and gold or blue and silver. Totally boring.

 I’m going to go buy some ornaments tomorrow. But I have absolutely no idea which direction to go in. Do you have any ideas?

If you’ve already decorated your Christmas tree, feel free to share a photo.
(Just make sure to mention that it’s your photo.)

Thanks

Well, I’m totally old-fashioned about that: my tree is decorated the same way every time—very colorful and not at all “stylish”! To me, it’s the tree of my childhood. And there are also lots of old things hanging on it that I already knew as a child. Over the years, Christmas tree decorations made from gold foil that my children made were added—and by now I’m getting handmade things from my grandchildren. I think it’s beautiful and not boring at all, because every ornament has its own story.
The only change: Since I don’t have that much space in my apartment, I’ve replaced the real candles with small electric ones. That just feels safer to me and has the advantage that I can turn the lights on from the early afternoon until late at night and enjoy the Christmas lighting mood for much longer.
Here’s a (unfortunately not very good) picture from last year:
(By the way, I also made the nativity scene myself.)

Since we painted the wall in the living room, the one the Christmas tree stands in front of, dark turquoise, I thought the red ornaments looked absolutely awful with it...
The last two years, I’ve kept the tree in turquoise, pink, and white. Ornaments, bells, white wooden reindeer, and snowflakes. I hate tinsel, but lots of (cordless) candles are really important to me. Real ones are too dangerous for me. The picture shows last year’s tree (it was almost too big for the corner).

Ever since we bought the house, we’ve always gotten our Christmas tree from our own yard. It’s not really pretty, but it’s one of a kind.

We decorate it the same way every year. Over the years, we’ve collected ornaments, baubles, and homemade decorations, and these are what adorn our tree. A garland from my daughter’s kindergarten days (she’s over 30 now), little snowmen my son cut out when he was a kid.  Christmas ornaments from various vacations. Sometimes something falls and breaks, but now my grandson is already making his own crafts to fill in the gaps.

As I said, it’s not pretty, but it’s one of a kind. A Christmas tree full of memories

As for the color, I can really only advise you not to go with green... I’d crocheted these green ornaments with silver thread—I thought they were sooo pretty... and then I hung them on the tree...

I had to really search for them... they blended in so much that they were barely noticeable. I only kept that decoration up for one year.

When a friend asked me if I had any ornaments left for him, I gave them to him to get him started.
He’s Muslim and Nigerian, but his daughter saw a tree at preschool and really wanted one just like it—only he had no idea what you needed for that—now his daughter is making her own colorful decorations to go with it…

I’m making it again now with dark purple ornaments. I already have the ornaments, but I don’t know if I’ll get it finished this year.

Last year, the tree was decorated with copper, champagne, and gold-colored elements.

Well, I like my tree to be colorful and always pick up something from the Christmas market. But my hand-painted ornaments always have to be on it.

Best wishes, Diana

Thank you so much for your photos... I hope there are more to come. :-))))

Ruth, Petra: Yes, a tree like that, full of memories, is really something very special and definitely doesn’t have to be stylish

Mel: Turquoise and pink is a great combo. I really like it.

Claudia: The green ornaments look good in the photo. But I also think they don’t come across that well on the tree. I’ll try crocheting around them next year too. :-)

Diana: Are those the hand-painted ornaments in the photo??? They look absolutely gorgeous.

I just talked to my husband... Gold is off limits, and he says it shouldn’t be too colorful. Other than that, he doesn’t care. Let’s see what I can find tomorrow

Wow, Diana, your ornaments are real works of art! So beautiful!

Wow, Diana, your baubles are amazing!! 

All the other trees shown are of course very beautiful too! They all have something special somehow.

I don't know yet how we'll decorate ours... But I think it will be red/gold again...
We have the baubles at home and I think it's nice :) But maybe I'll go out again and look for something new.
The most important thing for me, though, is: NO tinsel! (Mel: Did you mean you find tinsel awful... or awfully important? :D) 
I find it absolutely hoooorrible!! I'd rather have an empty tree than that ;) 

@Arni: I would just head out and see what catches your eye... Without any idea of how you want it :) 

Tina, I think tinsel is awful! My grandma always had a really colorful tree with loooads of tinsel—she’d put it on strand by strand, and when taking the decorations down, she’d remove it just as carefully and reuse it in the following years... That probably traumatized me :D
When our son was little, he once asked for a tree with tinsel. I bought it and put it on, looked at the tree, and took it all down again right away. Luckily, “Santa Claus” always brought the tree back then, so I could pin the blame on him and say he must have forgotten...

Yes, that’s exactly how one of my grandmothers always did it too...
She always reused the same tinsel...
She’d hang it up veeeery carefully and take it down again...
I thought that was sooo awful :D

  Unfortunately, it’s not a very good picture!


We have lots of very different tree decorations, and certain items with sentimental value absolutely have to go on the tree every year. I really love glass ornaments; my husband likes colorful ones, and of course we can’t do without the various fabric and crocheted little angels, nor the kitschy cat from England, the baby in the nutshell, the ornaments with winter scenes from the Munich Christmas market, and lots of little wooden figurines. Real white candles are a tradition—the tinsel stays in the box (I think it’s awful, too)
Diana, your ornaments are beautiful!

Your Christmas trees all look so different and yet wonderful. Each in its own way, with memories from childhood.
Yes, I know that too, with those strands of tinsel in gold and silver. They were always carefully put back together for the following year; they were expensive too and not always available, I think.

At our house it changes from time to time. When we had our first Christmas here in Norway, of course we got a real Nordmann fir. Then sometimes a small regular little tree, sometimes illuminated sticks in a tall glass vase. Since our children are grown up and it's just the two of us, we decided on a small artificial tree, or little tree. Colorful lights are definitely a must, and various decorations too, including those red bead garlands.
We once bought the large Christmas baubles for the big tree, but of course they're useless for the small little tree, so I hung them at the bottom on the Christmas wreath. The little tree stands in the middle of the wreath, which makes it look a bit fuller. It's enough for us.
Here are the pictures now (photos are mine). But I use this tinsel garland, otherwise it looks so bare.

 





My husband once gave me the Santa Claus, and he is a must at Christmas; I just think he's absolutely fantastic.

So. I just went shopping, and the Christmas tree is already decorated.

@ Arni:
It looks really elegant!
Aren’t you worried that Anton will want to play with the ornaments? We always had a smaller tree on the table when the kids were still so little.

The Christmas tree is in the sunroom and the glass door is closed :-)
Otherwise, having a Christmas tree wouldn’t be possible at all. He climbs up everywhere and is insanely curious. So he’s allowed to stand by the window and drool all over it. :-)

He seems to like it. 

You’ve picked out some pretty ornaments. And the solution with the sunroom is ideal when you have such small children.

Diana, your ornaments are awesome!

I won’t be putting up my tree until the 23rd. I always use different ornaments (we have a small selection)
I think this year it’ll be blue and white.

Really beautiful trees—we’re going away for Christmas this year, so unfortunately there won’t be a tree.