Your Christmas Tree, will you have one this year?

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We have a really tiny apartment and we’re also procrastinating clutteres. We don’t have any space for any tree, maybe one lil’ small tree in a pot.

When my Permanent Resident Permit (Canadian Green Card) is granted and I can start working we will start building our house. And then I will have a big Christmas tree. I pray that this will be a reality by next Christmas.
 
Fascinating thread! It’s great reading all the comments, traditions and stories here!

I bought my first home in February, so this is my first Christmas here. It’s not going to entirely follow my family’s general tradition of going to Mom’s house since her building does not allow dogs to even visit.

So she and brother and girlfriend are coming to my abode…and my tree is real, a gift from my Realtor.

I always loved decorating the tree. It used to be my brother who was the one to handle the lights, then I would do the ornaments and Mom would place the star or angel on top.

When I moved into my first apartment…the first time I lived alone, I also got a tree although it was against the lease. I’d grown up with artificial trees and I wanted, for once, to have a real one.

This year is the first time I legally have a real tree under my roof! I put up multi-colored lights on the tree, white lights around my front window and up to the hook on the ceiling, which will eventually go to the angel or star. I also have fake pine garland around my little stair rail with blue lights and blue lights up my stairway railing. I don’t have a fireplace so I have a stocking hung on my stair railing with a big red bow next to it.

I have a sleigh on top of my entertainment center, candles all over…and 2 dogs to wag their tails and with their happiness threaten all of it!

My German Shepherd (small girl…only 60-something pounds) loves to lie under the tree but it’s the male greyhound I worry about…he tends to favor pine trees when we are out on walks. Good thing he’s safely in his kennel when I’m gone!

I love Christmas with all the traditions…even if my family wasn’t coming to me, I still would have gotten a tree (granted, it was free this year) because it gives me comfort, and that star or angel overhead draws my attention anew to the very reason for that tree. That star will be elevated over my whole livingroom, reminding me that Christ didn’t just come to Bethlehem, but he is right here in my very home, not just to be embraced as the infant savior, but to embrace me and others who enter in his divine love.
 
This year, my tree’s color theme is Gold/Yellow. Everything is either gold or yellow in many different shades of yellow/brass/gold (shiny, satin, etc). But I’m not sure when I’m going to put the tree up…if I’m bored, it’s going up early.

My color themes:
2003 was red
2004 was blue
2005 is yellow/brass/gold
2006 will be green
2007 will be purple
2008 will be white/clear
2009 will be back to red and the cycle repeats
(less wear and tear on the decorations)
 
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Ana:
Makes me think of my pentacostal friend. She never celebrated Christmas. She was a real scrooge type and spent the season griping about the christmas trimmings and of course Jesus’ birthday was not on the 25th and so on. I always felt sorry for her. I would rather have a tree and feel joyful than spend a whole season being cranky and complaining.

Anyways … she recently married and her husband persuaded her to put up a tree. She was resistant at first, but it has been fun seeing her get slowly excited. I am praying that the Lord will bless her with an abundance of joy this season.
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I know it’s a weird to quote yourself, but I thought it was worth mentioning that my pentacostal friend is no longer pentacostal. She has made a lot of truth encounters this past year and is actually considering joining RCIA in March. Praise the Lord!!
 
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Edwin1961:
This year, my tree’s color theme is Gold/Yellow. Everything is either gold or yellow in many different shades of yellow/brass/gold (shiny, satin, etc). But I’m not sure when I’m going to put the tree up…if I’m bored, it’s going up early.

My color themes:
2003 was red
2004 was blue
2005 is yellow/brass/gold
2006 will be green
2007 will be purple
2008 will be white/clear
2009 will be back to red and the cycle repeats
(less wear and tear on the decorations)
Click to expand...
Where do you find the purple lights?
 
My family’s Christmas tree always looks the same, red and/or silver tinsle, and a bunch of random Christmassy ornaments all over. We used to put an angel on the top of the tree, but for the past 2 or 3 years my grandma has been putting this hideous star on the top that doesn’t even go well with the tree (small star, 6 foot tree… pleh).

When I get older and have a place of my own, I’m going to have a themed Christmas tree. I always liked the classy/Victorian-themed trees.
 
Mom of one:
Where do you find the purple lights?
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I got them from Target 2 years ago. SInce I’m color-coding my tree, I won’t see them until 2007. I’ll wait till then to see how they look!
 
So, we will probably be travelling to see both my family on the east coast and DH’s family in the midwest for Christmas, but it would be nice to decorate more than last year. I will be making an Advent wreath tomorrow, but I’m not sure what to do for a tree. Maybe we will decorate a shrub that stands outside our door. It is evergreen and pretty, and I could do the traditional popcorn on a string, so the wildlife would appreciate it! Also, it makes for easy cleanup, and not too gaudy.

DH and I bought a beautiful Nativity set that we want to set up in a prominent place. My proviso was that we hide Baby Jesus until Christmas Eve, just for the tradition to begin before our little baby is born. I also thought it would be neat to have children look for Baby Jesus on Christmas Eve, like an Easter egg hunt, every year.

I think I will dig out my decorations (1 small box of them!) and be ready to put them out for Gaudete Sunday. At any rate, maybe I will make some more decorations this year!

I just don’t know… It’s just the two of us, and I don’t know if we should put up a tree since we won’t even be around for Christmas…
 
We will be putting up our artificial tree tomorrow or Sunday, along with taking down all our saints’ statues and preparing the place for our nativity set and advent wreath instead.

We will not decorate our tree until Christmas Eve, instead we are doing a Jesse Tree and hanging our homemade Jesse Tree ornaments on it each day, along with adding a purple or pink ribbon for each day of Advent.

We are also going to celebrate St. Nicholas day on the 6th. Hopefully I will be able to take our son to Mass that day, since it is a weekday.

This is the first year we are going to be home to celebrate Christmas with all the traditions we want. All of it is very new to us, since we were both raised in homes where Santa and presents dominated Christmas (no matter how hard my parents tried), and Advent was only talked about at Church (or not at all, in the case of my husband who is a convert).

We are really excited to start celebrating all of the wonderful Catholic aspects of Christ’s birth and sharing them with our son.
 
Yes for sure.
Though this weekend we will put out the Advent Wreath and Manger calendar.
 
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Ana:
I know it’s a weird to quote yourself, but I thought it was worth mentioning that my pentacostal friend is no longer pentacostal. She has made a lot of truth encounters this past year and is actually considering joining RCIA in March. Praise the Lord!!
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That is so wonderful! Prayer is so powerful!! 😃 👍 :clapping:
 
We’ll have an artificial tree (due to allergies and such), and decorate our home.

For Advent, we only do an Advent wreath and manger scene with Baby Jesus covered. Each night of Advent, we light the appropriate number of candles on the wreath, read a passage from Luke, say some prayers, and sing “O Come Emmanuel”. Closer to Christmas, we bring out the tree, and SLOWLY add ornaments until Christmas Eve, when the lights go on. Christmas Day Jesus is uncovered. We leave the tree up until after The Epiphany. The children receive 3 presents (like Jesus did). I told them long ago that I wrote a letter to Santa, asking him only to bring 3 presents, so they could be more like Jesus. They accepted that, no problem. Now the 2 oldest no longer believe in Santa, and they just wink at me when I tell that to my 6 y.o.

Then, we go to the family and get loads and loads of presents and all the commercialism and materialism we can get!!!
 
I have my Advent wreath ready to hang on the front door on Sunday. (a fake green wreath w/ 4 bows - 3 purple and one pink) The Christmas wreath goes up after Mass on Christmas.

We get a tree early in December while the pickings are good, but don’t put it up until closer to Christmas.

I love to celebrate St. Nicholas Day. Even though our kids are teens, they still like getting candy and a small gift in their shoes! The tree can go up sometime after St. Nick day.

Last year we didn’t get a tree because we were away for Christmas. We spent the holiday in Rome!! (yes, midnight Mass in St. Peters w/ JPII 🙂
—KCT
 
My kids are all teens, so we only have a tree if they cut one down and put it up. I HATE putting up a tree and dealing with the lights. I do other decorating, but that job is up to them. This has been their responsibility for the last 4 years, so far, we’ve had a tree every year.

cheddar
 
We have a real tree every year.

We dont put lights or tinsel on ours, we put on these beautiful carved wooden religious decorations my Mum and Dad bought in Jerusalem, and some traditional German decorations from Bonn - some wooden, painted secular ones (Santa, robin, etc) and some stuffed religious ones (angels, the Magi, star etc). We also put on some traditional english baubles, and the homemade decorations my brother and sister have made at primary school 😃

Michael
 
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Edwin1961:
This year, my tree’s color theme is Gold/Yellow. Everything is either gold or yellow in many different shades of yellow/brass/gold (shiny, satin, etc). But I’m not sure when I’m going to put the tree up…if I’m bored, it’s going up early.

My color themes:
2003 was red
2004 was blue
2005 is yellow/brass/gold
2006 will be green
2007 will be purple
2008 will be white/clear
2009 will be back to red and the cycle repeats
(less wear and tear on the decorations)
Click to expand...
Well, I finally found the purple lights. :dancing: I am thrilled, to say the least. I have a white tree this year, so the lights look really cool against the tree.
 
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