A Christmas Tree Party!

Well, the time is here! It’s time to share all the magic – there is very little more magical than a tree lit up at Christmas, don’t you agree?

There’s something mesmerizing about the glow from a Christmas tree. It calms me, makes me pause and give thanks, and makes me feel all gooey inside. :)

I’m sharing the three trees we have up at our house with you today. Starting with the Bub’s FUN tree. You know…the one with the colored lights. ;)

Of course, it has all the fun stuff on it, like tinsel and garland and fat Santas. We also hang the Hallmark ornaments the Bub picks out every year on this tree:

Anyone else notice the train theme in most of these? The boy is obsessed. ;)

The Bub and I stalk Hallmark starting early October to check out the new ornaments every year. Yes, we are the ones who love seeing Christmas out that early. Sue us.

I still can’t embrace the white LED Christmas lights, but I LOVE the big fat colored lights:

I told my hubby next year I’m doing all the exterior lights in color – they are just too fun and the Bub will only be this age for so long.

We used to have a family room tree every year, but because of some changes I’ve made to that space, we haven't had room for one in a while. I missed having all those pretty ornaments up, so last year I picked up a skinny tree at Lowe’s for a killer deal – only $12!

I LOVE love love the ornaments on this tree – they’re mostly silver and white and glass. Lots of shimmer! They are just gorgeous:

The beautiful baby boy pictures sure don’t hurt either. :) My boy has a December birthday and was and continues to be the BEST Christmas gift I’ve ever received.

Because I knew I’d put this tree in my office, I picked up some blue and green ornaments at Walmart on clearance last year. They go perfectly in the new office! (Which I will show you first thing in January…it’s OH so close!):

I adore this skinny tree – it looks SO real.

Finally, we come to the Big Mama. ;)

I think every year of my life I’ve had a real tree at Christmas – we were just a real tree family growing up and I continued that tradition.

But new hardwood floors kind of changed that. ;) I wasn’t set on it till the guys pulled up the carpet in the front room before the install. There was a HUGE water ring on the plywood, and I stood there for about five minutes trying to figure out what in the heck it was from.

It finally hit me – the Christmas tree. Seven holidays in this house, plus cats who wouldn’t leave the water alone, plus a tree that wouldn’t stand up one year equaled lots of water seepage. Although I’m finding the floors hold up great to spills, we just couldn’t chance a real tree.

Soooo…after much research over the past few months, we ended up with a BEAST from Lowe’s. I wanted a ten foot tree, like we got in a live tree. Hubby wanted to go MONSTER size. So we went with the 12-footer from Lowes.

It was SO easy to put together. The lights are already on it (and don’t go out if one dies) so that saved me hours of work.

But the extra couple of feet meant more ornaments, and next year I think we’ll need a new (taller) ladder to safely decorate the whole thing. ;)

This one is mostly decked out in red and gold, with a few of our most meaningful ornaments mixed in:

About half of the ornaments are from Walmart – I love their selection! There’s a bunch more from Big Lots and the rest we’ve had for years. It seems our tree has gotten bigger every year, so every year after the holidays I get more. (I like our tree dripping with ornaments.) But this is the tallest it gets people. No. more.

Like always, I use a few yards of faux silk as my tree skirt. I just throw it under there and fluff:

It always works great and with a coupon the fabric was WAY cheaper than a real skirt!

Here she is in all her glory – it’s not easy getting a picture of all of her. ;)

I miss a real tree so much (I found something to help with that I hope to show you soon!), but I gotta say, this is SO much less stress!! A tall real tree is SO heavy and was always hard to get just right in the stand, so I was always worried about it falling. (Since the tree debacle a few years ago I started tying it to wall.)

And not having to water (and not worrying about the animals getting in the water) is the GREATEST!!

Of course…I couldn’t have a Christmas tree post without some night shots. My favorite. :)

So here you go…

See? Magic. ;)

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!

Now let’s see yours! :)

I’d appreciate it if you could link back to TDC in your post and use this pretty button as well:

Have fun!