Once upon a time, before I had children, I used to have a lovely colour coordinated tree. In its former life, it was a display tree in a shop and I was lucky enough to be there doing my last minute shopping on Christmas Eve when it was being taken down to make space for the after Christmas sale. I picked it up for next to nothing including all of the pretty lilac and silver ornaments and although it never looked as pretty when we decorated it, it still looked gorgeous.
Gradually though, the children’s decorations have begun to take over and every year it’s looking less and less like my beautiful display tree. It’s not that I mind this (well, not too much), it’s just that I look at some people’s trees on their blogs and on Twitter and wonder how people manage to have such coordinated trees when they have children.
Here’s this years tree – we’ve compromised and hung all the homemade decoration on the lower branches and I’ve colour coordinated to my hearts content above them 😉 We still have to add the candy canes and the tree crackers but I’m really pleased with it so far.
So, do you coordinate or not?
very well written:) My rating 5 / 5 !!!
Thanks x x
We've never attempted to coordinate the tree. Mom started saving and dating ornaments in 1944, her first Christmas with Daddy, and it's a collection of memories, not a store display! Colour coordinated trees are lovely, but I do think of them as 'store' trees, not personal ones. http://shelleyshouse.blogspot.com/2009/12/big-bli…
I know what you mean and I do love trees with special ornaments on, we just don't have too many special ones yet – we're building up every year though x x
I absolutely coordinate my Christmas tree and each year my daughter choses the new colour! Tree years ago, after a long tradition of red and green tree, we decided to put up a new original tree and my daughter suggests to keep the green tree but to change decorations colours every year. So, after white and blue, this is the golden colour year! I can garantee it's very very nice, but i have no ideas for the next years!!! Any suggestions?? Thank you!
I love the idea of new decs each year – you should do lilac and silver next year 😉
Our tree is a family history, definitely not colour coordinated, but we love it and think it's funny .
I think they're actually the best sort of trees x x
Yes I do! I went a bit made a couple of years ago in my local garden centre and now I have boxes full of peacock coloured decorations – peacock feather wreaths, beautiful purple and green baubles – it's like a peacock's boudoir in our house at Christmas 🙂
lol I want a peacock's boudoir too x
I've always had a multicoloured tree. Dressing it every year is like a trip down memory lane, I put old costume jewellery on any bare bits near the back, lumps of sea glass from the beach, even the little pregnancy test stick with it's little pink tip to show I was preggy back in 1990! (Son is now 21 and has a daughter of his own! LOL!) Obviously I have his hand made efforts (and mine) on there too.
Some of the glass baubles are from my parents' tree when I was born, in the early 50's. Lordy knows how they've survived!
My tree is pretty full, I don't do bare branches!
Your tree sounds gorgeous – I want one like yours now x
I love your tree. don't know if we will have one or not this year. I think it is important to put the children's decorations on there. Let's face it, the tree should be for the children. They made the decorations with pride and joy.
Aw thanks very much and you're right – a tree is for the kids really x x
Having just got a kitten, I am going to be lucky if my tree stays in one piece, never mind co-ordinated! We have a vague theme, but I love the bits the children make at school to put on it, and nowadays I'd rather our tree was a mishmash of "us" than perfectly co-ordinated 🙂
ha ha we have a puppy this year and I'm just hoping the tree stays in one piece too – the advent calendars never made it past day 3!
I've always had red and gold – for about 15 years now – might opt for a change next year to be a bit different. The tree in the 2nd lounge has blue lights on it – I hate those but I don't have to sit in there and look at it 😉
I might fancy red and gold next year for a change – very traditional colours aren't they x
Ha! And you have all the same colours as me! I move the kids decs round the back when they're not looking 😉
ha ha a woman after my own heart x
I don't waste my time colour co-ordinating anymore. Before the 4yo I stood a chance, now if it's decorated then we're happy.
lol I know how you feel sometimes 😉
I definitely coordinate, however I think once my baby gets older we'll have to compromise – maybe I'll have a small one in the other room for his decorating! I don't think I can bear a totally multicoloured tree.
lol it happens gradually, I'm still clinging on to the top of the tree as my little coordinated bit x
I think this is the first year we may actually have a pretty much colour coordinated tree. Our normal decorations are a real mish mash of things our parents have handed down to us (or vintage!) and things we have bought new. None of it matches and I love it. This year however, Miss P is in full blown Terrible Twos Thuggish behaviour so I've gone out and bought some very cheap baubles (purple and silver) that will hopefully survive the inevitable throwing to the floor and pulling the tree over!
We have our tree on a table to avoid any accidents – especially with a puppy in the house this year 😉
I love seeing beautiful colour coordinated trees but I have to admit I love my own tree to be a mix of all sorts of special decorations that have so many memories and my son loves to decorate with me. It's never perfect but it is fun.
That's probably how I feel you know – I love coordinated ones but I know they're more fun when they're more anything goes x
No colour coordination here. Unless you count "something of every colour under the sun" as coordinating? If we like it, it gets chucked on. We even have a red dinosaur and a Storm Trooper on our tree this year. It looks pretty 🙂
My husband would love a stormtrooper on our tree – is it a real decoration or a homemade one?
😉