Each Holiday season I am gifted a fresh front door wreath from my cousin. It’s an L.L.Bean wreath, and it is always fresh, gorgeous and lasts forever! All I have to do is dress it up with a bow and voila! My front door looks amazing! 
And when it comes to our Christmas tree, there are a lot of options….
FRESH TREE OR ARTIFIIAL TREE?
We have had both fresh and artificial trees over the years, and both can be just as beautiful! But let’s be honest here. Nothing beats the experience of going to a farm with your family, looking for the perfect tree, chopping it down, riding the tractor back to the barn so they can wrap the tree while everyone gets hot cocoa and shops in barn store. Yet some years, when your schedule just doesn’t allow for this activity, or having a real tree in your house makes a family member’s allergies worse, the pre-lit artificial trees are SO realistic and easy to set up. They aren’t cheap, but are sort of an investment over the years, and sometimes you can catch a deal the day after Christmas or on Black Friday and they’re half price! But whatever your preference, the tree symbolizes everlasting life during wintertime and the lights represent the stars twinkling among the evergreens outside every night.
DECORATIONS FOR YOUR TREE
I try to have a few key types of decorations for my tree. Obviously, ornaments and lights are the center of the décor, and adding garland, ribbon, and bows can liven up the tree! When we had a real tree growing up, we used sliver tinsel and of course, my mother said, “Don’t throw it up in clumps, but put individual strands on one at a time!” Yeah, right! That never happened. Now I know how my mother felt, wanting to have a beautifully decorated tree where everything wasn’t thrown on and discombobulated looking!
SPRUCING UP YOUR CHRISTMAS TREE
Each year when we put up our Christmas Tree I always try to make it as beautiful as I can, with our existing ornaments and some new ones sprinkled in. I’ve found you can get ideas and look though magazines and watch some Hallmark movies (ok, I am a closet Hallmark movie fan), and try to get as many ideas as possible. I’m always drawn to coordinating the tree décor in a theme of some kind, like stars, Santa’s, snowmen, silver and white balls, etc. This year, since we have remodeled our kitchen and downstairs with colors of gray, black, white and some navy and red pops of color, I decided to go with a Black, White and Red themed tree! Walmart had the black and white painted wooden ball garland, and a gift shop near me in Harleysville, Primitive Blessings, had the black and white, and red, black and white bows that gave me inspiration. I wish I wasn’t so matchy-matchy sometimes, and I probably should go to therapy and figure out why, but oh well, that’s for another day!
TO REARRANGE OR NOT TO REARRANGE?
Remember that commercial around 2018-2019 where the kids put the ornaments on the tree and the mother goes back and rearranges them all over the tree? She is in agony as the kids put the ornaments all over the tree without any order whatsoever? Well I must admit that is me. I’m ashamed that when I look at our tree each year, I put the kids early years handmade ornaments on the side or toward the back of the tree. Please don’t hate me! My family does laugh about it now and it is a topic of conversation every year! But looking back, I would have put aside my pride and sense of control and let it all happen spontaneously and be in the moment. You don’t get those times back my friends!
But the most important thing is to enjoy the process of decorating the tree with family or in my case this year, with the kids grown and out of the house, on my own while my husband was out of town! He did say, “The tree looks nice!” Yippee!
Until next time….
Let’s get cookin’ and decoratin’!
Madeline
