It’s a forest of trees!

Okay…maybe I don’t have  a forest in my home at Christmas.  But, seriously, I do love trees….and trimming the house with trees.   Especially evergreens….fresh and faux.   They don’t even have to be decorated.  Some have lights, some don’t.  Though I do love white lights twinkling on trees.

Every night before I go to bed, I like to turn off all the lights, except the miniature Christmas lights, and sit in the glow.  Do you do that, too?  It feels so warm and cozy.

This is actually a view of the tree I took while sitting in a chair with my cup of Christmas tea.  It’s all so magical and dreamy.  And relaxing.  {Aaaaahh….Sigh!}

You may have already stopped at my A Very Merry Christmas House Tour.  There you got a glimpse of this year’s trees.  I thought it might be fun to take a second look…up close and personal.  I love that phrase.  Click the photo to take a tour!

This year as I was trimming our house with trees, I started with our main tree which I decorated in white lights.  Several years ago I found a string of Phillips miniature lights with both clear and frosted white lights on the same string.  They were perfect for my Ice Tree.  But, this year my husband asked if we could have our old-fashioned tree again.

The tree is topped with a punched tin angel.  Some years ago, I fell in love with her at The Calico Cat in Michigan.  My friend knew I loved it and bought it for me as my Christmas gift.  It really was the perfect gift….and not knowing I had one waiting to be unwrapped…..I had bought one myself.

We switched our traditional tree trimmings up just a bit, forgoing the cranberries and popcorn garland for a cranberry only garland.  My ever-so-patient husband strung six bags of cranberries.   And only stabbed himself once with the needle.  A minor painful injury…no Band-aids were needed.  Cranberry garlands are so pretty and a reasonable DIY project, too at just ninety-nine cents a bag.

The fabric garland is one I made last year from a bolt of Osnaburg fabric I’ve had forever.  It was purchased for the tab curtains I never made for my saltbox in Michigan.  The view was so nice there I didn’t want to cover the windows.  Last year, I ripped the fabric in strips and washed it.  Okay…that was a huge mess which I made worse by drying the fabric in the dryer.  I got smarter as I made more garland.  It’s easier to untangle when it’s wet, plus it can be smoothed out and allowed to air dry.  The strips were stitched together…end to end.  I love the brightness and the shabbiness on the tree.

When we were in college, my husband and I were a part of a European travel study program.  In Germany he helped me choose five wooden ornaments that became the foundation for our ornaments for many years.

My very first childhood ornament decorates the tree.  I still love that tiny house with the red cellophane window as much as I did when I was so very young, maybe more.  There are a number of handmade ornaments on the tree, but my favorites include a super cute angel and Santa my next door neighbor cut out and painted herself.  There are memories associated with a few ornaments we picked up on more recent foreign travels.  In Russia I fell in love with the beautifully painted girls in ethnic costume and from Jerusalem we have many olivewood cut outs like the nativity.

As I continued trimming the house with trees I added pinecone trees and mercury glass trees and book page trees to the forest, um. mix.

I like to be creative with my tree stands.  This year I have been on a candlestick kick.  This time the candlesticks are the trunks for some folded book page trees and a pinecone tree.

A number of years ago I was all giddy about gold for Christmas and even gilded some clay pots with gold leaf.  These are the last remaining.  Unfortunately, the rest didn’t survive their cold winter storage and became cracked pots.   Haha!  It’s always fun to use unusual containers for a tree’s base.  My mom’s old silverplate sugar and creamer do the job with class and style.

A bevy of artificial trees, both green and mercury glass, reside together in a Longaberger Swoop Tray Basket with lots of pinecones at their feet.

Since I have a lot of Longaberger Baskets, they are in frequent use as a tree holders.  This time, I wanted my tree to have a little more height, so I wrapped a bit of burlap over the stand and set the Swedish tree on top of the baskets.  The textures blend in well together and it really looks like the tree is sitting inside the basket with the burlap showing.

As a collector of Droste’s Cocoa Tins, I got out my biggest tin and stuffed a tree in it this year for the first time.  Why haven’t I done this before?  I’m glad I finally did.

 

What is the most clever container you have ever used as a base for a Christmas tree?

 

Whatever your style for trimming the house with trees, I’m sure you’ll agree, there’s nothing like the glow of lights on an evergreen to make a house feel homey at Christmas!

Hmmm…maybe I do have a forest of trees!!

Diane

I’d be delighted if you’d share the goodness here with your friends.

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