Is your Christmas tree up? I only put my Christmas tree up on December 3rd. Every year my daughter and I put the tree up whilst listening to Christmas music. It’s become one of my favourite Christmas traditions. This year, we decided to drop the gold and just stick to green, white and silver.
Putting Up the Christmas Tree
I have a 7.5 foot pine Christmas tree. Each individual branch hooks onto a central stem, and you have to fluff out all the branches to achieve a nice full look. Here’s a quick video showing me and my daughter putting up the tree.
Playing Christmas music and singing is part of the tradition – Mariah Carey “All I want for Christmas is you”, Wham’s “Last Christmas”, Kylie Minogue “Santa Baby”, and Michael Buble and Dean Martin singing the golden oldies.
Decorating the Christmas Tree
After the tree was up, we added the 600 lights. I weave my lights randomly in and out of the tree. For more tips read – How to Hang Christmas Tree Lights.
Having a beautiful realistic looking tree is one thing, but it’s the decorations that make the tree. This year our decorations are all green, white and silver.
I have gradually collected my decorations over a number of years. To start with I bought cheap decorations from Big W and Target, then over the years I have bought better quality glass and silver decorations.
It works well to mix up the shape and size of the decorations. Larger decorations will ‘fill’ the tree better than smaller ones, but you need both. My new decorations this year were 6 mercury glass clip on birds from Provincial Home Living.
We don’t have a set pattern for putting the decorations on. We just randomly put them on spacing them apart. We step back, take a look, and move the decorations around until we are happy. It’s not stressful. There’s plenty of singing and laughing.
We also decorate the fireplace mantle to match the tree, and hang the stockings up.
A Look Back at Past Christmas Trees
Over the years, our tree has changed. The colours, the decorations, and even the tree itself. It’s an always evolving decoration. Here’s a look back in time.
2014 – We added some pink to work with the blue and white wallpaper
2012 – in our old Carindale house. We had the new good tree but we didn’t have enough decorations to fill it, and we didn’t know how to properly fluff out the branches.
2008 – Our first Christmas living in London and our first real Christmas tree
2005 – Our old Kmart tree back in the day when the very noisy train ran around the bottom of the tree and people actually posted each other Christmas cards.
So whether your tree is looking just the way you imagined, or you are somewhere along the journey to your perfect Christmas tree, remember that it’s the people you share that tree with and memories that are most important.
There is nothing more I would like at Christmas than a large tree much the same as your beautiful tree Kylie however I do not have the floor space for one. Our home is open plan so there are no nooks or corners in which to put the tree. We have to make do with a small tree which is perched on the end of the kitchen island as nowhere else to put it. I have the same problem with nowhere to put bookcases, sideboards etc. If I ever move again I will definitely pay more attention corners and wall space. Gorgeous tree Kylie!
Hi Parisgirl. Yes open plan can be hard. You have to divide the space up using furniture placement as best you can. Corners do help with Christmas trees, but I’ve put mine in front of windows too. I also have a small tree tree which I love. Having it in your kitchen is a great idea as you can see it everyday. Thanks for popping in 🙂
I love those old photos Kylie, what gorgeous memories you have. Your trees all look sensational! Great tips xx
Thanks Nicole. It was so much fun to look back on the photos of past Christmas trees. I’ll miss the day my daughter is not here to help me decorate the tree.