do you decorate?

in a previous version of the forum we talked about decorations for the holidays. i thought i'd bring it back...
soo....do you decorate for the holidays? are they up already or do you wait til the last minute? do you put up a tree or not? If so...,is it fake or alive?

i have three little trees....here is a pic from a few years back (I don't have them set up right yet for pics)


here's the same year, when the Mutts gang discovered a very odd blue box next to the tree...



and here's what happened later.....can you find Mooch?

Right now I'm planning on buying a small potted fir
tree and putting some ornaments on it.

Yes, I decorate. Sometimes a little; sometimes a lot. This year it's not a lot. Now that we've gone back to getting real trees, we have to wait until closer to Christmas to decorate the tree. I had good intentions of getting other things out to decorate early, but didn't get around to it this year.

If the spirit moves me, I decorate for other holidays as well, like Halloween, Valentine's Day, etc.

i remember somebody talking about (and i think posting pics) special plates with red birds on them they always put out....was it you,BC or Suzzz or who? whenever i see a cardinal or even a holiday plate with red birds on it i think of that!

sue, i know you don't have tj's near you but maybe wholefoods has the same thing.....they have little trees that are rosemary trees! they're the same size and look a lot like a regular christmas tree but i presume you can use them for cooking later! (and probably replant them like you'd do a tree). i haven't looked into it....don't know if rosemary is kitty friendly or not.

i cleaned off my shelf last night and straightened up the little trees. one tree mostly has just Mutts buttons on it for decorations. not much else on the others except some cheap little bead strings. i have some little things i put around the trees including some trading card art i got at NYCC.

I put up a wreath I made out of a fake pine garland and coat hanger, decorated with all sorts of ornaments, on my door surrounded by garland. Quite festive. Inside I only have my Charlie Brown tree with a few ornaments on it, one empty wrapped box, and a small stuffed cat (to weigh down the base and hold the tree upright). Other than that I don't decorate much anymore.

I did, however, dig out my santa hat and I wore that over my coat hood this morning. Got a lot of honking horns, waves, and smiles from folks.

Here is a picture of my "Winter Greetings" dishes. I put them into the china hutch every year right after Thanksgiving, and take them down around mid to late January. I love them.

OOOOoooooo, very pretty!

that's it! i knew somebody had those dishes!

well, as for under the tree...i have two tiny boxes....one just has the cotton filler from whatever came in it years ago and the other is a tiny little black cat 'diamond' (I think it must be diamond dust but it sparkles) necklace i bought for myself at sears when i went to go pick up my glasses. (I"d been eyeballing a similar one at KMart for several years but this one was a lot cheaper!). so no surprises under my tree but at least something.

One year in college i wrapped up those tiny little raisin boxes and something else (I think maybe empty tiny match boxes?) to put under the tree. and if anybody asked they got one of the little raisin boxes to unwrap;) cheap and fun and everyone got a kick of out it. (hmm... i suppose i could do that with the dented cans of fancy feast i've been buying for holiday treats..and if a kitty knocks one over they could get it to eat!)

I remember those plates, I love them too.
Jeane, I've already got a huge rosemary bush in the garden.
You can actual buy what they call cypress pines in a pot. These
are real pine trees and when the get to big you can put them in a larger
pot or transplant them in the ground.

didn't know you had the rosemary already....oh yeah go ahead and get the real mini tree;) there are tiny little really cute ones at tjs...if i had a window to put it in i'd get one of those...under $5 and big enough to put a few little ornaments on.
let us know when you get your tree!

I haven't really decorated for awhile but I used to go all out, with a big tree and garlands on teh fireplace, with stockings hanging, and a wreath on the door, and my Christmas beanies all around. I'd hang all my christmas cards over the arch leading to my living room.

Right now I've got a poinsetta on my desk at work, a gift from one of my accounts. I can't find the little tree I used to decorate for my desk.

if you can't find your little tree try rite aid or one of the other drug stores...a lot of them have marked things down already!
i put a little string with two thumb tacks on the bookshelf at the head of my head and have been putting my cards on that. i rememer a time when i had two doorways full of cards now even with a christmas card exchange i don't have 1/3 of the string full!

I used to hang a ribbon from my curtain corners at the top and hang my cards from that. I don't do that anymore. I have yet to get a single card this year............

One year I wasn't feeling very Christmasy until the day before Christmas (I had no money, nowhere to go for the holiday, and no gifts to put under a tree). When the mood finally hit me I went outside and cut a small branch off a pine tree, put it in a jar of water, and decorated that with lil paper snowflakes. That was my "Christmas branch" year.

We are finally putting out tree up today. We usually put it up November 30 but we had to get delayed because we had to wait for some guys to come to put down our new carpets. We have been putting up the same fake tree for over 20 years...and it looks great every year.

that must be a well made fake tree! usually they don't last more than maybe 5 years! (then they either start losing branches or just start looking shabby!).

Fake trees from 20-30 years ago were made to last. Wish I'd kept mine that I bought in the early 80's, it was much better made than anything I see in the stores now.

I didn't know where to post this so I thought this would be the best
spot. Somebody in forums past would post this video of an overly lit
house with music by the Siberian or something orchastra. It can't be
Christmas until it hits the forum.

Sue Short wrote:

I didn't know where to post this so I thought this would be the best
spot. Somebody in forums past would post this video of an overly lit
house with music by the Siberian or something orchastra. It can't be
Christmas until it hits the forum.

Here you go Sue. Merry Christmas!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szLmAPW39uE

I don't remember seeing that before.

Most towns have their own "House that is so decorated people come from miles around to see it. and the local cops have to keep traffic going .
In Brooklyn we have a house like that in Canarsie . I think I mentioned going to see it last year. we also have a whole enclave of houses spreading from 86th street to 83 st and 13th to 15 Vve in Dyker Heights.
http://gonyc.about.com/od/christmassights/ig/Dyker-Heights-Christmas-Lights/

Ok Now it's really Christmas. Thanks Susan.

lk i've seen that on some show a year or so ago...don't remember what channel it was on though...could have been something like tlc that i don't get anymore.

i don't know if there's anything in this town like that....in the county maybe but not around here. the closest of the store i walk through is the house at the corner at the bottom of the hill here. they have two inflatables and some little light up things like peppermint rounds on sticks that change colors. nothing trashy, just kid friendly stuff cuz they have two or three kids.

Susan A wrote:

Sue Short wrote:

I didn't know where to post this so I thought this would be the best
spot. Somebody in forums past would post this video of an overly lit
house with music by the Siberian or something orchastra. It can't be
Christmas until it hits the forum.

Here you go Sue. Merry Christmas!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szLmAPW39uE

I've seen several versions of it, but I think this is the first one I ever saw; almost positive the link came fro the original Mutts forum:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmgf60CI_ks&feature=related