I started decorated nearly as soon as people drove away from Thanksgiving. We won’t get our tree until next weekend though, because we always get a live one and it has to last until we get back from our trek around Texas. I think my favorite decorations are the ones family members have made or that we’ve bought on vacation or … ah, gosh, I love them all!

Congratulations on seeing your book on the table at BN! That’s so cool!!!

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Hello Terri! My family and I wait with decorating our house and tree till the afternoon of December 24. Often it’s difficult to ignore the call of Christmas that makes you want to run to the attic and pull out some sparkles or snow. But we’ve always managed not to. After lunch we all unpack the boxes that contain the Christmas decorations from many years ago. We have an eclectic mix FULL of memories which come up in conversation. Do you guys remember when … Look at this, you made that the year you were six… Oh no that not so pretty bell aunt Trudy gave us the year before she died, even uglier than we thought… All of us remember the stories for we share them every year but I love hearing them again. We argue a little about what goes best where but somehow always end up loving OUR tree. It has just enough lights and lots of bulbs, stars, different hearts, bears, mini stockings. Some Santa’s and a snowman. Little angels, bows, icicles, a gingerbread house, candy canes, a frog (don’t ask it’s a crazy story), two rocking horses. And off course aunt Trudy’s bell tucked away in a small corner. Still we find room for some more treasures each year. We leave the tree in all his glory up for the 12 days of Christmas. Waiting so long before dressing the tree and our home makes the excitement even bigger I believe. It’s a tradition passed down to me by my parents (and grant parents).I wouldn’t change it for the world.

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I put up my door ornament yesterday… I love it… it’s a baard painted country style with a Santa pulling a sleigh and says “I Believe”… which I do!

I will put up and decorate our tree with most of my kids this weekend. It usually gets done the middle two weeks of December. We all have favourite ornaments and our tree is a mish mash of styles. I love the brass and crystal ornaments, each kid has their personal favourite. All the Christmas candle holders will also get put out this weekend.

It’s my favourite time to decorate. Too bad it’s so short!

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I concentrate on inside decorations because my husband is a scrooge when it comes to doing outside decorations! I have a tree triming party every year where friends and family gather round and help. I have been collecting ornaments for over 40 years (plus some old ones from my parents and my husband’s). I get the largest live tree that can fit in my house and almost every ornament is a remembrance or has a story – from my children’s homemade ones to ones we’ve gotten on vacations or given by friends and family. My husband’s uncle has given my children ornaments for every year for over 21 years and I’ve been doing the same. One year our tree fell over – it was horrible. I lost some very dear ornaments. My oldest newly married daughter started her own tree trimming party last year and is an even bigger collector of ornaments than me lol.

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Hi! Love your post
In Croatia we don’t have a custom of decorating our homes from the outside, only city buildings and stores are decorate with outdoor lights. Also, we put our tree on a Christmas Eve and all the decorations are out of the picture on the 6th of January. So, you see that we have only 2 weeks to enjoy our Christmas decorations My favourite ornament is hand-made ball made of blown glass that I was given by my grandmother’s mom.

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