Christmas Tree 2010

As I said earlier, I LURV a real Christmas tree.  If there are no allergies to battle in your house, then give mother nature a chance.  

At first I was worried about the branches supporting the weight of my ornaments.  Now, I think that I have the hang of it: look for good, thick branches.  So far, no problems.

Here was another thing that I didn't know what to do when getting a real tree:  How to stand it up???  At first I was ok spending $35 for a tree, but I didn't want to spend more money on a new stand.  Enter: Anthropologie window displays.  A few years ago, they had tons and tons of Christmas trees in their windows that were sitting in big buckets filled with rocks.  

That's what I've done.  It's taken 2 years to get my form down, but I think I've got it.  I put a small bucket in a bigger pot and I fill both of them up with rocks that we bought at Lowe's for less than $5.

(It get's a little messy, but that's what shot-vacs (or is it shop-vacs) are for, right?  )

Then come the ornaments.  I LURV ornaments.  So much so, that I had FIVE HUGE TUBS full of them.  That is way too much for one tree!  I've slimmed things down to 2 tubs (btw...I love the word "tub."  It's so American, especially because we store stuff in tubs and eat stuff out of tubs.  Outside of the states, I think that people bathe in them.  Crazy, right?)

Currently, we have tried to keep our favorite ones that are a combination of:

Meaningful, Unexpected

Adorable

Fun

Passed Down

Sentimental

There's a lot of blogging going on, and I'm love linking up with everyone!  Today, I'm linking with the Pleated Poppy.  For more holiday link parties, go to the Nester.