What kind of Christmas tree do you have?

[evilmommie]

I usually do 3 full sized trees (9ft - fake trees) in our house. Last year we had a real tree in our great room and it was just beautiful! So we’re going to get that this weekend. I already have the kitchen tree up. A 7ft, pencil shaped tree with cookie, candy etc ornaments.

 

[Kennywood]

However, DW wants a Ballsome Hill, whatever that is.

We go with an artificial tree. With the prices of real trees, it's actually cheaper to go with an artificial tree that you can use year after year. Our old artificial tree had seen better days, so we got a new one. We chose a Balsam Hill tree. We went online, did our research, and found the one we both like. It wasn't inexpensive, though. Still, it's a VERY nice tree. Moving it to where it's set up now was a challenge because it weighs about 125 lbs. But once it's in place, you just lock the wheels, flip it, add the top section, and plug it in.

The tree has white lights and multi-colored lights. We can turn on just the white lights, or the multi-colored lights, or both white and multi-colored lights. We're having fun going with different options each night.

The pricing for Balsam Hill trees range from $$ to $$$$. You just have to choose one in your budget and taste. I do recommend Balsam Hill trees.

 

[Kennywood]

By the way, did you know that Christmas trees can actually stink? I know it sound impossible but it's true.

For one of the last, live Christmas trees we had, we did something based upon a suggestion. We were told that, if you add sugar to the water, the tree would last a little longer. So, I did. Boy was that a mistake!

The day after we set up the tree and added sugar water, we went out to do some Christmas shopping. When we got back and opened the door, the most putrid odor hit us. Honestly, my first though was that a sewer line had broken. Well, I followed my nose...right to the tree. It absolute reeked!

I immediately knew what I did wrong.....the sugar in the water. So, I dragged the tree outside to air out. I dumped out the sugar water. I then made a fresh cut at the base of the tree and left it outside overnight. Surprisingly, the tree smelled just fine in the morning. So, we set back up and went on with our holiday. But we still talk about that literal stinking Christmas tree.

 

[Sweettears]

me too. I love the combo of both, the colors and the bright bits from the white

now, next question....

little lights or the old fashioned larger bulbs?

I like the little lights, bought some of the faceted larger bulbs on clearance and put them on last year and had to replace them this year with the little lights. Just not bright enough for me.

I do both

 

[RedAngie]

Mostly I put up two artificial trees, one 7’ and a thin pencil 6’. But every 4 or 5 years I want real ones. This might be that year.

Probably a full size one and a 3 to 5 foot tabletop tree.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

We have a few... all artificial. Like a 7ft prelit, 6ft a couple 4ft one outside, and a few of the little 2ft ones... one of which is sliver/retro, and a green one and a white one.

 

[barkley]

what-no all silver aluminum trees with a color wheel? (my mother's pride and joy for many years of my childhood-along with the all pink ornaments she specialy chose to adorn it).

 

[barkley]

We have a few... all artificial. Like a 7ft prelit, 6ft a couple 4ft one outside, and a few of the little 2ft ones... one of which is sliver/retro, and a green one and a white one.

we were posting at the same time! love the retro look is included.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

That was the most Christmassy thing I remember about my grandparents house growing up. My grandmother sported one of those silver trees like in that picture from "back in the day" I remember every year taking those branches out of sleeves and putting them into the pole. I really really wish she had not gotten rid of it when they sold their house and moved. I loved that tree and all of the stuff associated with it.

The one I have is just a 2ft from Meijer that is modern but silver, nowhere near as cool. I had it up on my desk looking all nice, but the cat took it out a couple days ago and I haven't put it back together very well.



I also had a little "Dollar Tree" village on the other part of the desk w/a snow roll.... yea, she jumped up and hooked her claws into the snow and pulled the whole thing off so I didn't even bother putting that back.

 

[RedAngie]

what-no all silver aluminum trees with a color wheel? (my mother's pride and joy for many years of my childhood-along with the all pink ornaments she specialy chose to adorn it).

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I have my grandmother’s authentic 5 foot tall 1960s silver aluminum Christmas tree. I put it up every few years. The box still has a faded $8.88 price tag on it.

It’s kind of ratty now, and about 4 or 5 branches are missing from their individual brown paper tubes. The color wheel was lost decades ago.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

Oh yes I remember those brown paper tubes!

 

[barkley]

The color wheel was lost decades ago.

they inevitably got hung up on a package or something mid spin and the light bulb would melt the color panel so you got instead of 4 colors you got 3 and BRIGHT WHITE

 

[Sweettears]

what-no all silver aluminum trees with a color wheel? (my mother's pride and joy for many years of my childhood-along with the all pink ornaments she specialy chose to adorn it).

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I’ve got one with a color wheel. It’s green about 3 foot tall and the wheel changes the color of the lights

 

[RedAngie]

My grandmother’s silver tree. Christmas 2023. Since the real color wheel was long lost, I tried one of those outdoor “Star Shower” things that you shine against the front of your house, but it didn’t work well at all.

 

[focusondisney]

Growing up we had real trees. When I was a teen, we had a great tradition with my mom’s extended family. The whole group, anywhere from 8 - 12 families, would meet on a Sunday morning when the Bills were playing out of town. We would all head out to a cut your own tree farm. We’d all trudge thru the snow to find our trees & load them into a cousin’s big van. A couple guys would ride around dropping each family’s tree at their house while everyone else went back to 1 house. We’d have a big lunch, something like homemade chili & watch the football game together. Once I was married our jobs made it hard to go with the group. So we got a precut tree from a local nursery. Until 1 year when we woke up on Christmas Eve to a dried out tree & most of the needles on the floor. There was no way we could keep it up. My kids were only 6 & 3 & I insisted we needed a new tree. Husband went out to buy another tree while I undecorated the dead tree.

That was the end of real trees. We bought an artificial tree at an after Christmas sale a few days later. It was unlit & you had to put each branch in & shape it. We had that tree for over 20 years. We now have a 6.5 ft pre lit with colored lights. We have a mix of ornaments from painted wood ones I made the 1st year we were married to blown glass to things the kids made in grade school to unique ones from Christmas craft shows. We pretty much do over the whole house for Christmas, I always tell people it looks like Christmas threw up in our house. We love how it looks, we decorate in early November & take it down the weekend after New Year’s.

Unfortunately, it is exhausting doing it all. We’re getting older, husband will be 70 in January, I’m not much younger. Our kids have been out of the house for 20 years, we don’t have grandkids, so the decorations are really just for us. I have mentioned to husband a few times that we’ll need to think about cutting back soon. It’s just hard to figure out when & exactly what to cut back first.

 

[MrsJackSparrow4Life]

We bought a cheap prelit one from Walmart right after buying our house (house poor that year). It was 5 feet and lasted us 3 years before one of the sections of lights went out leaving 1/4 the tree unlit. I found a really nice 7 foot unlit tree from Lowes that year on sale for $150 and bough a string of lights for $9. Doesn't take long to string the lights onto it and this way if one of the lights go out it is only around $10 to replace the whole string.

 

[MamaMermaid]

I like a big tree -- we have a 9ft fat boy from Costco. We've had it for 13 years and it still looks good!

 

[13littledogs]

what-no all silver aluminum trees with a color wheel? (my mother's pride and joy for many years of my childhood-along with the all pink ornaments she specialy chose to adorn it).

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So true, that was my childhood tree. Even the pink ornaments!

 

[Willow Ufgood]

We have one artificial (Balsam Hill) and one real tree. The artificial tree is "my" tree and the real one is my husband's. This year, I'm just not feeling the need to decorate the house from top to bottom. That artificial tree takes me 3 days to set up and completely decorate. So it's staying in the box until next year. We got our real tree this morning and it's already decorated. It's shorter and thinner than in the past. And it still cost $170! But it looks beautiful and one more holiday task has been crossed off the list.

 

[Willow Ufgood]

Now, the annual debate: Colored lights or white lights?

Both on the artificial tree. I string up the white lights first and then repeat with colored lights that look like the big C6 ones. Each string goes into its own socket so that I can have either white or colored or both depending on my mood.