One of my favorite traditions at Christmas is going out and getting my mom's live Christmas tree. Luckily this year I was able to continue the tradition of helping her with the tree. First thing first is getting the tree into the stand and making sure it's straight! Then you've got to pick the best side to show off all Christmas season.
Once we get the tree into the stand it's time to add the lights. This year it took us three light sets and then we used to strands of special lights that we got when I was a kid. They are actual M&M guys on strands of lights. Over the years the lights have given out and we've replaced the lights with new ones. There is one set that still has the original lights in it. I guess they'll keep going until the one year they don't and we will replace them.
Right after the lights go on it's time for the garland. I always feel garland is the hardest part on a real tree. It took us four strands of garland this year to fit around the tree.
The last thing that we do before getting all the ornaments on the tree is put the angel on top.
Once the Angel is firmly on the tree we can get started adding all of the decorations. We have ornaments that we've collected for years. There is ornaments that I made as a kid that we put on the tree and of course Hallmark ornaments that we collected like the first Barbie ornament.
A few years ago we had an incident where the tree wasn't cut evenly and wasn't sitting in our stand completely flat. This caused the tree to fall over in the night. We completely freaked out! We woke up, came downstairs and saw our beautifully decorated tree laying on the ground with ornaments everywhere and several of them broken. We got it back up and super glued the ornaments the best we could. The rest of that Christmas we watched the tree like a hawk. We would ask each other, "Does it look like it's leaning?" almost every day just in case.
Once we've got all the decorations on the tree we take a photo of us together. We also start working on the rest of the decorations around the house including the village on the mantle. The village is difficult to put together so every year I take on that task. Next year I'm also going to be putting up my own village and that will be a job!
What traditions do you have when you put up your Christmas tree? Do you get a real one?
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