You wanna hear something kinda sad? Pearson and I aren’t putting a Christmas tree up this year. In fact, we’re not decorating at all because we’re leaving on January 2nd to move across the country. I mean, it makes sense, right? But it is a little sad. So when Terri of Christmas Tree Lane asked me to be a part of her annual Christmas Trees on Parade collaboration, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to reminisce on our trees and decorations from years past. I’m also excited to live vicariously through these other awesome bloggers linked below!

I absolutely love our tree! It’s a compilation of a ton of ornaments from both of our childhoods and our married life together. But I think it works together beautifully if I may say so myself.

When we first got married, my mom gave us some of her old decorations that she doesn’t use anymore, including the beaded garland. Also, at the end of the Christmas season right before we got married, I stole some ornaments from my mom’s tree as we were taking it down. Ok I didn’t steal them. She knew I took them. And they were all ornaments that were either “mine” or were ones that meant a lot to me. Like, a purple sparkly piano ornament that my late piano teacher gave me back in middle school when I was taking lessons with her. And some wooden ornaments that my grandma and grandpa made that I love!

When Pearson was growing up, his family had a fun tradition where the whole family went to the hallmark store every year and each kid got to pick out one new ornament to hang on the tree. So when Pearson moved out, he brought 18+ fun ornaments with him! Some of my favorites from his collection include Harry Potter and Darth Maul.

Since getting married, we’ve actually collected quite a few ornaments as well. We try to get one whenever we travel, like the huge lion head from when we saw The Lion King on Broadway in New York (pictured below). I’ve also bought a few that I just loved and I’ve collected some from an ornament exchange party the ladies at my church do every year.

So as you can see, it’s quite the collection and I don’t see us really slowing down any time soon. And I wouldn’t want to!

We usually decorate our tree during the week after Thanksgiving. We always spend the week of Thanksgiving at either my grandma’s house in Arkansas or Pearson’s grandma’s house in south Georgia. Both of those are 13+ hours away so we don’t get home till really late Sunday night after the holiday. We then spend our evenings at home the next week putting up all our decorations including the tree. We play Christmas music, drink hot chocolate and cider, and enjoy each other’s company. It’s one of my favorite “dates” every year!

Here are some tips about the decorating process:

• Make it fun and make a tradition out of it. As I said above, plan a time to do it, take your time, play Christmas music, eat and drink some yummy treats and just spend that time together as a couple or a family. 
• Decorate in this order: Fluff the branches, then add lights, the topper, and garland/tinsel/ribbon. Next put in the fillers. These can be candy canes, solid color balls, lots of the same ornament, or bows. Basically anything that isn’t very special and doesn’t need to be seen. Put these deep in the tree and fill up holes with them. Lastly, add the rest of our ornaments. Spread out similar ones and put really important ones at eye level.

I will say though, the very first year we were married, we got a real tree. Pearson grew up picking out a real tree with his family every year and really wanted to continue that tradition. Let’s just say, after one year of getting the tree home, helping me string the lights, decorating it, keeping the tree watered, and cleaning up after it was over, he easily jumped on board with using an artificial tree from then on out.

Dealing with that real tree that year may have been the biggest threat to our marriage so far. I kid, of course. But it was pretty bad. Now that we have a pre-lit fake tree that easily goes in and out of storage every year, decorating the tree is a fun and enjoyable experience!

So that’s my next tip:

• Get an artificial tree! Yes this soley is my opinion. BUT I highly recommend it for your sanity. Also, make sure you measure the ceiling where you want to put your tree and buy one that will leave about a foot of clearance from the top of the tree. If you absolutely have to go pick out a real tree, maybe pick out a small one for your second tree.

Which brings me to another tip:

• Decorate more than one tree. In my opinion, you should always have one “everything” tree. Whether that’s your biggest, primary tree or not. This “everything” tree will hold all sorts of mismatched ornaments from homemade ones to “baby’s first Christmas” to the Hollywood sign from your trip to LA. THEN, if you want, decorate another, smaller tree with more of a theme.

Purple is my favorite color. Therefore purple was the main color in our wedding and it’s also the primary color in our bedroom. So a couple years ago, I bought a small 4-foot tree and I put it in our bedroom every year and decorate it solely with decorations from our wedding reception. Actually, most of the decorations we used in both the ceremony and reception were Christmas decorations we bought after Christmas that year. I absolutely love this tree and everything it means!

Here are some blog posts of my tree and other Christmas decorations from years past:

• 2012 decor
• 2013 decor
• Tree 2013
• 2014 decor

• What’s your favorite ornament on your tree?
• Do you have any traditions surrounding Christmas Tree decorating?
• What tips do you have for Christmas Tree decorating?

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