I don’t think I can get them to put up a different type of lights because they have the products they have. Certainly they can put up more next year. I will ask them to do that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tybee
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I don’t think I can get them to put up a different type of lights because they have the products they have. Certainly they can put up more next year. I will ask them to do that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tybee
If you bought the ones you liked, would they use them and keep them for you?
oh, I don’t know, that sounds complicated. I don’t know how much I’d have to buy anyway.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tybee
I’ll probably put fairy lights on smaller things in the front of our house to get that look, put them on Evergreen bushes or etc.,
okay----$400 to install Xmas Lites. Good Lord. But yeah---next year I'm gonna string up sum colored lites for between Black Friday until whenever. I will be supplying the labor. Ha. I need the cash money for old Packkard parts. They're scarce, since they don't make 'em anymore. Yup.
I know, it’s stupid and next year I’m gonna spend even more. It wasn’t all that long ago that I thought people who did that were out of their minds.Quote:
Originally Posted by littlebittybobby
With all due respect, some of us still do!Quote:
Originally Posted by iris lilies
you should! I respect this opinion.Quote:
Originally Posted by rosarugosa
I am in a lane I havent been in before, spending money sometimes foolishly and on luxuries. But I am trying to spend it on things that are meaningful to me.
I do the same; they are just different things!Quote:
Originally Posted by iris lilies
Even with less decor out, by Jan 1st, I was feeling overwhelmed by everything so I was happy to put all the Christmas stuff away. I decorated for Winter and the house feels much more calming and open.
I think next year, I might wait to put the stockings out until they get filled on Christmas Eve. I got rid of all the silver balls for the tree as you couldn't really see them and the tree felt too cluttered with having the silver balls, the red balls, and all the regular ornaments. I am hoping that helps make the house look even more decluttered next year.
I put up fewer ornaments this year, too, not sure why. But it looked like "enough" so it was good. I decided to leave my one string of lights up outside through February, as I really like it and it helps us find our way home on winter nights!Quote:
Originally Posted by Klunick
Not even technically Fall yet but I am sitting here wondering what I can declutter or rearrange to make this year's Christmas decorating even more minimal but still festive. I got rid of some stuff in my big July decor declutter so I am already ahead of the game.
why don’t you like fresh greenery, berries, fruits, etc. for the Christmas holidays? Certainly there are downsides to it, but the beauty of it to me is that it can all go in the compost at the end. Well, it can go in compost if all the wires are removed.Quote:
Originally Posted by Klunick
I just have a personal aversion to so much holiday decor I see everywhere throughout the year because it all seems so fake and dead to me, semi truckloads of stuff imported from China.
Just never been a fan of using greenery and the like plus I have cats so a lot of things are poisonous or upsetting to their stomachs if eaten.Quote:
Originally Posted by iris lilies
You sure have my permission. I don't celebrate Christmas personally but do like to honor Solstice and the shortest day of the year after which the days begin to lengthen again. All hail, Mother Nature.
Of course you can go minimal. One thing you could do is make your own decorations. I find that satisfies my decorating urge really well. I think this year I will make a table runner I have been envisioning.
Sure you can. Figure out where the bang for the buck is---one big tree, a couple of pillows. Strings of lights fill space and create mood beautifully. Leaving "white space" on surfaces rather than filling them with Christmas tchotchkes will create greater focus on the things that most make the house Christmas-y.
I wish I was but I am not a crafty or DIY type person. I am in awe of people who are.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tybee
Ah yes, cats.Quote:
Originally Posted by Klunick
my cats don’t eat stuff so I don’t worry about that, but yes, one has to be careful of that. I even bring Lilies into the house when they’re in season and my cats don’t touch them. Lilies are quite poisonous to cats, apparently. I do keep the large potted tropicals that are known to be poisonous in our downstairs sunny area during the winter, not in the center room where the cats could get them.
I have a pre lit 3 feet tall tree, I put an embroidered and smocked angel on top that my mother made as an ornament, skirt under the tree and an old ceramic santa clause bank of my husband's at least 65 years old...I do put out towels because i have them. On the dining room table I put out some figures of elves and santas. Then a small ceramic nativity. All at least 40 years old. it all makes me happy.
The last part is most important. If it makes you happy - it's perfect!!Quote:
Originally Posted by nswef
I have had my Christmas decor out for a little over a week and I'm calling the Christmas declutter a success. I look around the living room and kitchen and it's not coming off as cluttered. Everything was intentionally placed unlike in past years where I would put things somewhere just because they needed to go somewhere. Even with the tree up and decorated, I don't think it looks any more cluttered than the rest of the year. I don't see anything that I wished I had decluttered or that I think I might declutter after Christmas is over. I am really liking the way the house looks and I don't think it will stress me out so much that I will want everything down and put away by the time Christmas rolls around.
That sounds like you decluttered perfectly!Quote:
Originally Posted by Klunick
I am putting up my artificial tree now and it looks horrible. The lights don't work and the branches are all clumpy. I've had it for 10 years, but seriously, it is not passing muster.
Put my artificial tree up right before this past weekend. It looks great turned on, but when off... LOL. Not sure if it will last another year with us or not. Also put up the stockings along the non-working, covered fireplace mantel. They look so nice!!! That and my little string of solar outside lights are it. I'm liking the simplicity this year.
Showed tree to husband and he agreed it's a no-go. WE are cutting the lights that work off to have a strand or two, and will walk out and look for a possibility in the forest later today. If no suitable candidate, will buy another artificial with lights, I guess.
We always get a real tree but they are getting pretty expensive. This year's cost me $120 which actually seems like a good deal because it's at least 7 feet tall and very full. Most on the lot we're $165 and not as pretty.
Very nice!
it is a nice size and shape.Quote:
Originally Posted by Klunick
I had to do some pruning at the bottom and cut off some low hanging branches and then cut some of the top because it was too tall for our ceiling. I always buy a tree that is too tall even though I try not to. Seems to grow on the way home. Haha!!Quote:
Originally Posted by iris lilies
Candles and hot toddies are our season's celebration. So simple and comforting--and warm.
One trip to the forest and Lowes and Home Depot and we are salvaging the original tree. I stripped the lights off the top only because it was such a pain, and will just put lights over the rest and decorate very heavily and it will do for this year. The pretty trees were four hundred dollars, and we'd have to find our treestand to do a real tree, so we will make this one work.
My frugal Christmas.
oh Lord $400?!!! That is crazy.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tybee
Ouch! That's a lot for a tree!! I'm thinking of hitting some stores right after Christmas to see if I can get a down-sized (smaller) replacement for our current one. Not a "need", but definitely a "want". We'll see.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tybee
I know, who would spend that? I will try after Christmas to get a new one and pitch the one we have and be ready for next year. 80 dollars is my limit, that's what I spent for the last one.
Happystuff, you may be able to find a leftover Christmas tree at a big box store, but I’ll tell you last year when I was shopping for a fake tree in mid December, the stores were out. I’m pretty sure I went to target as well as Lowe’s and the big nursery nearby. I was surprised, they didn’t have anything on the floor for sale. I’ve assumed they had none on the floor because the demand was over, and I ended up ordering one from Amazon anyway that arrived in a few days.Quote:
Originally Posted by happystuff
Thanks, il. I may just go looking anyway. Hoping to get 4 foot or under - even a table top will do. I want the big tree - and box - gone! lolQuote:
Originally Posted by iris lilies
My Christmas tree storage solution takes advantage of our giant attached garage. We slide it out to a corner of the garage, throw a dust cover over it, and it lives there in off season. I bought one of those pre-lit trees and I hope this gentle treatment of storing straight up,rather than disassembling and reboxing, will help preserve the functionality of the lights.
Ooh, maybe that is what happened to my lights, because I have to really smush the tree to get it back into the box, and it seems to be hard on it. Your idea is so much better and easier.Quote:
Originally Posted by iris lilies
Man, if you have the room that is the way to go. Ours takes a while to maneuver to get it looking decent after DH' s manhandling the year before.Quote:
Originally Posted by iris lilies
I have been surprised to see a couple of artificial trees being given away because the lights don't work anymore. I recall a time when tree and lights were two separate things, and if the lights didn't work, one bought new lights.
I used old lights I had up in the attic from 15 years ago, before we had the prelit tree, and garland to try to fill in the bald spots:Attachment 6657
It definitely doesn't look as good as the prelights but it's okay; maybe we'll just keep it.
It will look better with ornaments but we are going to let the grandchildren do them on Christmas Eve.