Can I go minimal for Christmas???

[iris lilies]

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.

[happystuff]

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.

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.

[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.

[iris lilies]

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.

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.

[happystuff]

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.

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! lol

[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.

[Tybee]

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.

[KayLR]

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.

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.

[rosarugosa]

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.

[Tybee]

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:IMG_20251211_071130033_HDR_AE.jpg
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.