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Friday Fun: Christmas tree traditions

Kristján Geir Mathiesen

Ok, a little background history here. I am from Iceland and my mom would only put up the Christmas tree on December 21st or so when I was growing up. I think it was mainly because we had a live (well, dead by that point) tree and she wanted the needles to stay on as long as possible (you see, Christmas in Iceland isn't over until January 6th when the last Jule Lad leaves town to go back to the mountains).

Is there any particular tradition in your family regarding your Christmas tree - like when you put it up or who gets to put the star on top (my wife and I would allow our kids to do it, rotate between then each year)?

Also please do share a picture of it, if you have already put it up (correct, I am not honoring my mother's rule...).

Comments

Jack Brickey

Beautiful tree @Kristján Geir Mathiesen . Iceland is on my bucket list for sure and when I go I will reach out for pointers. ;-)

Here is our tree this year. It resides in my office so I get to see every day which is nice. My wife decorated for the most part this year. I think she wanted it to turn out just so. :-)

Matt Doar_tzgiej

We have our children decorate it. Results over the years have been ... mixed

My main concern is that the stand should be sturdy enough so the cats don't topple it over!

Kristján Geir Mathiesen

Awesome tree, @Jack Brickey !!! And you get to view it every day at work, that is cool. Thank you - same here: wife decorated it. Another fun "tradition" with my own family is that my would let the kids decorate when they were young. Then when they fell asleep, she would go back and rearrange according to her good taste The kids thought they were helping when actually they were... well you get the picture.

Sure, reach out when you are getting ready to head to Iceland. I'd love to chat about it. Who knows, maybe I will be there at the same time - that'd be fun

Jimmy Seddon

Great topic @Kristján Geir Mathiesen!

Our family tradition is less about putting up the Christmas tree and more about the ornaments that go on the tree. My wife and I collect ornaments whenever we go somewhere (or we used to do this...) and also for major life milestones. So when we are decorating the tree year year we are reminded of a number of the places we have been or the important events that have happened.

We also have another Christmas tree just for our Three year old that we have had for him for two years now:

Kristján Geir Mathiesen

That is an awesome tradition to collect ornaments and then re-live those memories at Christmas. Great way to reflect on memories! Love it Thanks for sharing @Jimmy Seddon

Angélica Luz

What beautiful trees!

I don't know if it's due to movies and everything, but, Christmas looks more like Christmas outside of Brazil LOL

We don't have a tradition, usually, my mom decorates it and I have a little one in my room because I love fairy lights. This year, I added some random things that I found here:

Jack Brickey

love this tree and the whole animal theme!

Kristján Geir Mathiesen

That is a sweet tree! Looks like felt, sewed ornaments. My mom used to make Christmas decorations out of felt. Brings back memories Thanks for sharing @Angélica Luz !

Monique vdB

We only started doing trees after our daughter was born, and we have ramped up slowly over the years. We got the tall purple tinsel tree at Target when she was a tiny baby, and this was our first tree! Kind of amazing that this tree (which I think was like $10) has now lasted 9 years.

In the background you can see our "main" tree, a little four-and-a-half foot thing with many beloved ornaments on it, including a depressed gingerbread man, a depressed Santa, and a depressed snowman. (My child's homemade ornaments have a theme, I guess.)

I suggested getting a new, slightly bigger tree this year, and my family was appalled. Appalled! So instead I am pondering a stand, to give it a little more stature.

Also about 10 minutes ago I went and hung giant holiday ornaments on our fig tree and I am delighted. I may need to get some more of these giant things.

Monique vdB

@Jack Brickey I bow down to your wife. This looks like a tree out of a Hallmark holiday movie!

And I would like to sign up for this trip to Iceland.

Kristján Geir Mathiesen

That's awesome @Monique vdB Fun stories behind these trees! Thanks for sharing.

Jack Brickey

Lol. Yes that captures my wife at Christmas. 😉

you will be on the road trip list. SUMMIT 2022!!!

Earl McCutcheon

I love this, and we do the same thing with ornaments, and it is always so much fun to talk about each one as we hang them up every year, and return to all those happy memories.

Laura

We got a baby tree this year and decided to get creative with our tree topper.

christmas tree.jpeg

Kate Clavet-D_Amelio

I normally don't do holiday decorations in my apartment since it's tiny and I don't like clutter. The pandemic has changed that since I've had to turn my bedroom into an office, and my living room into a gym (peep the weight bench next to the Christmas tree, at least it's red right)

Another reason that I don't decorate is that I usually head to my parent's home for a massive celebration with my extended family (sometimes 40+ people). So I save all my decorating energy for their house. Of course this year we aren't doing that due to the pandemic.

However, that also means my roommate, who has family in Minnesota won't be able to visit her family either. So I wanted to keep the holiday special and this year we got a little (real) tree. And have been making an effort to decorate and go and see some lights.

Gillete Stadium (where the New England Patriots play) offered up an incredibly commercialized light show that you can drive through and my roomate and I took advantage of that. (Only $50/Car 🙃

Here's some photos:
verizon .png

lambs?.png
I suppose that's a long winded way of saying this year is all about new/different traditions! I'm grateful to have family, friends, and my health to enjoy it as much as possible when so many people are struggling in so many ways. Sending love and good vibes for the new year!

Best,

Kate

Monique vdB

@Kate Clavet-D_Amelio $50 a car??! inconceivable!

It does inspire me to see if there's any good drive through lighting experiences around me. Usually this time of year we check out Candy Cane Lane, around the corner from my aunt and uncle's house in Woodland Hills. Costs $0 per car but it's soooo crowded.

Daniel Eads

Looking at that bookshelf like... Of COURSE you have the Norton anthologies, plus what looks like a copy of the Atlas Obscura book sandwiched in down with Harry Potter.

Dave LIAO

For a variety of uninteresting reasons, I haven't had a Christmas tree in my abode for the last few years, so unfortunately I don't have a tree to share.

Many years ago, I used to help my family put up blinking lights on our tree. Since we had a fake tree, we eventually realized we could leave the lights on tree when putting the tree in storage to save time for the next holiday season. Talk about optimizing holiday celebrations, right? 😄

Monique vdB

@Daniel Eads Hahaha you get me! Finnegans Wake is down there too, along with all the companion books I needed in order to get through Finnegans Wake. And all my travel books... 😭

Kate Clavet-D_Amelio

So cute! Love it!

Dave LIAO

@Kate Clavet-D_Amelio Yow! $25 sounds more reasonable... but hey, #hustle!

Kate Clavet-D_Amelio

Yeah it was really annoying, but at least it was a few miles long? It was just nice to get out of the house. I think they figure that whole families will go and they're trying to capitalize on it.

Kate Clavet-D_Amelio

Big fan of the 3yr old's tree, so cute!

Thomas Schlegel

We usually have a tree like this:

Bild von iOS.jpg

With some very special ornaments like these:

Bild von iOS (2).jpg

We're putting up the tree on the 24th in the morning, so we don't have it yet. But it is already waiting in the carport.

Kristján Geir Mathiesen

Small is good!

Kristján Geir Mathiesen

Hahaha @Dave LIAO always room for improvement and optimizing

Kristján Geir Mathiesen

Sounds like you and my mom were planning this... Cool ornaments!

Walter Buggenhout

Ah, this is a perfect opportunity to combine last week's topic with the wonderful atmosphere of Christmas ...

Our Christmas tree is a DIY construction set which we carefully unbox and build up every year. Our cat goes nuts every single time, as it is a complete overhaul of his indoor territory.

For safety reasons, during build-up and even the first couple of days after, the Christmas decoration is live and fluffy

Screenshot 2020-12-19 at 15.29.24.png

Despite the fluffiness, a handle with care sign comes along with it as well. While adding the rest of the decoration, there's a serious hazard of getting injured, not (only) from the needles, but from overexcited cat :-)

Kristján Geir Mathiesen

Hahaha, excellent @Walter Buggenhout Awesome!

Vinod Ramadoss

The Christmas tree looks awesome @Kristján Geir Mathiesen

Kate Clavet-D_Amelio

haha adorable photo!

Kate Clavet-D_Amelio

Love the creative ornaments!

Kate Clavet-D_Amelio

So cute and unique! Also, love that your community mug is keeping the tree company

Monique vdB

@Thomas Schlegel hahah I got my best friend one of those merman ornaments this year. Wrapped in an American flag in honor of our new president. 😁

Kristján Geir Mathiesen

Thank you @Vinod Ramadoss

Ollie Guan

The Christmas tree in the company lobby, um... the Christmas tree built by colorful balloons🎄

微信图片_20201225112131.jpg

Kristján Geir Mathiesen

That is pretty cool!

Daniel Ebers

So many wonderful pictures! Wow!
Although we do not have so very special traditions when it comes to decorating the tree (despite you can see we find blue and silver are absolutely pretty colors) it is a nice tradition for itself.
Decorating the tree is fun and we are really enjoying this special time of the year.

Gonchik Tsymzhitov

Wow! from 2020,

Thank you for for the wonderful pictures!

Kate Clavet-D_Amelio

Love the colors!

Soumyadeep Mandal - SaM

Hi @Kristján Geir Mathiesen ,

The Christmas tree was like this image.

potted-christmas-tree-1604669232

Regards,

Soumyadeep

Kristján Geir Mathiesen

That is awesome!

Kristján Geir Mathiesen

My mom and dad used to have a similiar "top piece" when I was growing. Wow! Bringing back memories now. Thanks for sharing @Daniel Ebers

Svenja Lorenzen

Just wanted to say that I love your tree @Kristján Geir Mathiesen! 🎄

I will see if I can't find a picture from our last year's tree.

This year we decided against a tree because my boyfriend writes his state exam (till December 23rd) and on December 24th we're leaving for a small vacation in a cottage.

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