Friday Fun: Christmas tree traditions

Kristján Geir Mathiesen
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December 18, 2020

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...).

tree.jpg

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Jack Brickey
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December 18, 2020

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. :-)

IMG_2209.JPG

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Kristján Geir Mathiesen
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December 18, 2020

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 :)

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Monique vdB
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December 18, 2020

@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. 

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Jack Brickey
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December 18, 2020

Lol. Yes that captures my wife at Christmas. 😉 

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

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Matt Doar
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December 18, 2020

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!

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Jimmy Seddon
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December 18, 2020

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.

20201205_110401.jpg

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

20201211_191334.jpg

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Kristján Geir Mathiesen
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December 18, 2020

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 

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Earl McCutcheon
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December 18, 2020

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.

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Kate Clavet
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December 18, 2020

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

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Angélica Luz
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December 18, 2020

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:

WhatsApp Image 2020-12-18 at 17.03.10.jpeg

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Jack Brickey
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December 18, 2020

love this tree and the whole animal theme!

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Kristján Geir Mathiesen
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December 18, 2020

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 !

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Kate Clavet
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December 21, 2020

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

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Monique vdB
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December 18, 2020

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. 

trees_50.jpg

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. 

tree2.jpg

 

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. 

tre_50.jpg

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Kristján Geir Mathiesen
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December 18, 2020

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

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Daniel Eads
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December 18, 2020

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.

Monique vdB
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December 18, 2020

@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
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December 18, 2020

Looks so peaceful! I appreciate the minimalist look <3 of the ones outside, and the whimsy of what's inside! 

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Laura
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December 18, 2020

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

 

christmas tree.jpeg

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Kate Clavet
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December 18, 2020

So cute! Love it! 

Kristján Geir Mathiesen
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December 18, 2020

Small is good!

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Kate Clavet
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December 18, 2020

 

Tree.png

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: 
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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 

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Monique vdB
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December 18, 2020

@Kate Clavet $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. 

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Dave Liao
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December 18, 2020

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

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Kate Clavet
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December 18, 2020

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. 

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Dave Liao
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December 18, 2020

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? 😄

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Kristján Geir Mathiesen
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December 18, 2020

Hahaha @Dave Liao  always room for improvement and optimizing :)

Thomas Schlegel
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December 18, 2020

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. 

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Kristján Geir Mathiesen
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December 18, 2020

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

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Kate Clavet
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December 21, 2020

Love the creative ornaments!

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Monique vdB
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December 22, 2020

@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. 😁

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Walter Buggenhout
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December 19, 2020

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 :-)

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Kristján Geir Mathiesen
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December 19, 2020

Hahaha, excellent @Walter Buggenhout   Awesome!

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Kate Clavet
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December 21, 2020

haha adorable photo! 

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Vinod Ramadoss
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December 21, 2020

The Christmas tree looks awesome @Kristján Geir Mathiesen 

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Kristján Geir Mathiesen
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December 23, 2020

Thank you @Vinod Ramadoss   

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Ollie Guan
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December 24, 2020

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

微信图片_20201225112131.jpg

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Kristján Geir Mathiesen
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December 25, 2020

That is pretty cool!

Kate Clavet
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January 4, 2021

Love the colors! 

Daniel Ebers
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December 26, 2020

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.

baum.png

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Kristján Geir Mathiesen
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January 22, 2021

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 

Gonchik Tsymzhitov
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January 2, 2021

Wow!  from 2020,

image.png

Thank you for for the wonderful pictures!

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Kristján Geir Mathiesen
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January 22, 2021

That is awesome!

Soumyadeep Mandal - SaM
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January 21, 2021

Hi @Kristján Geir Mathiesen ,

The Christmas tree was like this image.

potted-christmas-tree-1604669232

Regards,

Soumyadeep

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Svenja Lorenzen
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December 14, 2021

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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