Theme or not to Theme

[Elvira]

Do any of you do a theme on the interior of your home (or have in the past)when decorating for christmas..... or do you just use the same decorations each year?

I played with the idea of doing a theme in the last few yrs, maybe not so much a theme, but changing out the look of the tree so its not the same each year. Its always exciting when my older daughter comes home and wonders what the tree will look like this year.

This year, I'm thinking gingerbread will be my theme, gingham's and reds.
I think I will do chair covers for the diningroom if I find some red gingham and have nice big red bows for the backs of the chairs.

Anyone have something new planned?

[bethene]

Nah, I really don't have a theme. I do love what I have heard called "fancyglass" ornaments, especially ones that look like the old ones my mom had. Some years I change up garland types and colors, or add ribbon ,or not, depending on mood. I wish I had a bigger house, then I would have a few trees and do some themes. I have a smaller 2nd tree that I sometimes do sort of a theme, .
I used to work with a lady that had 7 trees in her house, her main on didn't have a theme, but she had a snowman tree , bird ornament tree, , farm tree(weird, I know), angels, snow flakes, and etc. It was very pretty.

[bethene]

your ginger bread idea, sounds cute especially with the gingham and bows, it will be very festive!! Maybe I should re think the theme idea!

[Nephew Fred]

When I lived in San Francisco and had 1 tree and a small victorian house,I would change the theme of the tree and window decor.Sometimes it would be a change of ribbon or beads on the tree,or the color of lights.I would feature different collections of ordaments on the garlands and wreaths to give them a new feel.
Now with 7 trees and a huge house, each tree has its own theme and the decor in that room matches it. We wont even discuss the outside stuff...sigh...Am I insane or what?.....

[LisaJ]

I guess if I had to say I had a theme for my main tree it would be 'love'. All of the ornaments we put on the tree have special meaning to us in one way or another. Ornaments the kids have made over the yrs,ornaments we've gotten from friends and family, ornaments we've picked up in our adventures across the US.

Although we do put the same ornaments on every yr the tree never looks the same. Each yr is a special look.

[putrid]

Re-sale shop. JK LOL If I have it and there's room to put it it's there. No theme. I don't think I'd have the will power to leave stuff packed away.

[Mistress Muffy]

Elvira ....I like that theme too with the gingham & bows!

For me I have several trees too, one that has everything from Hawaii ( a 6 footer), the Rodeo tree (a 6 footer), the Depression tree w/ all the ornaments from that era ( a 6 footer), the "Golden Splendar" tree in my bedroom A 6 footer), the small tree in my kitchen ( a 2 footer), another small fiber optic tree on my tv, the 1/2 tree over the comode & then the large tree( a 8 footer). That left one tree in the garage that did not get put up. I don't have a theme for the inside of the house But on the outside we are working toward a gingerbread look.
We make a few things each year to add to it. And like Fred I try to have things match in each room.

Muf

P.S. oh I forgot the green tree my snowman is holding!

[Elvira]

Wow, this turned out to be a fun thread.

Bethene - I can't even imagine having 7 trees, she must have had a massive house to have 7 full size trees! I bet it was fun to have all these different themed trees tho.


Fred - Omg! Insane? NOOOOO Your house must be amazingly festive, now the burning question.... PICS??? :D pls! I say we all go to Freds for x-mas this yr! wait! Can ya cook Fred? LOL

Lisaj - Those are often the most meaningful trees for sure. "Memory Tree"

Putrid - do you by chance have any yellow little flowers on your tree? heheh

Muffy - This will be my first year doing gingerbread, not sure how to pull it off, hopefully I'm on the right track with the gingham. (Ok, if freds house is a no go... pack your bags troops, we're heading to Muffys!) I love the idea of matching the trees to the room. Hmm.. I have 3 trees, and for the past 3 years only 2 actually made it up, other than the little 2 ft ones, those are quick and easy. I would love to see your gingerbread theme.

[Sickie Ickie]

Eclectic for us. I hope to have a halloween tree started this year with blown halloween ornaments.

[Carrie]

I don't theme the inside of the house per se, but each year I do try to change it somewhat. One thing I do try to do is tie each room together with a repeating element. So I will use pine garland of similar type above all the windows in the living room and dining room as well as in the kitchen and family room with the same type of bows. Last year we had 6 trees up in the house. Our house is small too but its worked out well over the years.

We use a natural tree as our "main" tree in the living room, usually about 7' or so and that one gets the old fashioned look, 90% blown glass ornaments, many of them coming down to me from my grandmother and mother. The rest of the trees are artificial, two 6 footers in the family room..one on each side of the fireplace. Those two trees get a different treatment each year. Last year they were done only in Hallmark ornaments one concentrating on Santas the other was more of a child theme. Our fireplace is a raised hearth type, so in front of it, I also set up the General Foam Child Nativity set (blow molds..of course). It looked nice because it emphasized the child like feeling I was trying to get.

The other trees are smaller, under 4 feet and each one is decorated differently. We put the smaller trees in the kitchen and bedrooms. I've been collecting ornaments since I was a kid and each year I do buy more for every member of the family and for me (yeah, bad I know..) I don't have the guts to do a housewide theme, even though when I've seen others do it, it always looks wonderful. For me, it would mean having some self control and not putting out things we love to see each year.

[Nancj]

I have a hard time just trying to get lights on our tree. we usually buy a 12'-14' tree and although I like the slender trees my husband likes to have the fattest tree he can get. last year I put on 2,500 lights on the tree and it still looked spars in some areas. this year I'm going to try for 4,000. hopefully I won't burn the house down. I like my tree with red sparkly decorations. my son has a small tree in his room sports related. and my daughter keeps an egyptian tree in her room.
I do like the idea of a theme. the gingerberad theme I imagine would look amazing. Don't forget to take plenty of pics Elvira, I'd love to see What that would look like. do you already have a lot of gingerbread decorations, or are you plannig to start fresh this year?
Fred- 7 trees?!!? do you have elves that help you put up the decorations? how early do you start to set up?

[Elvira]

WOW! 4000 lights, thats gonna be so beautiful. I can't wait to see that! Do you use multi-colored?

[Nephew Fred]

I'll have to dig pics up Elvira and scan them to post of all the trees.I have a few daytime pics of the outside I'll post in my photobucket.
Trust me,you dont want me too cook.....lol

[Nancj]

WOW! 4000 lights, thats gonna be so beautiful. I can't wait to see that! Do you use multi-colored?


Just the white ones, I like the way that the colors of the ornaments show up against the white light background. I think they would get lost with the multi color lights especially bc I use all red ornaments. and forget about the flashing lights I get dizzy just looking at them. 4,000 flashig lights and I'd fall flat on my face.

[bethene]

WOW Nephewfred, I think it's great, it all sounds so lovely, I agree would love to see it!!
Muffy , a hawaiian tree sounds cool, what oranments do you have for it? You have alot too!
Carrie, you sound like me, we have a real tree for our main one, and artifical ones for the rest, don't have as many as you though, the real one, a artificial in my family room, some years a 3 1/2 foot in the eating area, a small fiber optic, a wall tree, and a small foot and a half that I set on the curio cabinet. One year I set two real ones up, one in the living room, one in the family room If I had a bigger house , I'd probably have more!

[bethene]

Wow Nancj, you have alot of lights, I use probably about 1500 - 2000 8 footer- with a real tree it is hard sometimes to get lights where you want, and as I always seem to get a spruce, it seem to be the one I like best, it is real pokey, so is hard to get them in !I would love to use white lights again, I used to, and agree ornaments show up better with white, but my hubby whined for years about them, so finally gave in and wnet back to colored, but my second tree always has white!!

[Carrie]

Everyone's trees sound so great! I would love to see pictures too. 4,000 lights would be just incredible, Nancj, stunning to be sure. All red ornaments? What kinds do you use? Wish I could see a picture because it sounds beautiful!

[Elvira]

Just the white ones, I like the way that the colors of the ornaments show up against the white light background.

They do look so nice. don't they? I have 3 trees, and will still do the one in the familyroom multi-colored, but for some reason I can never get it to look the way I vision....lol errrm... kinda reminds me of my projects, I have a vision, but the final product is NEVER what I originally pictured.

[Mummy deer-est]

I'm with LisaJ...a mish-mash of lots of memories. But I like the "love" theme!

I may get two trees this year, and if so, then I hope to have a more concrete theme for one of them. We'll see!

Other than that, my theme is red and green. lol

[Nancj]

same here, I can never figure just how to make it look the way I imagine it, and I think its because the tree is just too damn big, I never have enough or big enough ornaments and can never have enough lights. by the end of the day I'm up to my elbows in tree sap trying to put lights in the tree, I always dread that part. I used to wrap the light around each branch but with a live tree its not easy and after 4 boxes and about 20 more to go the situation becomes desperate. so now I've found that balling a few strands and showing them in the tree is much easier not to mention much faster. and taking them down is a breeze. I used to cut every branch off by hand just to get the lights off, talk about tree sap, even in my hair. and by the way peanut butter only works on gum not tree sap. please tell me theres an easier way to put up lights.
Bethene my hubby likes the multi-colored lights also and is always trying to convince me to change them. at this point though with soo many lights already I don't think I can afford to start all over, although at the end of the season when people toss out their trees I see that many people don't bother taking down the lights and just throw the whole thing out. Am I the only one seeing this or do some of you toss the tree out with the lights also.

[Mummy deer-est]

omg, if I saw a tree at curbies (thanks for the word, putrid and sickie :) ) with lights on it, I would pull over and take em home!

[bethene]

I have heard of people doing that,(throwing tree out lights and all) for one reason or another, but am too cheap to do that!!
nancj, after listen to the complaining all season one year, I waited til after the holidays and bought lights on clearance, and intermixed some older colored ones in there, and every year buy a few new ones. I like the idea of balling some up and putting them in the tree, I may try that this year!! I always am trying to get more light. I also fuss with the ornaments, I move them around all season, to get it to my liking. Things also always look better in my head than in reality.

[Carrie]

I've never seen anyone do it here, but our Village puts up thousands of clear lights each year..and when they tear down at the end of the season, they throw them all out. I asked about getting some, but they said "NO" and I asked why not? I'm a tax payer? They said that it would interfere with the crews. So I asked if I could pick through the dumpsters and haul them out? Once again, NO! Why not? Because its not fair to the other residents. I was pretty steamed about it and then asked "How many other "residents have asked for them?" Answer was none, so why not? Because we said so! I couldn't believe it..told them I put up around 30,000 lights every year, etc. "Oh, you're the house over on ...? "Yes, I am, can I have the lights?" NO!

I gave up. But I'll ask again this year! Nothing like becoming a pain in the butt! LOL

[Elvira]

heheh, keep at er girl! You'll be coming back here and telling us you got them! :D

[Mistress Muffy]

Carrie ...can't you bring that up at one of their village meetings? I mean what a waste of tax payers money. Probably most residents don't know they throw them out. Jeez even if they auctioned them off it would be better than disposing of them!

Muf

[Nancj]

Carrie I would wear green clothes and a green ski mask sneak into the dumpsters the night the lights are taken down and leave a small bell on side of the dumpster when your done. the next morning you could read about it in the paper.
Headlines reads: "Jingle bell bandit swipes towns precious holiday decorations, some eyewitness report having seen a giant elf.
And you would be famous and no one would know about it except for us.

[Sickie Ickie]

Better than leaving the gold coins in the kettle! LOL

[Mistress Muffy]

Hahahaha...Nancj I like that idea and yes Sickie...you are right!

Muf

[Carrie]

Nancj, that is a great idea! You're in the area..maybe we could plan this together..you can drive the getaway "sleigh", I'll do the thieving! Then we can send everyone here some lights! I think that with copper prices what they are today, the Village just might get a clue now and not be so wasteful..hmmm..