Christmas TREE Decorating

I’ve been busy decorating for Christmas to get our home ready for when my grandsons arrived. They call our house “Nana’s Christmas House”.  Noah is 6 1/2 and Jonah 4 1/2 and are only here for only fifteen days, so Nana has lots of fun things planned to make those precious memories.

Something my parents did for my sister, brother and me when we were little was to buy us our own small tree to decorate. I know it was one way my mother knew we’d be too busy decorating our tree to bother messing with the big family tree.  We’d decorate it one day and the next day we’d take all the ornaments off and do it all over again. Well, when my two little guys were of the age I did the same for them. Yes, it kept them busy too. So now with my grandsons here, Nana just had to get a small six-foot tree (found at Wal-Mart for $20), fluffed it, put lights on it and poured out the ornaments on the floor. These ornaments were ones made by their great-great-grandmother, Clara Kobs: great-grandmother, Ruby Kobs-Lange; and other childhood ornaments of their father’s and uncle. They were so excited to see the different ornaments, talking about them, looking for just the right place to place them. I was surprised that they really did space them out. They were not all hanging on one side of the tree either. It was such a joy for me to sit back and see them having so much fun. I had to lift Jonah up a few times so he could hang some ornaments on the top too, that big brother could already reach by standing on his tip-toes.  When finished they were so proud, and of course Nana had to take some pictures. I look forward to carrying on this tree trimming tradition for at least a couple of years, before they feel too old for it.

As for our Christmas tree, we have one large family tree and several small ones with different themes, in different rooms inside and one living cedar tree outside.

I planted this cedar tree from a seedling in 2012, when it was under a water oak tree. The first year I decorated it was in 2013, seen below. In 2014 we had to have the oak tree taken out, because it was leaning and getting ready to fall on our home, with the help of a good strong wind. As you can see, the cedar tree has grown a lot with the removal of the oak. I have bound the tree with some twine in March, to keep it from spreading out. It needed to be trimmed twice this year. I cut the top off to keep it from growing any taller.  It must be at least 11 to 12 foot now. So this is what you can see from our country road in front of our house now, with the addition of my husbands children Frosty from their childhood.

Now for the inside of the house. Here is our family tree, with special ornaments from family and friends.

These two little trees are on our den fireplace with vintage ornaments from my mother and grandmother Selma Sander, with a small church from my grandmother Kobs.

In the living room is my Angel tree, with a tree topper my mother made for me some twenty years ago. The ornaments on this tree are handmade and/or gifts I’ve received from family and friends over the years. 

Next is a tiny tree I put in our hall half-bath during the holidays.

My kitchen tree is decorated with candy canes and cookie cutters. I’ve had a tree like this in my kitchen since my boys were little guys. We always made homemade gingerbread and sugar cookies together. I remember making Christmas cookies with my grandmother Sander when I was a child.  I hope to share this tradition with my grandsons too.

Our bedroom I have two small trees, one on the chest with a crystal garland, tiny red roses and gold glitter sprigs. The other small tree is on my vanity with gold ribbon and my sea shell angel pins.

This little white twig tree is in our bathroom decorated with vintage jewelry, gold and pearl beads. It adds a nice reflecting glow in the room.

This ceramic tree I painted in the 1980’s for my grandmother Kobs. It has a small light under it to light up the colored bulbs. Items around the tree belong to my sons. This little tree is found in the grandchildren s bedroom area.

Last but not least, is my Texas tree. I have it in my art studio. It’s a natural twig tree that has cowboy ornaments on it. The tree topper Santa holds a rope that says “Howdy”

You can see I’ve been a busy elf around the home and my art studio. I also finished decorating my husbands office this week and here is the office tree. His office is in an old home-built around 1880’s. I used a traditional red plaid ribbon on the tree and wreaths in and on the outside of the house. More decorating creations coming soon.

I hope you enjoy my Christmas tree decorating post today. I have more decorating creations to share with you in the coming days and weeks before Christmas. Until my next post….. God Bless You!