O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...

A Christmas Tree is one of the first things that come to mind when I think about Christmas. I love just about everything about them. I love being able to see how people decorate their tree and how it speaks about them. Trees are so personal and versatile. I love how they are all different. 

Some people like full trees, while others prefer the sparse (Charlie Brown) tree. Some stand by their colored lights and others are white lights all the way. Some people swear by a live tree, or even a living tree to plant after the holiday, while others can only handle a faux tree. 

We have a faux tree in our house.  I grew up with live trees, we used to go to a U-cut farm but then as we got older convienience won out and we got them pre-cut from the grocery store. It was my intent to keep the live tree tradition once Thomas and I got married. And we did have a live tree our first Christmas. It took A LOT more lights than I anticipated and was a bitch to water. Not to mention that the trunk was too wide for our tree stand so we had to chisel it down.  We also discovered that year that Cooper, our Miniature Pinscher, was allergic to pine/fir trees. So we had to make the decision to go faux. I have not ever looked back!

I love our faux tree! It's easy, and takes no maintenance, it's already strung with lights, and I'm not picking up needles in July!!!  I love the decorations that we have on it and it's pretty much the same each year. I have started moving the ornaments around a little bit so that they're in different places each year.  It's so much fun unwrapping the ornaments and putting them on the tree, remembering where we got them and getting so excited about ones that I forgot that we even had. We do get new ornaments each year to add to our tree. 

our ornaments are from a variet of places; Wights, Pottery Barn (in DC), Nordstrom, Crate and Barrel, Macys (in NYC), and Liberty in Canada. 

Pier 1, Peridot in Canada, Michaels, and Ben Franklin. Finding the star for the top of our tree was a total accident, we absolutely love it and got at a store that is no longer in business.

We started a tradition for Ellie this year, where we are going to get her an ornament every year to put on the tree and then when she is older and moves out on her own, has a collection of ornaments for her tree there.

This is Ellies first ornament this year. I didn't want to get her one of those babies first Christmas ornaments because honestly, I think they're kind of cheesy. I still need to get a paint pen and write her name on this cute little deer but I absolutely love it and it goes so well with our decor.

What's your favorite thing about your tree?

-Ashley