^^ looks good.   

We've used artificial since we "sold the farm" in 2000.... A 6-or-so footer; sits in the middle panel of our 3-panel LR window so it's visible from the outside as well.   It'll stay up until after the Julian Christmas, so I'm in no rush.  My wife, who does the bulk of the decorating, says she'll do it, "When I get around to it." so that's settled!!     My stance is to wait until about the middle of the month ... dunno whether that's a form of protest to counter businesses that start Christmas promotions before Hallowe'en, or just a sign that I'm getting old(er) and crotchety(er).

No tree for me. Can't see putting out the money and energy to decorate for just me. I will put out several Christmas type decorations, but no tree.

Yeah...Liz has the tree bug too...

Gotta drag out all that stuff...

Beautiful!!!
Slammer!!!

I put ours up a few days ago. Wife needs to get her decorated!

Yeah, very nice. We always get a Fraser Fir from the Lions Club, since they supported my wife's spring camping trip with her class...but I do miss a wild grown tree sometimes. Still have some available on a our farm up north, white pine, red pine, blue spruce, and occasional concolor. I spent one summer hand planting scotch pine and blue spruce - but we had a drought and what that didn't kill, the deer ate. I love white pine, but they can't take a heavy load - and believe me we have a heavy load of lights and ornaments. But my opinion is usually ignored since I'm not the Christmas fanatic. Our house is 90 % decorated (heavily). Getting the tree tomorrow. My Christmas treat is going to hear the Krueger Bros. in Kalamazoo tonight. My sister is playing with them in the Kalamazoo Orchestra and got me row 10 center seats.

We did the big live Fraser Fir for many years and it was grand but now in smaller digs with less energy so put up a skinny artificial tree with the lights already on it. It's still pretty when the other lights are off. And we strung up lights, not quite to Griswald level, but still bright and cheerful on these dark nights.

We plan to take advantage of today’s weather and do our minor front porch decorating. Which means hauling the porch furniture to the storage unit. Marilyn will also decorate our fireplace, so I will lose the use of its gas insert for a while. Brad

One of my favorite childhood memories is the year that Mom decided we should really make Christmas about Christ, so, instead of putting up a tree, we bought a nice one, sawed off all the branches, and made a very nice bower, or arbor, or whatever you want to call it, in the deep sill of the big window.
Put our large enough Nativity Scene figures in there.
Beautiful.
And then, as Christmas got nearer and nearer, we began to want a tree, TOO.
So, on the 24th, Mom relented, and off the oldest kids went, to get a tree.
By then OF COURSE, all the good ones were gone, and (years before the Charlie Brown show ever aired) they brought home a sad and scraggly tree.
But, Dad, ever resourceful, sawed some branches off the back, drilled holes in the trunk at the front, and it looked just FINE, with our ornaments on it.
Dad and Mom were good at making do, with what little we had, since they were raising eleven kids.

Oh, hey! If I forgot to post it elsewhere:
Merry Christmas.

Mike, that was a nice story. Brad

Look what joined us this year for Christmas. Our daughters English hobby horse. The poor creature had been ignored for decades in our 3rd floor. Yet in the Early 1980s the horse was worshipped by every kid and adult when it was out. We have/had so many photos of our girls riding away on it. Awww, memories! Brad

Well, Mrs. Slammer/Claus worked her butt off and did a beautiful job decorating the house for the season. I think we are planting or butts at home for Christmas and enjoy quiet time with just the two of us and no kids or grandkids. We’ve been on the go for a long time and need a break!!!
Slammer!!!

Slammer, the all white lighting looks great.

This may be our last year with incandescent bulbs. The LED selection is getting much better, and some more old fashion looking. We shall see.

Last night we had our oldest daughter over along with a couple that are her age. The guy is a duck dude. We sat in the living room enjoying the tree and visiting. We served an appetizer selection, that included Conard pate’ and I made “eider duck” cocktails. I have to admit-to having to google what an eider duck is. They ain’t in these parts.
Recipe: equals parts of cognac/brandy, grand marnie/orange liqueur, kirschwasser/cherry brandy, and lemon juice/lemon juice. 3/4 oz of each per cocktail). Brad

Sounds good……….who’s ready to get Duckie with me???
Slammer!!!

I choose a fir near the house and throw some tinsel on it.

Some years I leave it as is.

quote:

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Originally posted by slammer

Sounds good……….who’s ready to get Duckie with me???
Slammer!!!

---

If I had planned ahead I could have bought a bag of mini rubber duckies to float on the cocktail.  Brad

quote:

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Originally posted by steve davis

I choose a fir near the house and throw some tinsel on it.

Some years I leave it as is.

---

I used to work in a portion of south central Kansas in very rough carved up red hill country.  With a lot of dense woods and canyons.  And near water, cedar trees abound.  I would cut a 6-ish foot cedar to set up in our elderly baby sitter's  home.  She grew up in that area and they always had cedar Christmas trees, free, and within walking distance. She would cry when I set it up, and talk about her childhood.  Brad

We put ours up last night.  It's a sweet Charlie Brown Doug fir that was growing in the wrong place. 

The cats are thrilled and 'worshiped' it all night.   

Rubber duckies you say?? 

I assume these are edible and IF marshmallow floats, yer good to go: 

I know just where go for those! Thx
That is, if I ever do duckie drinks again. Though, the eider duck drink tasted very good. Brad

Every year since I lost the artificial vs. real debate, I have dutifully hauled the plastic monstrosity in from the garage on the day after Thanksgiving. I assemble the segments, fold down the branches, and get the lights working. My wife, daughter and grand kids do the rest.

It's the time of year when I go from room to room humming or singing my own little Christmas carol:

Shining plastic Christmas tree
You make me feel so Christmas-y
All beautiful and evergreen
And made of polyethylene

Shining plastic Christmas bough
The children gather round you now
Singing songs of Christmas glee
Around the plastic Christmas tree

Glowing plastic Christmas pine
The scent from you is so divine
It came here from a foriegn shore
A spray can from the hardware store

Shining plastic Christmas tree
I hope some day that you will be
Among your poor discarded kin
Outside in the recycling bin

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

You should* scout around Jon.... our plastic monstrosity looks quite decent.

[She/we got it at Home Depot in Lloydminster SK/AB  4ish years back ... I doubt they have any left.]

* I typically shy away from giving "you should" advice, but once in  a while I make an exception. 

Boys and I setup the Christmas tree and decorated it yesterday. The string of lights consist of 3 sets to go around the tree from top to bottom. This morning I woke up to find the middle string died leaving only the top and bottom of the tree illuminated. Ugh!

Here's my plastic monstrosity, courtesy of Balsam Hill. I like that I can set it up unaided, and a live tree doesn't get killed (and die a slow painful death from lack of watering.) Decorated with lots of British Squishies, as I call them. The little tree in the foreground came from ebay.