Christmas Decorating Ideas

beautiful.

Thanks Alex, Cheryl, Jacob & Krissy.

Cheryl, my dad didn't even want to put up his tree this year, he is SO tired of dealing with the cat! I have never had a cat so have not had this experience....I've always wanted one, but between allergy issues and the stories I've heard about tree dismantling, I am thinking we are not destined to be cat people.

Saw this on a FB post when someone was complaining about their cat and the tree:

Spray it with Geranium essential oil. Cats can't stand the smell. Genevieve Gorder gave that little tip on Rachel Ray's show the other day.

Oh wow! Good tip!

Amy wrote:

Cheryl, my dad didn't even want to put up his tree this year, he is SO tired of dealing with the cat! I have never had a cat so have not had this experience....I've always wanted one, but between allergy issues and the stories I've heard about tree dismantling, I am thinking we are not destined to be cat people.

Our trees aren't even real. It's not the tree so much as the ornaments hanging on the lower branches. The cats love to sleep on the tree skirts, especially the fleece snowman one. Eventually, they get bored and begin toying with the ornaments. That's why I went to mostly plastic or resin ornaments years ago. The girls were young then, too, so it made sense. The youngest cat prefers to rip open gift wrap.

Speaking of cats under the tree, my avatar is Boots under our tree last year.

Everyone has such beautiful pictures and wonderful decorating ideas.

I don't put up the tree until the 16th of December, but this year I came home and my youngest daughter, Melissa, had the tree up, the mantle decorated and her boyfriend was up on the roof putting up lights.

Alice wrote:

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I don't put up the tree until the 16th of December, but this year I came home and my youngest daughter, Melissa, had the tree up, the mantle decorated and her boyfriend was up on the roof putting up lights.

That's so kind of them!

Hi Alex!!

I can't complain, I am very lucky to have daughters (and her boyfriend) to do nice things like that

bethandmanly wrote:

Speaking of cats under the tree, my avatar is Boots under our tree last year.

So adorable!!

Alice wrote:

I don't put up the tree until the 16th of December, but this year I came home and my youngest daughter, Melissa, had the tree up, the mantle decorated and her boyfriend was up on the roof putting up lights.

That really was sweet. I can't picture my boys ever doing something like that. (although they do help with outdoor lights. ). Decorating is my baby---all me. Although my hubby & boys do help with the transporting of bins/boxes, so that helps a ton. Because decorating is time consuming, I like to enjoy it for as long as possible, so I go from the day after Thanksgiving to New Year's day or the day after that.


Nice to have you back to the board, Alice!

Amy wrote:

bethandmanly wrote:

Speaking of cats under the tree, my avatar is Boots under our tree last year.

So adorable!!

Alice wrote:

I don't put up the tree until the 16th of December, but this year I came home and my youngest daughter, Melissa, had the tree up, the mantle decorated and her boyfriend was up on the roof putting up lights.

That really was sweet. I can't picture my boys ever doing something like that. (although they do help with outdoor lights. ). Decorating is my baby---all me. Although my hubby & boys do help with the transporting of bins/boxes, so that helps a ton. Because decorating is time consuming, I like to enjoy it for as long as possible, so I go from the day after Thanksgiving to New Year's day or the day after that.


Nice to have you back to the board, Alice!

Thank you, Amy It's good to be back. Things have been so bad for me lately it's nice to come "see" some friendly faces.

I guess you're not a "black Friday" shopper then. I sure am not one. That's nice to have the decorations up to enjoy for that long.

And about cats, I have two that like to sleep under the tree and they like to chew on it, (artificial one) so we got some bitter yuck to spray on it where they like to chew. I don't think it works that well though.

[quote="bethandmanly"]

Amy wrote:

The cats love to sleep on the tree skirts,

This is SO true! My 2 cats have been under my tree since I put it up! I wish I would have known this before I bought the velvet snowman skirt that wouldn't survive the washing machine.

This picture isn't great & I just finished this on Sunday (because the bags are lemon fresh scent & I could only take so much of it at a time) but here is the wreath made from garbage bags

Amy wrote:

I love that carriage! I go to Goodwill at least once a month & I never find anything nice like your little houses & if I do they are broken in some way. I always find good books there tho

Alice wrote:

Thank you, Amy It's good to be back. Things have been so bad for me lately it's nice to come "see" some friendly faces.

I'm so sorry to hear that, Alice.

Alice wrote:

I guess you're not a "black Friday" shopper then. I sure am not one. That's nice to have the decorations up to enjoy for that long.

Nope, not at ALL. Yeah, I'd much rather be decorating and enjoying time at home than out in the crowds. I have left a few gifts to the end though, so I am going to have to go out and fight the crowds at some point this week.

Kamberley wrote:

This picture isn't great & I just finished this on Sunday (because the bags are lemon fresh scent & I could only take so much of it at a time) but here is the wreath made from garbage bags.

That looks *really* great, Kamberly! Who knew?! Too bad they don't make pine scented bags though!

Kamberly wrote:

I love that carriage! I go to Goodwill at least once a month & I never find anything nice like your little houses & if I do they are broken in some way. I always find good books there tho

I hear ya. Sometimes the trick is to travel to some hoity toit surrounding areas....what's the saying? One man's junk is another man's treasure? Yeah. I have found some great things in my area too though. I collect English cottage figurines and found one, made in England at our Volunteers of America. The only problem? They used a sharpie to mark the price on the bottom!! Way to wreck any value it might have had! But still...so many people give up great items and don't realize what they have.

Amy wrote:

Alice wrote:

Thank you, Amy It's good to be back. Things have been so bad for me lately it's nice to come "see" some friendly faces.

I'm so sorry to hear that, Alice.

Alice wrote:

I guess you're not a "black Friday" shopper then. I sure am not one. That's nice to have the decorations up to enjoy for that long.

Nope, not at ALL. Yeah, I'd much rather be decorating and enjoying time at home than out in the crowds. I have left a few gifts to the end though, so I am going to have to go out and fight the crowds at some point this week.

Thank you, Amy. I am missing my husband this year, more then during the past few years. And money problems ... But, I know there are people who are much worse off then I am. So I won't complain

Alice wrote:

Thank you, Amy. I am missing my husband this year, more then during the past few years. And money problems ... But, I know there are people who are much worse off then I am. So I won't complain

I'm so sorry, Alice. Of course there are people worse off, but you are 'allowed' to feel sad for the things that aren't going quite right in your life, too.

You know, my friend and I were just saying this morning how we both know we have to be grateful for our blessings, but December can be a rather depressing month.

Amy wrote:

Alice wrote:

Thank you, Amy. I am missing my husband this year, more then during the past few years. And money problems ... But, I know there are people who are much worse off then I am. So I won't complain

I'm so sorry, Alice. Of course there are people worse off, but you are 'allowed' to feel sad for the things that aren't going quite right in your life, too.

You know, my friend and I were just saying this morning how we both know we have to be grateful for our blessings, but December can be a rather depressing month.

Thank you, Amy. Yes, it can be a depressing month but I am so greatfull to have a place to live and two of my daughters with me (Actually, my husband is here in a way, he's on the fireplace mantle).

Amy wrote:

I hear ya. Sometimes the trick is to travel to some hoity toit surrounding areas....what's the saying? One man's junk is another man's treasure? Yeah. I have found some great things in my area too though. I collect English cottage figurines and found one, made in England at our Volunteers of America. The only problem? They used a sharpie to mark the price on the bottom!! Way to wreck any value it might have had! But still...so many people give up great items and don't realize what they have.

Could you use a Mr Clean Magic Eraser on it? Thats what i use to get prices off if i buy something in a Goodwill store i do wish that they would stop using Sharpies though it can totally ruin an Item



Alice I will be praying for you, Christmas is a really hard time when missing a loved one

Sorry Jacob, I'm just now seeing your last post. Hmm, I never even thought of a Mr. clean eraser! I use that on a lot of things, but I never guessed it would be able to get sharpie marker of! It's worth a try...I'll let you know.


I finally got all my Christmas decorations down today. It sure is more fun putting everything up than taking it all down! Feels good to have the house back in order again though. This is the longest I've ever left all the Christmas stuff up---I usually have everything down New Years Day or at least a day after that.

How long does everyone else leave their decorations up?


(Oh, on a little sidenote. We have neighbors who leave ALL their Christmas lights up year 'round, every year (NOT cool to have to see Christmas lights (even un-lit) in July ), and this year they never even turned the lights ON! I mean, at least give us the pleasure of viewing your lights, if you're going to subject us to viewing them unlit all year long! Maybe they don't work anymore...I can only hope that THIS is the year they take them down.

Amy wrote:

Sorry Jacob, I'm just now seeing your last post. Hmm, I never even thought of a Mr. clean eraser! I use that on a lot of things, but I never guessed it would be able to get sharpie marker of! It's worth a try...I'll let you know.

Took the Last of the Decorations down on Tuesday I took down all the Inside Decorations on the 5th but didn't have energy to do the outside as well so they had to wait but now everything is packed into boxes already just waiting for me to put it all the way in the back corner of the storage room

It was the Same with me This year Amy, I couldn't get myself to clean everything up Some years i had the tree down by the 28th, Lots of People leave there lights up all year here some don't even bother turning them off till August then turn them on again in October gets kind of annoying seeing them on During the summer

JW wrote:

It was the Same with me This year Amy, I couldn't get myself to clean everything up Some years i had the tree down by the 28th, Lots of People leave there lights up all year here some don't even bother turning them off till August then turn them on again in October gets kind of annoying seeing them on During the summer

Glad I'm not the only one annoyed by that. At least our neighbors don't LIGHT theirs in the summer, lol. And we used to leave our lights up along the rooftop, because they had green cording and blended right in with the dark roof. But these people have the white cording and TONS of it, so it's just an eyesore. Oh well...like my hubby said, they're quiet neighbors and we don't have any problems with them, so this is pretty small in the big scheme of things I guess.

Amy wrote:

(Oh, on a little sidenote. We have neighbors who leave ALL their Christmas lights up year 'round, every year (NOT cool to have to see Christmas lights (even un-lit) in July ), and this year they never even turned the lights ON! I mean, at least give us the pleasure of viewing your lights, if you're going to subject us to viewing them unlit all year long! Maybe they don't work anymore...I can only hope that THIS is the year they take them down.

We have neighbors who do that-leave their Christmas lights on their house up all year. Except during the Christmas season they do turn them on.

My mom and I finished taking down the Christmas decorations a few days ago. For a few days afterwards it feels funny not to have them up to me, we put them up the day after Thanksgiving usually, so I'm used to them being there, haha.

I take everything down on New Year's. I may take a day or two longer to get it all put away though. Gary just took the lights down this past weekend. I can't always talk him into getting them down on New Year's.

All the decorations finally made it down this weekend. I have to do it in small sections since there are so many. This year I changed how I had arranged everything, but don't know if we got many pictures. Sigh. Too much going on.

Bumping up Jacob's Christmas decorating thread! 'Tis the season!  

I bought new outdoor lights yesterday. These ones have a clip that you just clip onto the eaves on the house (gutters for my US friends). Now all I have to do is find a ladder to get to the eaves, hmmm. I LOVE coloured lights, could hang them all year and enjoy them every day but people would think that I'm weird.