Love it!!

Beautiful! And merry Christmas to you.

That photo would make a great holiday card.

Very cute, Jacquie!

Karen

That is so cute.

Good place to put this.
I took down my Christmas Tree two week-ends ago.
I have never seen a tree go from holding its needles to dead to the point brances broke off in 10 days before, at least not to that point , although it did not drop it needles to the point I thought it would when I dragged it out.
The odd part was it was still drawing some water, so part of it must have been ---- not quite dead yet ---- as Monty Python once said.

This thread won't last long but I gotta ask..real or artificial?

Thanks for bringing this thread back to life. I enjoyed reading all the posts.

A good place to find artificial trees is at the thrift stores. Instead of paying hundreds of dollars, a really decent tree can cost as little as $25. The pre-lit trees are tested before being offered for sale. Anyone considering making the switch from real to artificial, maybe try buying a slightly used, pre-loved tree just to see if it's a good fit.

We've had an artificial tree since we got married 46 years ago. We like not having to mess with the needles and keeping a real tree watered and then having to dispose of it.

The other reason we like our artificial tree is because it is skinny and our living room is small. The tree fits perfectly and we don't have to worry about finding a real tree that will fit in the room every year.

I guess the con is that an artificial tree does take up storage space. But because we have empty bedrooms now, our 7-foot pre lit tree just gets covered with a huge plastic bag and set in one of the rooms upstairs. That is, until my husband can no longer wrangle it up the steps. I even leave some of the non-breakable ornaments on it. This picture was taken on a year that I didn't even put regular ornaments on it.

A real tree, always.

If I posted this before, my apologies. When we started spending winters in Texas I told the SU that I wanted so m etching Christmas-y. This us from The Galleria in Progreso, Mexico. I leave it out the whole time we are down here. It has lights on the inside that illuminate the glass beads. It's on a timer.

Love the little metal tree. For the last 5 years or so it has been a small potted tree I can p[ant out in the Spring.

I have always had a male dog so went with 4ft table top trees not wanting them to be tempted to lift their leg. Most years a live one but had an artificial one that was very nice for the years we could not find a nice live one.

We've not had kids at home for forty years so there's no need for trees or decorations. But we do string up the cards we receive.
All the houses on our road have similar front doors, so ours is a common light display, although some go overboard and have lights "everywhere."



But we do have some "artificial elements" all year round.

Like this vase of lilies on the hall landing.



The flowers in the hanging baskets are real.



Two of these orchids in the lounge are artificial, I couldn't tell you which ones.



This display in front of the fire in our lounge.



"And thereby hangs a tale."
We used to a have a Gloworm Majorca gas fire here, with a back boiler.
In 2002 we had a new combi boiler fitted in the kitchen (replaced four years ago) so the fire and boiler became redundant. But my wife was concerned that if the boiler broke down we'd have no heat until it was fixed, so we "needed" a gas fire here.
So..anything for a quiet life...

She designed the art deco style fireplace herself, which we had made and fitted with the new gas fire.
The fire is checked every time the boiler is serviced.

In 22 years, we haven't turned it on once.

I hope this posts the right way. The lights are on now.

love it.

Love the way those lights show off those details.

And I really like the lights around that entryway.

blue23rose said: Love the way those lights show off those details.

And I really like the lights around that entryway.

It's hard to get the one string of lights "right," around the door, achieving some sort of symmetry.
Each lamp has to have one of those plastic suckers.
And it would help if those "underpaid little Chinese girls who assemble the strings, could always put each lamp the same distance away from the next one."