Christmas Tree Decorations

Growing up, our Christmas trees were always decorated just so. There were decorations in burgundy and gold, blue and silver, and then apples and toys. We had three different tree set-ups and they were rotated each year. Everything matched and always white lights. We never put handmade decorations on the tree. We didn't have sentimental decorations. Don't get me wrong, the tree was always beautiful and it was nice to "show off", but it always bothered me somehow. I wanted more tradition and sentiment. Now that I have my own family, I can do that.

So I thought it would be fun to string some popcorn and cranberries for the tree with the family. First of all, I didn't think I'd be the only one doing it (why would I not have realized this?!). Will did start to help a little, but the novelty quickly wore off. You can see our work in progress in Will's Photos and how many cranberries I thought I'd like to use. Luckily I started with only a 3 foot piece of string so that's all I had to finish.

We did have some fun making it though. Will got a feel for a needle and thread, which is something EVERYONE should know how to use. We talked about patterns. 3 Popcorn... 1 Cranberry... 3 Popcorn... 1 Cranberry. I told Will that after Christmas we would hang the strand(s) in the trees for the birds to eat. Those 3 feet were fun, but anymore and I think we all would have been bored.

The completed strand was just long enough to put on the boys' little tree in the sun room. It is a 3' tree decorated with colored lights. There are a few apples from my childhood "apples & toys tree" and lots of homemade decorations given to us from our dear friend, Deborah. She gave us her decorations (some from her childhood I believe) when Will was about two. Will and Nathan decorated this tree in about uummmm.... 30 seconds. Most of the ornaments are piled on the lower branches. It is b e a u t i f u l ! :)

It doesn't look like we're going to be able to feed the birds though...








And a video, of course: