Friday, December 16, 2011

You Go Girly Christmas Tree

When you haven't been out of your parents' for more than a Christmas or two, it can be really tempting to copy everything that they did in the house you grew up in to make you feel like you're home for the holidays. I get it, especially if you are living in a city far away from where you grew up.

But I still encourage you to stop for a minute and think about where you currently are in your life, where you'll be in even just a couple of years, and the traditions you'll establish with your own family eventually.

If there was ever a time to experiment with fun Christmas decorations or break tradition, it's now! Sure, you can always have fun Christmas decorations, but when you're living by yourself or with roommates, you likely haven't established any traditions besides going ice skating together or having a holiday potluck. Once you're married and have kids, you'll have other people that will want to stick with traditions you establish, and change will become a group decision. Christmas traditions are great for families and I look forward to establishing them at some point, but while I'm not legally or residentially attached to my boo and am sans children, it's fun to try something a little different.

Which is what prompted me to finally get the white Christmas tree I'd been yearning to have for two years. Yes, I geek out on Christmas and admire trees for years at a time. Partly because I used to work here.

I have long loved white Christmas trees. There's something about the lightness of them, the way they reflect the soft glow of Christmas lights, and the way you can see color so well on them. They're happy and playful and I've always wanted one. So this year I got one.


I bought my white 6 foot pre-lit tree from Walmart for $40. The tree isn't the greatest quality in the world and looked pretty sparse when I first put it together, but once I put ornaments on it I was in love. I like that it's girly and on the smaller size, like she (duh, she) is saying, "I am just so cute and beautiful that I don't need to be gigantic and overwhelm your living room." I decorated her with silver, pink, turquoise, and lime green baubles, and then added the personal ones I've collected since I was in college (my nice collection of ornaments that I gained throughout my childhood is still safe at my parents' house where I hope it will stay until I buy a place or have my own rental at least). I also used light blue plastic icicles and silver glitter snowflakes that I bought from Walmart. I topped the tree off with a pink glitter star and used some shimmery batting snow that I bought from Michael's.

One thing I learned when decorating this year was to think more about editing. While our tree last year was huge and very decorated, I wasn't totally in love with it. This year's tree is smaller but it makes me smile whenever I see it, and you can see the detail of the ornaments on it better.


For tips on decorating a tree and information on how to make your tree look beautifully decorated while using your personal ornaments, check out last year's Christmas Tree post.

8 comments:

  1. How am I your first follower??? You've got such great style! Dying of envy over this white tree. I didn't realize until too late that I wanted a white tree....oh well, next year.....

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  2. That's really cool. I'm so traditional! You nailed it on the head. I decorate my christmas tree, just the way we did when I was a kid... lol! Never even thought about it before... Thanks for giving me new light and new perspective! :)

    ~Lisha

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  3. My husband and I were just having this converstaion the other day. We have a young family and are making our own "family traditions". We had a traditional, fake, green Christmas tree in my childhood home. Since becoming an adult, I've often toyed with the idea of having a non-traditional Christmas tree but have never actually taken the plunge. My husband, however, had many different types of Christmas trees while growing up.

    We have yet to buy our first real Christmas tree. I think that's a luxury we're waiting to splurge on until we buy our own home (we rent now). Anyway, kudos to you for experimenting! I love your tree! It is uber-cute!

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  4. Thanks everyone for your kind comments!! I'm so excited that you like the tree. I'm really happy I went with white. Eventually when I have kids I'll probably get a more traditional tree (maybe even a real one), but I think I'll try to at least have a little white one in my house from now on.

    I definitely still have some traditional decorations in my house and tend to stick with a traditional wreath because it has sentimental value. I've just always loved white trees so I figured this year was the year to take the plunge!

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  5. It's fun, it's cute, it's girly!

    Elaine
    Creating Wonderful Spaces

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  6. Somehow I missed this post until just now but I LOOOOOOOOVE your tree! It's seriously perfect.

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