Happy Advent, everyone! Jo is hosting her famous online stitching Advent calendar again, and today it's my turn.
Our conversation topic this year is Christmas trees, and here is a picture of ours that we just put up yesterday - it's not decorated yet, apart from the lights, and a new ornament I just finish-finished yesterday as well:
As you can see, our tree is a teeny-tiny artificial one. Felix and I bought it when we got married, and we usually want to put it up in the beginning of December - the idea being that we never celebrate Christmas at home, so by putting it up early we get to enjoy it for a bit. We don't have room for a bigger one in this apartment, and I like our tiny tree! We decorate it with the little stitched ornaments Jo gave us for our wedding, and a couple straw stars.
The bigger tree is at grandma's apartment. Growing up, we used to have a real tree, but she can't deal with the water and cleanup anymore (and I feel bad about those poor cut down trees!) so she got a really nice artificial one a while back.
It's decorated more or less the same each year - we got glass ornaments, that grandpa modified so they can 'sit' on top of the branches instead of hanging below (grandma got the inspiration from looking at a magazine, so he made it possible for her), lots and lots of straw starts, LED lights and a bunch of old ornaments - some that I made as a I kid, a bird my mum gave my grandma 50 years ago, some that are even from grandma's parents still. And a couple newer ones too that we just found pretty. It's a real piece of family history!
In Germany, it's tradition to only put the tree up on the 24th (maybe the 23rd). We actually put it up yesterday, but, like our tiny one, it's only the tree with lights so far, so the branches can recover from being packed up all year. We'll decorate Thursday or Wednesday next week :)
7 comments:
You have a very sweet tree!
I'm glad you have a tree even if a tiny one, Leonore! My middle son and his girlfriend didn't want one, but I gifted them with a tiny two foot tree fully decorated one year. Ha! Everyone needs a tree of some size.
My grandmother on my dad's side was German and we always had a big tree trimming party on Christmas Eve. I always wondered why she waited so long to put it up, but now I know--tradition :) Merry Christmas to you!
Thanks for taking part in the Advent Calendar this year. I adore your tiny tree! I'm so glad that it is just big enough for the ornaments I sent you. I did enjoy making them for you.
We went out and foraged for our tree today. Well, actually we chose one from the farmyard as the fields were REALLY muddy and they had plenty of nice ones already cut.
I love your little tree, and really enjoyed reading about your family Christmas tree tradition. It was a nice way for me to start my day. Fröliche Weihnacht (I hope I got that right - it's been a very long time since my last German class!)
Thank you for sharing your tree stories with us. I've very much enjoyed reading about everyone's different traditions. X
So, secretly I enjoy having the tree up with just lights for a little while before putting on all the ornaments. It feels like the calm before the storm! :) Your finished ornament is precious! I enjoyed reading your post and hearing about your grandparent's tree!! Merry Christmas to you!! :)
That little tree is adorable and it even looks real! What a sweet ornament, perfect timing for the finish.
Your grandparents tree sounds lovely, with lots of treasured ornaments.
Happy Christmas!
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