Tree or no tree

F4phantom

F4phantom

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My wife and I have been married for 48 years (DINKS). The first 24 we put up a tree every Christmas. We both worked and had no time to enjoy the tree. Since we didn't have children we were the ones who traveled to the relatives for the holiday season. About 24 years ago we decided not to put up the big tree. Since then we have simple decorations up. We still celebrate the season but without all the nonsense.
So, do you put up a tree or not?
 
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Yeah, we do, from even before we had kids. In those days just a very little one, on a table top in a small Tokyo apartment. Then when our son was born, and we moved to a large apartment, my wife bought an artificial tree that we've now had for 25+ years through several moves. We pull it out every year and erect it back at our house in Japan.

This year, we're in the US for the holidays because we don't want to travel back to Japan due to the pandemic. My wife bought another artificial tree. This one apparently a skinny 7-footer to match our high ceilinged living room in our new place. Hasn't showed up yet.

I miss the natural trees of my youth, and the family ritual of finding the tree, cutting it down, dragging it home, and erecting it, and I find the putting up and the taking down a chore, but I do like a tree for Christmas.
 
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Yes, every year. Lately it is a fresh cut 6ft. Nordman Fir. I work on it for a couple days. Just would not be Christmas without a beautiful tree. Complete with Grandma and Moms old German ornaments. Joys of Christmas past.
 
Never having any kids, putting up a tree was just a nuisance. My ex even finally agreed around 1995. When I moved out of my old house 8 years ago I didn't even bother to pack the old tree out of the attic. Closest thing I've come this year to putting up a tree was getting this for my boys. A cat tree.
 

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We do the full Monty. Inside and out. We usually start about two weeks before Christmas.

All of us here, especially the kids, love the Christmas season and we squeeze all the fun and joy we can out of it.

We have a fake tree as our 9 cats would reduce a real one to splinters. Using unbreakable ornaments is key.

Let the merriment begin.🎄
 
Rustyt1953 said:
We do the full Monty. Inside and out. We usually start about two weeks before Christmas.

All of us here, especially the kids, love the Christmas season and we squeeze all the fun and joy we can out of it.

We have a fake tree as our 9 cats would reduce a real one to splinters. Using unbreakable ornaments is key.

Let the merriment begin.🎄
Click to expand...

For years we had 3 large Maine Coon Cats, that cured us of having a tree of any kind.:D We did put up a couple wreathes high on the wall.

Kids are long gone so no tree. FWIW we also have no outside lights/decorations as our house cannot be seen from the road. We are a bit remote out here in the boonies so Santa needs a GPS to find our house!:)
 
COVID pushed our summer Siesta Key vacation from June to December. We'll be in a condo on the beach the week of Christmas, so we feel no need to decorate the house at all. Kinda like how pleasant our Thanksgiving meal was this year, COVID just keeps on giving back . . .
 
Wife puts up the FAKE tree. It still drops needles all over the place! I have a small train platform but I quit putting it and all the lit up village buildings up. I may decide to use it again this year. It's an old Lionel with an HO trolley car going to each building; but, it's only 4' X 6', so fun is limited. I do the outside lights (The electric co. used to send me Christmas cards!), but not as many as I used to. I hate those fake trees. I may go get a real one tomorrow or Sunday. Either way, yeah, you can tell it's Christmas at our house! We're only on this planet a few years, and Christmas can't be forgotten! Tomorrow I have to get a wisdom tooth "chipped out" as he put it, but I'm sure wife will be getting the stuff out of the garage while I suffer! (Note to self: get the real tree next year!)
 
Muss Muggins said:
COVID pushed our summer Siesta Key vacation from June to December. We'll be in a condo on the beach the week of Christmas, so we feel no need to decorate the house at all. Kinda like how pleasant our Thanksgiving meal was this year, COVID just keeps on giving back . . .
Click to expand...

Don't forget your Mistletoe necklaces! Beautiful beach!
 
We have been on the road the last 7 years in our motorhome, but we sold it this year and we will be here this Christmas. I had no intention of putting up a tree but the wife said we ought to, so, having nothing better to do I started doing the job with our last, fake, 7' lighted tree. Everything worked and all was in great shape,,, amazing. The further I got into it, the better I felt, with the Christmas music going and all the memories of past Christmas's with the kids and grandkids, it turned out to be a great thing to do. Only problem is that our kids here at home are going to Texas to spend Christmas with their daughter, so we will still be alone,,, oh well.
 
I guess I've been all over the map since I went out on my own. I never had any kids and usually wasn't home on Christmas day, so for many years I didn't have any kind of tree but would tape up on the door in the shape of a Christmas tree the Christmas cards I received. My mother used to do that on the wall.

When I moved to this house on December 20, 2005 (talk about a huge Christmas present to myself), my aunt and uncle set up a potted Christmas tree for me as a surprise while I was at work. I planted the tree afterward but it died. The next year I bought a potted Norway spruce and then planted it in the back yard. It's 20 feet tall now.

Now I use the table top tree my sister gave me some time ago. It is made of metal rods with a brass finish. It's fully decorated, and since I don't take it down you might say it's Christmas all year long in my house.
 
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I'm old, single, my youngest is 35 and I have no grand children. I won't go into detail about the current greedfest know as Christmas.
No. No tree. I don't decorate at all. Humbug!
 
After the kids left my wife and I put up a tree and decorated every year. Last year was the first time we put up a tree only. This year no tree or anything.
 
It depends on our "Kids".

We can go cut down a "live tree" or put up the "Plastic" one.

If we go out to cut a tree, we make a day of it and have a "Hot lunch"
by a fire in the snow.......and I have to bring "My Chili" and home made clam dip for the potato chips along with the "Pot Luck" that will be at hand for all that show up, plus plenty of hot chocolate, for all.

Either way, it is a win, win deal for our family.

By the way, the "Family" has gotten so BIG over the years, that we now just draw a name of a person at Thanksgiving, for our X-mas present gift and some extras to also go around, for the "Good" boys and girls.

Have a happy holiday.
 
This year my wife and I put the tree up a few days before Thanksgiving. She then had to leave to go to work ... 355 miles away. We will not likely get to spend Christmas together. But, thank God for FaceTime on the phone, Skipe, etc., etc. Only 16 months from now ... she'll be home for good! Then we'll have a real Christmas! Sincerely. bruce.
 
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