Tree or no tree

[F4phantom]

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?

 

[Onomea]

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.

 

[bigwheelzip]

Yup, decorate for Christmas every year, even though we aren't usually home for the holiday anymore. For all the prayers God's answered, it's the least I could do.

 

[Rudi]

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.

 

[Ziggy2525]

Stopped putting up a tree after the kids left home. Going back to a tree this year.

 

[mckenney99]

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.

 

[Rustyt1953]

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.

 

[NYlakesider]

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.

For years we had 3 large Maine Coon Cats, that cured us of having a tree of any kind. 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!

 

[Muss Muggins]

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 . . .

 

[jeffrefrig]

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!)

 

[jeffrefrig]

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 . . .

Don't forget your Mistletoe necklaces! Beautiful beach!

 

[Muss Muggins]

We go there most years. Family tradition since the 60's . . .

Don't forget your Mistletoe necklaces! Beautiful beach!

 

[PeterJ]

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.

 

[Golddollar]

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.

 

[Grayfox]

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!

 

[JET4]

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.

 

[Nevada Ed]

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.

 

[misswired]

We go there most years. Family tradition since the 60's . . .

Forget stopping at the Ruby Tuesday off I-65 in our little hamlet. Even the recent years off alcohol sales couldn't save it.....

 

[brucev]

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.

 

[Jessie]

Yep, especially this year. I need the normalcy and will not yield to the Covid.

 

[luangtom]

Nope. No tree. Have not now for a number of years. Both kids left the nest and it was not much of a thing for us. No outside decorations either. Christmas Eve family service and Midnight Mass. That is the extent of our Christmas now. Both of us are fairly decrepit and do not need the hassle.

 

[quikdraw67]

My Christmas tree is about 11 inches high and takes a 40 watt lightbulb.

A ceramic tree made by one of Mrs. QD67's friend's mothers.

There's a backstory to Christmas in my family.

My oldest brother, who got me into shooting and was a very serious S&W revolver collector, killed himself on Christmas Day 2003. His son found him the following day.

I was the one who had to break the news to our parents.

As you can imagine, Christmas became a difficult day to celebrate in my family.

Yet, my Mom still put up a tree and lights on the house.
This continued until she sold the house and moved into an elderly hi-rise in January 2011.

So then, we bought an artificial tree and put it up every year at my house. We had to be careful with the cats regarding the tree and the train, but otherwise we enjoyed it. I will confess it was fun to have an excuse to put up my train set. But I did it for my Mom.

She's been in a nursing home since January 2018. So there was no point IMHO to put up a tree, since she can't be here.

It is what it is.

 

[jbtrucker]

I have a ceramic lighted tree sister gifted me years ago and set up a Christmas cards. One from my parents and another sent from a cousin before she passed away from cancer.

 

[Ole Joe Clark]

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.

Rusty, our daughter does the "full Monty" and she buys oranges and uses the peel to keep the cat out from under the tree. She says it works great and has been doing it for several years.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

 

[Rustyt1953]

Rusty, our daughter does the "full Monty" and she buys oranges and uses the peel to keep the cat out from under the tree. She says it works great and has been doing it for several years

Having nine, I would have to plant a grove.

 

[BigBill]

We get a small live tree with a ball(roots) bring it in Christmas Eve decorate it, after Christmas Day undress it and plant it.

My mom had a small fake evergreen tree in a box uprite all decorated. She took it out plugged in, waited for russian or little Christmas then back in the box it went.

My cats think everything is their toy. I'm down to six cats now. I take in abondoned kittens. Or dogs that no one wants.

 

[sigp220.45]

I'm on the full Monty train with Rusty. Tree, lights on the house, too many presents.....

I love Christmas and all its trappings. We were one small step above white trash (maybe) growing up but my Dad worked a second job at Goldblatt's department store every year to pay for a good Christmas for his party of nine. We didn't have much the other 364 days of the year, but Christmas was truly wonderful. He's long gone now, but I ain't gonna be the one to let him down.

 

[Kiwi cop]

A Kiwi Christmas

Karen always loved putting up the tree and decorating it, wrapping presents and putting them under the tree. Until her COPD meant that she was too sick to decorate the tree, so we went without for three years.

17th December 2017, exactly 9 months to the day after doctors told me she would not survive her lung transplant and to prepare to discus turning off life support, I watched her put together a new fake tree and decorate it all on her own. I cried that day.

Our tree was put up and decorated by Karen over a week ago. Not too many presents this year. Since Karen's transplant family is more important than the gifts. I'll have a few things to upgrade one of my guitars and some books. Maybe a new shirt or two.

Karen will have books and, if I can get her to agree to pick something out, some jewellery. Ryan will have clothes and a few other items he gets every year.

Traditionally we have spent Christmas day at my MIL's with several generations present, but this year will be the first Christmas since she passed away. I will be patrolling the highways from 7am - 5pm Christmas day, then we will get together in the evening, just the three of us, my SIL and her housemate, for a meal.

Like I said, our family is much more important to us on Christmas day now. But we still have the decorations put up.

 

[BC38]

We've always done a traditional tree since before the boys were born. Probably always will, though I'd be OK with not doing it any more in just a few years, once we're empty-nesters.

 

[wood714]

I've not put up any Christmas decorations since I got divorced in 2010.

All my kids and grand kids live in Cincinnati.

A couple years ago my daughter told me I had to put up a tree and bought me one. I put it out Christmas eve night and take it down Christmas night.

I don't really consider it a tree...Charlie Brown would thou.