More Than You Ever Wanted to Know About my Christmas Trees

This year I decided to redo my Christmas tree. I’ve had the same Christmas tree in my living room for 20 years. For about 18 of those years, I’ve had it decorated with pictures of Jesus. Over time, I’ve added and taken away elements like ribbon and sprigs of berries. I repainted the picture frames, too, but for the most part, it’s been the same for those 18 years. 

Jesus tree last year 

In 2020 we finished our basement, so I wanted a new, flocked Christmas tree and decorations for downstairs. I went with blueish tones instead of traditional Christmas colors. I really liked my basement tree, but I started to long for red. Red is my favorite color, so it makes no sense that I didn’t have red on my Christmas tree! 

Basement tree 2020

Last year I found a Christmas tree at the thrift store for $15, so I decided that for 2023, I would update my trees a bit. I wanted to get rid of my Jesus tree (which I bought for $20 from Lowe’s on after-Christmas clearance thankyouverymuch), move the newer flocked tree from the basement to the living room, and put the thrift store tree in the basement. 

I wanted to save some of the components of my Jesus tree before getting rid of it, so I spent a day with it in the backyard removing some ribbon, some berries, and the lights (I guess this is where I should mention that several years ago, I got sick of putting the decorations on my tree, so I glued and wired everything to it and stored it fully assembled in the shed so I never had to decorate it again. This is one of the most genius things I’ve ever done, but I don’t think I’ll be able to do that with my new tree because it’s a bit wider and would be better stored in its bag).

The Jesus tree mid-demise 

I wanted to get new decorations for my living room tree, so I spent a few weeks pinning photos of trees I liked, and I discovered that the ones I was most drawn to were red and white. I always really loved having a Christ-centered tree, and I wanted to maintain some element of Jesus. I looked about for some artwork I might like and didn’t find anything. Then at Deseret Book one day, something gave me the idea of using Christmas hymns. I wanted actual sheet music with possibly an overlay of the hymn’s title. I set about looking for something along those lines that was already made (while also coming up with ideas to create my own, if necessary). I checked Etsy and Pinterest and ended up finding a free download. I had to do some tweaking because I wanted them to be white (they were yellowed to give them a vintage look). I ran a test print of one hymn, found it to be suitable, and ordered all the rest. Then I went to the thrift store for 5x7” frames to paint red.

I love the different textures of the frames I found

I bought a few ornaments from Hobby Lobby and some ribbon from Michael’s. 

I fell in love with these (upper shelf)

The week before Thanksgiving, I set up the basement tree - using some ornaments I already had with a bunch of ribbon I got from the thrift store. Then I let my kids have their way with it after I spent an hour enjoying it.

DI tree in the basement

One fun thing about this tree is that it has 

frosted glitter tips

That got me really excited, so the next day, I set up and decorated the new hymn-themed tree in the living room.

It’s hard to get a decent picture with the 

bay window so here’s another angle

The only thing missing was a tree skirt or tree collar of some sort, but then I started loading presents under it and thought, “Who needs a tree skirt? It’s going to be full of presents anyway!” So I decided not to buy anything for under the tree this year (which ended up being a good choice because holy moly! Expenses add up fast this time of year!)

I worried that the 5x7” frames were too big, but now that the tree has been up for a couple of weeks, I really like it.

Sigh. I just really love red.

And I love Christmas and Jesus and sacred hymns. 

I also love cellophane and ribbon. And wrapping paper. And tissue paper. 

And you know what else I love? Throw pillows! But I hate that they never stay put, and I never really like sitting on a couch with them (are you supposed to sit among them? Move them? I never know! It’s so awkward!) But I love the look of them, and it’s fun to change them up for the seasons. This year I bought pillow covers because I’m sick of storing seasonal pillows - they take up too much space. But pillow covers? That I can do! I just threw them over my fall pillows, and it was very convenient transformation!

This is one other reason I wanted to abandon my blue tree decorations - I wanted my other Christmas decor to coordinate, and that was hard to do with so many red things and a blue tree! I felt like I couldn’t have anything red in my basement. 

I know I might be a little overly passionate about my trees, but I can’t help it! I love decorating for Christmas! 

This year I’m doing a little experiment to see if I can have a calmer holiday season with my kids. I’m trying to have everything ready for Christmas really early so in December I can just be present and focused with my family. I’m about 90% done with everything - even the wrapping. I just always worry that if I get ready for Christmas too soon I’ll get sick of it… too soon. As much as I love Christmas, by the time the big day actually arrives, I’m more than happy to kick it to the curb. So we’ll see how this goes!