Now that Thanksgiving is over...

[Steve White]

For those who celebrate Christmas that way, when will you be getting your tree?

We got ours this morning. It's more pleasant, even if less seasonal, to get it before the weather gets so cold.

[JMO Fan]

We used to get it a couple of weeks before Christmas. Allergies finally prevailed, so now we have a "permanent" (artificial) tree.

[ne11er]

All through my life, my parents have always had the fake tree. The first fake tree they had for 24 years. It was a BAD looking fake tree. The second fake tree was a GOOD looking fake tree. Then, my mom threw a curveball at us...for the first time in my short lived life, she got a REAL PINE tree. But, it usually goes up in th enext week or two.

Me...now that I"m on my own have gone with the 12 inch fiber optic tree with minature Dr. Suess ornaments that I got on sale last year at Target. :smile: MERRY CHRISTMAS

[The Mister]

<font size=2>My wife and I have always had a fake tree. Since moving into our house, we bought a bigger fake tree (6' upgraded from 4'). My wife isn't very patient, so she puts the tree up the weekend before Thanksgiving. (Yes, I help.)

[Flora]

tree goes up before the solstice but after my son's virthday, lights go on on the solstice, decorations go on Christmas Eve

[Dr T Non-Fan]

A week or two before X-Mas. Too dry here, so the tree becomes a fire hazard after two weeks.
I hate fake trees. However, if I had a real tall foyer, I'd put a real big fake tree there, and have a real tree in the living room.

[Another day in Paradise]

I admit it - I have a fake tree - actually two. There are four windows on the front of my house. I put a tree in the two windows silouetting the front door. One is up; the other will be up by night's end. As my daughter put it - you have a tree (mommy) and the rest of us have a tree (daddy and two kids). I totally laughed but she's right. I call the other tree the kid's tree, but all my husband's sports paraphenalia gets relegated there as well! :smile:

[General Kenobi (ret.)]

A friend of mine marvels at people who put NASCAR ornaments on their tree. My cat thinks trees are a great plaything, so I don't decorate much, but I would hang up NASCAR ornaments. :smile:

[Maine-iac]

The tree has to be put up relatively near the baseboard heat, so we put it up a week to 10 days in advance and leave it up until New Year's day.

The cats love ornaments, so we put the ones we hate at the bottom and let them shred them to their hearts content. They don't bother the tree itself, but consider the tree-stand a convenient extra water bowl. Yuck.

We will be putting up the non-tree decorations any day now.

[Gandalf]

When we had a cat, it would leave the tree itself alone. But we had a very simple wooden train that we put under the tree, with two wooden pegs to simulate people in one car. The cat loved to pull those pegs out, and take them into another room.

[Ammie]

I have a little cat that likes to eat things (she likes cashmere, fridge magnets, etc). I'm afraid of taking her to the vet if I put up a tree, so I think I'll be waiting until next year when we are in the new house. That way I can designate a room for the tree, and keep the door closed without inconveniencing us.

[Steve White]

Hmmmm...

Many of you equate getting the Christmas tree with putting up the Christmas tree. Not so in our house.

Our theory is that the trees have already been cut, so they are in the process of drying out. Thus, the tree will do better if you buy it soon, bring it home, and plunk it into a bucket of water. Keep it outside, as cold will also tend to prolong it. Bring it in and decorate it only the weekend before Christmas, and that way you can enjoy it beyond the middle of January.

It sounds great, even though each year I need to use a hammer and chisel to get the tree out of the frozen bucket. Some years the expanding ice even breaks the bucket.

The main downside to this process is that the weekend before Christmas is also the time I tend to start my gift shopping.

[Pseudolus]

We get our tree from a farm (point to the one you want and watch a kid cut it down for you), so its time-of-purchase freshness isn't an issue. We havn't had a problem keeping it in decent condition for a good stretch, so we'll probably pick one up this weekend or the next.

[Flora]

we cut ours ourselves too, so freshness is not an issue

[Pseudolus]

Mrs. Pseudolus says she wants to do the cutting herself, but I think that's just an excuse for getting a chainsaw. Frankly, I get nervous when I see her pick up a pair of scissors.

[Maine-iac]

We cut ours ourselves as well. Don't need no stinkin' chainsaw either. It's not like a tree stand is going to accomodate a California Redwood. :smile:

[Han Solo]

We have a 3' artificial one we already put up and decorated on a desk by a window, but we haven't decided if we are going to put up our 6' artificial one yet. We're trying to think of ways to babyproof it (11 month old). Any thoughts?

[Flora]

Han, I do't know if you have areas of your house gated off at all, but that's how we took care of it last year with a one year old. My first plan was to take the octagonal stand-alone gate and put it around the tree (maybe not all the way around but up against the wall like a sort of semicircle) But what we wound up doing was gating off the dining room and putting the tree there, just on the other side of the gate. My son was able to reach over and just touch the needles and a safe ornament or two, but we did not have to worry about him pulling it over or destroying glass ornaments.

[Nature Boy]

hey flora, come sit with santa and tell me if you've been good or bad this year!


whoooo whoooo whoooo

[Don Quijote]

HS - when our kids were young, we babyproofed the tree by putting it in a playpen, they could still see it, but couldn´t reach the branches. Then they got older and we stopped babyproofing it, leading to two fallen trees and bunch of broken ornaments over the last 4 years. But hey, that´s the joy of Christmas!

(I still think that my wife knocked it over one year, but she´s pleading the 5th)

[Han Solo]

The playpen was one of our thoughts, and if the tree fits in it we may do that. I think we're leaning toward just gating her out of the room except when we are there to tell her no. And if she knocks it over, well, it's not like that hasn't happened before (we have 2 cats). We'll just keep the more fragile ornaments in the boxes the next couple years.

Steve - you said you start gift shopping the weekend before Xmas? Why so early? :wink:

[Steve White]

On 2001-11-27 17:24, Han Solo wrote:
Steve - you said you start gift shopping the weekend before Xmas? Why so early? :wink:


Some of them have to be mailed overseas.

[Traci]

I don't do much baby-proofing the tree.

I use mostly non-breakable ornaments, and my kids know it's a "hand-smack" if they touch it.

Aryn (19 mos) points to the tree, say's "pweee twee" (that's "pretty tree" for those w/o kids) and then smacks her hands together and looks serious. It's kinda funny.

Even last year, when Aryn was crawling, I didn't have much of a problem. There was one ornament she especially liked and would pull it off and play with it - that was about it.