The Christmas Tree Rebellion....

I'm a rebel, oh yes.
Dan and I have this ridiculous argument every year about our xmas tree. I'm a lot less "into" the holidays as I used to be, but this is my one little thing....I just really like how a real tree smells and I really like to see it all lit up and decorated n stuff. When I was young, my parents had a fake tree that my mom (and ONLY my mom) would painstakingly put every tiny piece of every tiny decoration in each its proper little place so the tree would look PERFECT. We were not allowed to touch it! I'm surprised we were allowed to look directly at it.
I always vowed that when I had kids, we would get a real tree every year and we'd all decorate it as a family, throwing a hodgepodge of different things on it, like ornaments that the kids made from construction paper, etc...I remember bringing home ornaments that we made at school that would NEVER make it onto our tree because it would "throw off" the whole decor thing. Anyway. I have no idea why my husband is so hung up on putting up our fake tree, but he is and therefore we have the same argument every year. We finally decided that we will compromise....one year fake tree, next year real tree, etc...
Although I read that most xmas trees get recycled into mulch, I love the idea of a living tree. You're kind of just borrowing it from nature and putting it right back in the earth....

But no. This is our fake tree year. So, I'm rebelling by handmaking all the ornaments with my kids. We went over to friendly neighborhood midwife's house today to collect pinecones and tiny apples from her yard, which will all be strung and hung on our silly plastic tree. We have started making little gingerbread men, next we will string popcorn and cranberries for garland.
And we can't forget the handmade ornaments that Lola made in preschool last year....

Can't wait to see the finished project!