It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

[Lily left the valley]

Lilly you are constantly amazing with all the great things you find and share!!

Loved the article, and never appreciated the shift in the shape of the trees due to changing tastes.

Aww, thankies. I will never understand how some folks are bored all the time. To me, there is so much cool stuff out in our world to learn and find! The internet has made it even easier.

I had never even thought about the tree shape either! I do remember, when we still had our tinsel tree, wondering if they made it that way because it was "mid century modern" looking, and now I wonder if it's because it more closely resembled the trees of the time.

I miss that tree, but we donated it due to kitty issue with the color wheel. In hindsight, we should have just not used the color wheel. Oh well--hindsight and all.

[JRC]

I hosted my first ever Christmas party last weekend. It was a small get-together with about 10 friends/neighbors. I have no shots from the party, but here are a couple shots of what the house looks like. (only the outside and foyer are particularly Christmas-y; the other rooms were only minimally decorated)



Since I didn't go all out on the house, here are some additional photos I took of downtown Youngstown, during our first real snowfall:

[Lily left the valley]

Very Pretty. I should get off my duff and get some shots downtown later this week after or next expected snow.

Oh, and since learning about your lights, we've seen them at a few homes here as well.

It's been kind of interesting to us, as in Jersey, the lawn inflatables were fairly typical. Here, not so much. We've seen very few so far. Overall. we've only seen one home here that has what we call the "someone threw up lights" lawn. Pretty understated overall, and lots of visible trees in windows that usually have curtains closed at night too.

We did see one huge light display through trees up a hill from the highway when we had an appointment the other week, and when I mentioned it, spouse laughed and said he heard that was the local massage parlor in that town.

[heartwood]

thank you for all the photos folks...I have candles in the windows, battery operated....they come on at about 5pm and off at 11pm all by themselves! on my porch I have festive colored lights, all very understated...

I just LOVE looking at everyone's decorations...there's something magical that brings out the innocent wonder of a child in me when I see what you have all done--THANKS!

........jade

[jharkin]

Sorry Ive been MIA this year... busy with hobby stuff and work.

Exterior lights look the same as they always do, but the Mrs. did something different with the hearth this year...

IMG_20161203_170340.jpg (446.99 KiB) Viewed 626 times

[JacquieJet]

thank you for all the photos folks...I have candles in the windows, battery operated....they come on at about 5pm and off at 11pm all by themselves! on my porch I have festive colored lights, all very understated...

I just LOVE looking at everyone's decorations...there's something magical that brings out the innocent wonder of a child in me when I see what you have all done--THANKS!

........jade

We have the same candles, love them. The only downside I've found is that my kids like to grab them off the sill to use for sword fights! Hiiii-ya! Haha.

We also did laser projection lights again this year... we had them last year too but someone stole them off of the lawn! This year, my husband used tie-downs and tied them halfway up one of our black walnut trees out front... if someone wants to steal it this year, they better have brought a ladder! Heh heh.

[Don M]

I have a wreath on the porch peak & a big one on the side of the barn both are lit with flood lights on timers. Very simple but elegant due to the hansom buildings.

[Nettie]

Everyone's house looks so festive- love looking through the thread.

[SouthernLady]

That looks faboo, Wackyshack.

I started to pull out deco from the storage closet, only to find that apparently there is a leak on the outside wall. It's an unconditioned space that is only accessible from the porch.

One Xmas box against that wall was apparently right where the water seeped in, and it is the one with all the crocheted snowflake ornaments my grandmom made. They are now a rather unsnowflake color.

I'm going to try to handwash them first with just soap and water, but I may need to get some bleach. They were starched, so I'm not sure if I'll have to somehow redo that as well.

Be very cautious about using bleach on old textiles. Bleach is very harsh on the fibers and will break down the material over time. Hydrogen peroxide is just as good, doesn't smell, and is LOTS more gentle. I have a 16-piece set of tea linens from around 1900. They were dingy when I got them off eBay, but after soaking in 1/2 hydrogen peroxide and 1/2 water overnight, then carefully hand washed with Woolite and laid out in the sun to dry. They are now a lovely white.

I also use hydrogen peroxide to clean my tile floors when little Joy the Papillon doesn't make it outside in time...

[SouthernLady]

Lilly Left the Valley, thank you for sharing that article! It makes so much more sense now why some Christmas trees look so out of place in certain settings.

My house has been decorated the same way as last year (shown at the beginning of this thread), but I have added some live greenery. I don't have pictures of it in my house, but here's some of the exact same arranging in my office:



I clipped cedar from the trees on my property and added some holly. My neighbor has a beautiful spruce and a few long leaf pines which he so graciously allowed me to get clippings from. I also mixed in a few magnolia clippings at home. I add this around the base of my table lamps.