The Christmas holiday, like the majority of holidays, is enveloped by and built around traditions. It’s what makes it so special, which everyone looks forward to across all ages. Some traditions are worldwide, while some are different country by country, and others are individual by family. Our Christmas tree tradition starts by getting the tree together as a family the day or weekend after Thanksgiving. It’s always a fun excursion with the four of us, selecting the perfect tree for our family.
the Silver Tip Christmas tree we love so much
Mr. M and I have always gotten a live tree since we have been together. When we moved into this house 15 years ago, we started selecting the silver tip fir trees. The stature lends itself to our home and style. You can read all the details in this post {a Christmas tree tradition}. I love the silver tips with the beautiful hue and their sparse branches. They always look mystical and magical to me.
Now it’s a tradition and we don’t even look at any other kind of tree. I love how the ornaments have all that space between the branches to hang just so and shine! You can really see the ornaments, hanging from all the way on the inside by the trunk to all the way to the tip of the branches. The best part is you can see them all!
The internet tells me that the silver tip fir trees grow in the mountains of Oregon and California at altitudes of 4,000-8,000 feet. Their mature needles are a blue-green shade, but they are named for the new silvery growth. It’s like the best patina on the edges of the branches. Love!
the Silver Tip Christmas tree styling tradition process
We have a fine tuned process for trimming our tree, which I shared before in this post {a trimmed Christmas tree}. Once we get the tree home, Mr. M sets it up in the living room and adds all the white, sparkling lights. I follow with the ribbon garland, which is a Merry Christmas ribbon at the moment.
Then….we wait for all of us to be together to add all the ornaments. We start with the oversized monogrammed ornaments, which everyone hangs their own. I found these @ Target a few years ago and we love them! These ornaments fit the cream and gold color palette plus monogramming gets.me.every.time. I will be doing a post on monogramming in the new year.
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Then the kids hang all the other ornaments with a bit of help from Mom and Dad. When they were littles we had to do plenty of hand holding during this process, but now as young adults they own it. The biggest hurdle now is getting us all together. At the moment the tree sits patiently waiting to be dressed properly. Although we were able to get the tree over Thanksgiving break when we were last together, we did not have the time to trim it. Master M is home now from college, but Miss M will be home in a few days to finish trimming the tree properly.
the ornaments on the Silver Tip Christmas tree tradition
When we started our journey together as newlyweds, and we began our traditions without realizing it, I set the tone for our tree in golds and creams. All the purchased ornaments held true to this tight color palette. To this day we own many of those original ornaments although we had some casualties throughout the many years.
The color pallet has expanded a teensy weensy, including silvers and greens, but has remained pretty tight. It fits the rest of the Christmas decor throughout our home. We have added many ornaments that have meaning to us along the way. We have an ornament for each kid the year they were born, plus we have some sea shells from vacations and also an ornament for each dog, etc.
Our wedding china is Lenox in cream and gold, which inspired the color palette way back when, so when Lenox introduced a Grinch ornament I added that to our tree too. The Grinch {original animated version} is my favorite Christmas movie. I believe Lenox adds a new Grinchy ornament every year, but we just have the original. I just wanted a Grinch special touch, not necessarily an entire Grinch tree.
Our tree has become pretty full through the years and we add an ornament here and there when it inspires. For example in 2020 we added a toilet paper roll since it will remind us of this crazy year forever.
I have also added a few mushroom ornaments since I am obsessed {my fascination with mushrooms | fungi | toadstools}. We have birds, and bees, and bells, and angels, and gingerbread men and anything that inspires.
I love all the twinkling lights around the holiday season. Right now our tree sits waiting for all of us to be together and finish trimming it. Keeping true to all these traditions every year brings us peace and joy during the busiest time of the year.
Do you have a Christmas tree tradition? Let me know in the comments, I would love to hear about different customs.
“The Christmas tree is a symbol of love, not money. There’s a kind of glory to them when they’re all lit up that exceeds anything all the money in the world could buy.”
Andy Rooney