Themed Trees?

mireille86

It seems like everywhere I look online and in magazines, all I see are "themed" trees.  Does anybody actually have a themed tree?  It seems like it could get impersonal pretty fast, but I guess it could work.  Still, I'm used to the kind of trees where each ornament means something and it all comes together and looks like a beautiful holy mess.  

 What do you guys think about themed trees? Am I just being really juvenile about this? 

FutureMrsDenman

I grew up with themed trees in our home.  They weren't all as impersonal as they might have been because Mom was really good at getting my sister and I involved in making decorations and helping with the actual decorating.  Mom has supplies for at least 18 theme trees that I know of (ornaments and accessories collected over the years, created by us, received as gifts, etc.). 

Her theme this year is Alaska.  We lived there when we were kids and this alone makes it personal.  Plus, she still has Alaska themed ornaments my sister and I made when we lived in Alaska ... eskimos, sled dogs, skiis and skates, etc. All in addition to her Hallmark "Frosty Friends" ornament collection.

This year we borrowed her boxes of ornaments for her candy/cookies/sweets tree and our tree is covered with a yummy assortment of things.  This particular tree doesn't have homemade ornaments on it, but I chose it because DD is 3 years old and I thought she would LOVE it ... and she does!

You can see our handiwork in her Corn Husk Dolls & Mexican ornaments tree, Santa's Workshop and Wooden Toys tree, Snowflake tree, Texas tree and more.  But she also has beautiful trees with Teddy Bears, Mice, Hearts, Antique Glass Ornaments, Birds and Bird Nests, Elves, Nutcrackers ... and on ... and on ...

Storage for it all is a PITA, but she loves it!  And it makes stocking stuffrs really easy to buy for her!     

SAHM711

I have both -  a "regular" tree in the living room with a variety of ornaments, and a "theme" tree in the family room that has beachy/seashell decor.  The accent colors in the family room are purple and blue so the tree has purple and white lights, the ornaments are all seashells, and I bought blue "seaweed" to put in it.  I always thought about doing a theme tree in the "den" that would be a white tree with a pink boa garland and all theater/dance ornaments.  Now that room is mostly DH's closet/storage room now, though, so I don't think he'd appreciate that as much!

ChristyDM82

I have both as well.  One with multicolored lights and all of our ornaments from growing up and that we've gotten together.  The other with white lights, and red, white, and silver ornaments.  I love them both!

pugznploons

i have both

PnkBride

I have both.  My family room hosts the tree with a little bit of everything with mulitcolored lights.  Our dining room has white lights and gold, white and clear ornaments only.  They are both beautiful!

-auntie-

Another vote for both.

My home office has a 6' all Barbie tree with pink balls, Hallamrk Barbies and pink lights. It's pretty cool.

My dining room has white lights and all the Waterford, Orefors, Lenox and sterling ornaments DH and I collected before parenthood. It's just beautiful.

My living room has everything else- the colored lights, the preschool macaroni wreaths, the ornaments collected from trips and most of DS's stuff. Next year, we may do a boy tree with all his train stuff.

R&B3-26-05

I have a half and half tree.  Half of it is themed (mostly my Gone With the Wind Christmas ornaments) but the other half is a mixture of the ornaments I inherited from my grandmother, ones I've picked out, and ones from the D&R board ornament exchange.  I love the blended look

hales.21

Themed trees are cute, and to each their own, but I won't ever have one.  I don't want to buy all new ornaments each year.  And all of the ornaments I do have, have a meaning to them... so I just can't not have them on the tree.  Our tree is scattered and colorful and has no theme whatsoever.  I love it! )

s5m9j

Our main tree (in our front room) has a collection of ornaments from both my childhood as well as DH's childhood. We have also collected ornaments since being together.

DH decided this year to do a themed tree in his ManCave. It is all blue and silver with Tampa Bay Rays ornaments. It's pretty cute but not personal at all other than the fact that DH is a huge TB fan.

 

Here is his tree:

-auntie-

Themed doesn't mean impersonal. Each of my crystal ornaments was a gift from DH, often bought while on vacation hand carried from the UK, Sweden or the Caribbean. The Barbies are from DS, DH started him buying them because the retro ones are the very outfits I grew up with.

The year DS was a toddler we did a tree with handmade fabric ornaments and gingerbread men and popcorn strings. Again, all handmade from the heart.

happylady5

We moved into our new house this year, so it's our first Christmas here.  We went from 1850 sq ft to 3500.  So we have way more space now.  This year, we bought a 9 ft pre-lit tree for the Living Room and I made it "themed".  It's all red and gold ornaments and I stuck red and gold berry picks throughout.  It has a red tree skirt.

Upstairs in our bonus room is the tree we've had for 7 years.  It's smaller at 6.5 ft and holds all of our personal ornaments that people have given to us or we've bought places, over the years.  While I loved having a "fancy" tree downstairs, nothing is more meaningful than putting up my tree with all the ornaments from years past.  This year I added a "new home 2010" ornament and my Granny sent me some in memory of my Poppie who just passed away.

Next year, I want to put up a tree in our hearth room (off the kitchen) and I'm excited to give it a theme.  My plan is to always have the bonus room tree no matter how many "themed" ones I put up. 

I think it depends on your space, budget and taste.  Nothing is wrong with having all themed trees or not.

hanron007

my family has always had both