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Can we talk Christmas (trees)?
This will be our first holiday season in our house. yay! But that means I have way more space to decorate, and I love the holiday season. (In a good way. I promise I don't put up anything until after Thanksgiving, although I can't promise I'm not listening to Christmas music right now.)
Anyway, I have a few questions. Where do you usually get your holiday decorations? I've been watching some stuff at Costco, and I know Target and everyone else has stuff, but any places I wouldn't think of? I'm thinking I might just make it through this year with minimal stuff and stock up after Christmas on the clearance stuff.
And, where's the best place to get an (affordable) real tree? This is the first year we get to have a real tree, and I'm so excited it's almost pathetic. We're up in the NW burbs if that makes a difference.
Re: Can we talk Christmas (trees)?
Decor - all over! Tuesday Morning, Marshall's, Pier 1, etc... BUT I do wait until after Christmas to buy decor - so most of the new stuff we have is actually from last year.
This year I ordered a wreath from a pet rescue - It was $25 so we shall see how it does!
I've never bought a real tree before - we went over to someone's house and Rusty peed on their real tree so that's sort of out for our house.
Michael's and Joann's also have quite a few things - yesterday at Joann's all of the Christmas stuff was 40% off.
I'd check Kohls too for decorations...
As for trees, a bunch of places will start popping up in few weeks. A lot of churches have tree lots and the Y will have a bunch around too. I don't know that any are less expensive than others. My family hasn't done a real tree in quite a few years... but it seems like last time we did, I didn't think they were all that affordable - like $40 for a 7ft tree.
It's not near you but Gertens in Inver Grove has about a bazillion things you will convince yourself you need.
We got a tree from the Y lot a couple years ago and it was in the $35 - $40 range for a 6 or 7 foot tree.
Tired after a long morning of hiking and swimming.
Rum River Tree Farm in Oak Grove. Cut your own or they have pre-cut. My family has been going there for 25+ years and I will always go there for our tree. They are so nice there and its a fun experience to choose and cut your own. They will put out coupons all over the place soon here too.
http://www.rumrivertreefarm.com/
You have to weed through some of the crap, but you can get some good stuff at a decent price at Menards. Seasonal Concepts and Home Goods are some other places.
I get my tree from a local nursery. I usually pay about $65-75 for my tree each year. We have vaulted ceilings so I get a 7ft tree and they always last from Thanksgiving to New Years.
my read shelf:
Woohoo! Thanks everyone! H actually hung up our lights yesterday, so I'm all excited still. (No, we don't actually have them on yet, but we're busy next weekend so he wanted to get them done now.)
I saw Home Depot had tree prices listed already and it seems really reasonable. Has anyone tried those before? If not, we might try and find a farm where we can actually cut it down ourselves. That's how we always did it growing up, and it was a ton of fun.
Oh, and I'm a little worried about the pups. Hopefully they aren't too intrigued by the tree....
Eat.Drink.BeMarried. Blog.
If you want to cut your own tree, you can find a bunch of different tree farms listed on the Minnesota Christmas Tree Association website at mncta.com.I like to buy directly from local family-run tree farms if I can.
The last three years, we've gone to Log Cabin Pines in Elko, which I really like. The family that runs it is so great, and they have a cute little shop with Christmas crafts and stuff. It's not really in your neck of the woods, though. We've paid about $70 for our tree, but that's for a really tall Balsam (our tree last year was almost 10 feet), so $70 is actually a really good price. They have other other sizes that are less, I think they are $5 per foot or something like that.
As for decorations, I buy a lot during after-Christmas sales. Gerten's in Inver Grove is awesome, it can be a bit expensive to pay their full prices, but it's a must visit for me for post-holiday clearance. Tons of great stuff. If you know anyone who collects the Department 56 Christmas village stuff, they have a great selection at Gerten's and it's 50% off after Christmas.
Visit Michael's on black Friday. I got some awesome deals there last year.
I usually find some nice tree ornaments at Pier 1.
Home Goods/TJ Maxx is great, but the earlier you get there, the better. By December, their holiday selection is pretty picked over and a lot of stuff gets broken. Home Goods is not the best spot for post-holiday clearance in my opinion, their stock is usually really low by that point.
Macy's usually has some great sales after Thanksgiving, they usually have some nice tree ornaments that are reasonably priced.
Someone else mentioned it, but Menard's is worth visiting too. They have a much bigger selection of decorations than Home Depot, and prices are pretty reasonable. I bought one of those ornament wreaths there last year and I got so many compliments on it.
Mr. Sammy Dog
The tree - Fun one... Menard's/Lowe's/etc. if you want cheap... There are a lot of tree farms in the region so you can always google "Minnesota Christmas Tree Growers Assn."...
Otherwise, it's a hike, but the place is great on a lot of levels - I like it because it's a Mom & Pop setup that you drive up and you can tell they built it all from scratch themselves making improvements as time progressed (maybe it's the farm kid in me, but it's one of those things I notice)... Pleasent Valley Tree Farm... It's super easy to get to, 694 to 94 to the So. side of Menomonie exit, then the first road to the North of the interstate that snakes around with good signage to get there.. They will even cut the tree down if you ask.. Kid friendly.. Their pricing is incredibly fair depending on the size of tree you get. They also take care of getting your tree ready to go and in/on your vehicle safely for you.