Friday 17 December 2010

Black & White

We put up two Christmas trees this year.
(Some years we put up FIVE! One year we had ELEVEN!)

The Black, Goth tree is in the front (living) room. It's a spiral, pop-up tree, takes two mins to put up, all the decorations and lights permanently attached.

The White, snow covered mystical tree, is in the 'extension', the newest part of the house, at the back. It takes many hours of loving dedication to decorate, (in white and silver trimmings), by the girls. When they were younger I would tell them where to put each bauble and snowflake, each frosted pine cone and feather. Now I just get the stuff from the attic and let them at it. Needless to say, the tree looks much more fantastical these days! This is the tree under which all the gifts appear. This is the room where we all spend the first hour of Christmas morning, in our Jammies, usually VERY early!

The Black tree is the one you can see from the street, and it looks great through the window, for all who pass by to see, even though it has taken little or effort to assemble.

The White tree is seen only from the inside, by us, and our friends and loved ones who come to visit. A lot of time, dedication and love has gone into how it looks.

I wish you all peace, love and health.
Be nice to your friends.
And even nicer to everybody else!

12 comments:

  1. What? No pictures!?!? Ah well, it's the sentiment that counts, isn't it?

    Your trees sound lovely, Map. Wishing you everything nice, including all the things you've listed... and lots more. But most of all, wishing you love. xoxoxo

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  2. love the idea of more than one tree - i've done that too, when my kids were littler - they loved it and so did i - and with the black and white theme [reminds me of your beautiful card] going, something for everyone - the goth and the soft and mystical - and i know you had a camera set up over in the corner to capture the sight of the girls decorating - so, it's countdown time before the BIG NIGHT and i'm actually still scurrying online to beat shipping deadlines! ;) i'm sure you've got yours all done!

    and i wish you peace love and health, as well - with lots of sugar thrown in on all that love!!! ;) oh, and let's toss a bunch of all that sweet sugar love up to the skies! cause you never know who'll go fluttering by!!! ;)

    MMMMMWAH............

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  3. Hmm,more than one tree..never even considered that?! Actually...I dont even have one tree this year (or last) My youngest needed my tree more than I did...(funny that)
    Merry Christmas to all

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  4. We've only ever had the one tree, but yesterday I thought I could do with a wee tree for my studio/study - something sparkly like a fibre optic one. Unfortunately the town seems to be sold out of them.

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  5. Stew, it all sounds so wonderful and exactly what Christmas is all about.
    I love that you have your private tree for you and the family.
    I hope that you all have the best Chritsmas that you ever have had---and I am sure that as a loving family, you will
    You are a very lucky man

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  6. I'm with Ponita! Let's have some photos! Especially of the white tree. We are, in a twisted way, family.

    I awoke to some news accounts of snow blanketing your area. Let's have some photos of that too, please. Hop to it!

    Merry Christmas to you and your lovely family from the shores of the U.S.

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  7. Okay, so I was expecting photos too. :)

    I may be the last of my kind but every year we have a REAL tree. I don't feel bad about that because we purchase it locally from a guy with a tree farm who continues to plant trees. So for each one I adopt, he just plants another. :)

    We began a tradition at my house when I was a kid...accidentally of course. In first grade I won a tiny gingerbread man ornament; Mom put the date on it with my name. Then from every year until we were 18 she got each of the kids [3 of us] an ornament. Similar in style but different in say color. When we all left home, we got to take "our" ornaments with us, so childhood is never far away.

    To this day, I put the gingerbread man on first. :)

    Happy holidays! xx

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  8. I went large this year and bought a 6 footer. Usually we just have a very small table top tree that I can put out of reach of the kiddies, but no worry about that this year, so I said why not get a big one. :D

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  9. One year we didn't get a tree but found a nice blown-down huge branch and stapled it to the wall. Then we only bought each other flat gifts. LPs, books, calendars.

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  10. "It's a spiral, pop-up tree, takes two mins to put up, all the decorations and lights permanently attached."

    OK now I know what I really really want for Christmas;)
    Peace and joy to you and yours dear Mapstew

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  11. We got a Christmas tree this year! Anytime soon I'll get round to decorating the rest of the house too! with no girls to do this stuff , it all falls to me..
    Bestest festive wishes!

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  12. This idea with the 2 trees looks like a real art project. One tree for the display and for everyone. Another one for intimate use; for the family. I can say - it is brilliant!

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