Mama Kane has suggested we share our seasonal trimmings. I think that is a great idea, esp since us gardeners seem to drag in half the garden to celebrate anything and everything! I'll try to get some picies of ours soon and would love to see T and MKs etc. For those that don't digi, we'd love to hear about yours too.
Terry, how's Christine's chrissy-trimming coming?

This tiny tree resulted as a need to contain some of my garden miniatures. Wish we could see the ornaments better. There are tiny water cans, tools, pots, baskets etc. The angel top is dressed in oak leaves - even her wings. Bits from garden also go there - wasp nest, bird eggs, dried stuff. the pile to left of it is a lovely fallen nest. In case you are wondering, Moggy can't get enough traction on the glass table top to redecorate it.

The real tree is bare of any treasured breakable ornaments this year :-( ,,, in Moggy defense.

Will try to get a few shots of the trimmings Maggie. I know what you mean about the breakables, our four cats are not too bad now they are older, but Lattie persists in eating the lamettas (those shiny metalic strips of plastic).

Hooray! let's play Chrissie picies!! I'll add some more too.
Lamettas,, I wonder if that is the mylar version of tinsel icicles - those are so pretty. What was Dawn French's Vicar of Dibly joke about eating tinsel?

The junipers get a good grooming when I garland pic frames. This year I added the red oak leaves when they were in full color. Should have treated them with sumthin to retain the color longer, but, well, u know...

The gutter spout gargoyle dons his reindeer antlers for the season. With the leaves, I think he looks more like a screaming Puck or Greenman this year!

You certainly have a way with the cut stuff Maggie. I can't claim any credit for my offerings, they are tree decorations made by Christine. Material is pushed into cuts in a polystyrene ball, I think they look really effective and very traditional.

I love Christine's Christmas bulbs! And Maggie's picture frame garlands are wonderful too. Do they dry out alot from you heat? Guess your heat doesn't run nearly as high as ours.

Guess I better add something to share since I requested this thread.


notice I am not wearing muddy muckers - my usual foot wear.


I prefer this shot of me talking to the dog but the tree and my once a year shoes didn't show.

Hi Ticker-such a lover!!! and You clean up real nice MK ;-), shoes an all!
Look how warm and cozy all those red colors look. I match my carpet to the color of the garden's dirt. Works great!
But some might think I painted my front doors just for the holidays.

Tell Christine I love those ornaments Terry. It is a sort of 'quilting' technique - requiring a clever hand. What a wonderful craft!

Well, you folks have been busy, haven't you? Terry, Christine's ornaments are gorgeous. Does she make extras to sell? MK, that's a great picture of you. Your tree is so pretty. I never could get garlands to swag evenly, but looks like you have mastered the art. Maggie, it looks like you've decorated everything that didn't run away first...very pretty.

Robert did most of the decorating this year. I just had to teach him how to wrap the lights (around every single branch) on the tree. We think we have close to 3000 lights on the tree, but we lost count at some point. Some of the ornaments (placed purposefully at the top of the tree due to Baby Kitty) are ones that have been around all my life. Others were my mother's, others I have bought or were gifts. Its not a fancy tree, but it has a heck of a lot of lights and ornaments. Unfortunately, my digi cam doesn't seem to do it justice.

How magic to see everyones trees. All those lights are really pretty Caro and the trees shape is so perfect. Yes we do trim the whole room more than just the tree - after all these years of it, my family won't have it any other way. Alex was disappointed that I didn't swag the pics on all the downstairs walls!
Even the candles get gardened. I finally got a holiday pic up on the home page.

This works nicely on a full dinner table without taking up as much room as a centerpiece. MK, you asked about the live trimming going dry - they do without shedding. Like the swags and garlands, these roses and ivy dry after the occassion and remain as 'dried flowers' !

Carolyn's right, don't stand still at Maggies or you'll be wearing Christmas trimings. But it's all so pretty Maggie. I like the red doors too.

Is that an artifical tree or a once live tree Carolyn? We've had our tree since our first Christmas together. It's a little thin compared to the new fuller trees, but it has great sentimental value.

Here's my latest project - to brighten up my hubby's new office at work for the Holidays.

Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow! I'm in awe of everyone's Christmas things! I especially like the swags, quilted ornaments, snowman wall hanging and the glowing tree (3,000 lights, eh Carolyn? You surpassed my record of 2,200. ;-) I also like the picture of you and the dog, MK. We have two big lab mixes that spend lots of couch time with us and we're forever saying, "Oh, I wish we had a camera!" when one of them does the latest goofy thing. Maybe I'll get a digital for Christmas. Well ... maybe I'll get one for my birthday ~ birthday presents aren't dependent on how good you've been, right?

The only Christmas decoration we have up yet is a 6' tall lighted peace sign that I made out of pvc pipe and wrapped with 1,000 clear "white" lights. It's gorgeous (if I do say so myself)! Kenny and Bro-in-Law hung it halfway up (25' high) in a massive old pecan tree that faces the front road. You can see it for 1/4 mile ~ would've been visible much farther if it wasn't for the slope of the hay field. A friend of mine wanted to make one, so I drew directions and posted them here. My sister said it's a nice rebuttal to the "Griswold's" landing strip display right down the road. ;-)

All of the pictures, once again, are beautiful. Mamakane, we must talk quilts sometime. My current project is a King Size Holly Hobby with material that belonged to my great grandmother and grandmother. I'm down to the last half that needs to be quilted. I sent out the Christmas cards that are on your quilt last year! We have such great taste! I have snowmen everywhere for Christmas. I use white ceramic trees that my mother and grandmother have made and lots of tall, skinny nature looking trees. Then I have one that is made of grapevine that stands about 5 foot tall. Some of the trees have lights, some bare and some have decorations. One this year has ALL chili peppers. I'm a fanatic about Christmas decorting, I confess. But once again, no pictures. One of these days I'll learn to use one of the 3 cameras I own. I did get pictures of my black plastic bed before it started being torn down and I will take more when the plants are in.

Sorry Gail, but I'll have to confess - its one of those printed panels from the fabric store and just quickly machine quilted.

I have a small collections of snowmen, mostly treasured gifts I have recieved over the years. I've been trying to get a picture of them, but haven't had any sucess yet. (You didn't think I got all my pictures on the first try did you?) This one in the window is just an inexpensive suncatcher, but it always shows out so nice - day or night.



And here's one of my other windows - I wish I had Maggies touch with the greenery.

Wow, this is really the place to come for the spirit of Christmas, friendship and beautiful decorations. Maggie and Christine have one thing in common, the decorating bug, in fact I am amazed our cats aren't wearing antlers and red noses. 3000 lights, Carolyn, hope your mains cable is in better condition than your phone one. Lovely window scene, mamakane, like a trip back in time. Are those Aspidistas flanking your front door, Maggie? Christine is always accusing me of trying to make our carpet match the soil colour.

Isn't it great Terry!
Thanks for the idea of sharing our holidays here MK and the rocking horse in the window pic is a dream. It really is so easy to use evergreens... don't try to get the pieces in the right place - just pile them up to the height you want, then stand back and see what needs clipping off, taking out or adding to.
Yes Terry, that is aspidistra and some variegated vinca - both can take the dark shade of the porch and the drought-then-flood of my erratic waterings! Also, the deep porch protects it from freezing.
And you guys thought I do a lot of decorating - Gail way out does my 3 trees. I wasn't going to post anymore pics till I read her thread. ;-) Maybe I should sneak over and take pics thru the windows - it sure sounds pretty Gail. And I didn't know you quilted!
Love that Peace sign Wingie - what a great way to send a universal message across the land - and so in keeping with your la Bohemia style! Terrific engineering skills on those how-tos plans too :-) Thanks for sharing them with us and for the grins - I'm still chucking!
You guys make me want to start a crafts thread - whadda ya think?

Love your Santa in the window and the cute snowman, MK. I think you should use the Santa in the window for your Xmas cards.

My tree is fake. It always looks quite even, Maggie, unless we put the branches on wrong. We don't put anything on the bottom row because of the house kitties. Same reason sentimental ancient ornaments are at the top of the tree.

Never would have thought of a lighted pvc peace sign Wingnut. Intriguing idea.

Gail, I'm not believing anything you say until I see some pics. J

I know, and I don't blame you. I've got a guy coming after the first of the year to take out ALL my backyard St. Augustine so I can do a stone patio and the rest is beds. I'm having such fun planning my beds that I'm hoping for warmer weather already. One year I'll have maggie post the pixes I took of the plastic, then the bare garden before planting and bringing in stone work. The befores and afters. Hope it's all I'm dreaming of! But then gardens take on a life of their own despite our plans...so it could be totally different. Anyway, something to look forward to after the holidays.

Mamakane, I think you did a great job with the greenery in the window! Love that rocking horse and the lacey curtains ~ bet that scene looks fabulous when it's snowing.
Thanks, Maggie and Gail ~ the peace sign isn't very attractive during the day, but at night it's a sight. I very well may leave it up all year.
And I think a crafts thread would be a GREAT idea, Maggie! I make all sorts of things from all sorts of things. After I made hanging plant baskets and earrings from copper electric wire (the kind you wire your house with, stripped of course), Kenny started calling me a "crafty little devil". ;-) I'd love to hear about what everyone else makes.

Ok, if anyone else is interested, we could open a new topic for it after the hols.

Just think Caro, if you could wrap an entire cord of lights around each branch, you could leave them in place when you took the branches off for storage and not have to redo the lights every year! HaHa! I know what you mean about the sentimental ornaments. We have also collected ours for decades and can't bear for any of them to get broken either. Just leaving the bottom of the tree bare wouldn't be safe here with Moggy's antics - ask Gail, she saw were Moggy had removed the glass garland beads from a 4ft height the other day! And of course those that the girls and I have made over the years contain memories of our histories, just as Christines handmade ones commemorate hers and Terry's.

Now for a seasonal true story, a reverse of the above ... A guy working on our house told us about a new house he had once jobbed at. It was a huge 'starter castle' type with tons of excess rooms. One large room was built esp to hold the Chrissy decorations, but get this... The owner had a decorator design and build 5 diff chris trees, each to match the color and style of 5 main rooms of the house. They were on wheels - to be rolled in and out of the hermetically-sealed storage room each year. Just warms yer heart dunnit?

Oh, and I talked to Gail about those exciting new plans earlier - sounds great doesn't it?! Now she will have room to grow all those plants she lusts for! No, come to think of it, we gardener's never have enough room, or time or money or energy or, or, or,, not that those things ever stop us from trying! Best of luck and happy hours of it to you Gail. oxoxo

I have the perfect solution for keeping the trees decorated, but we cannot do it here where there are no basements. A person could build in a trap door with a little lift, so that the tree could be raised up to the desired location for the holiday, and then lowered back into storage for the rest of the year. Even easier than wheeling it around, which sounds pretty awkward. Like how would you wheel one through doors, hallways, etc.? I love my idea. Too bad I'll NEVER be able to have one.


Here's another idea, which I hope won't sound too cold. There are a few people with whom I have exchanged gifts for decades. Each birthday and Xmas, it is increasingly more difficult for us to buy for each other. Sometimes we luck into something that we see at a bazaar or somewhere during the year that screams that person's name. Mostly, however, we end up buying some little something just because we want to give a gift. And that little something usually costs around $20.00. This year, I've been designing a new border. I emailed my wish list to each of the people I regularly exchange gifts with. Each list had only one plant on it, together with web link, so all they had to do was click, enter credit card number, and voila! Carolyn's Xmas present was taken care of. Everyone loved the idea, were relieved that they got something I wanted, and saved about $6.00 in the process. And, I'm thrilled because as soon as the weather warms up a bit, I'll be able to plant the border! Next year I will be encouraging those same people to submit a wish list to me. How much more fun to give a present that someone really wants.

Today while making a Christmas card with my Hallmark program on the computer, I found a card with an exact picture of my Santa and rocking horse on it. Orange rocker and all. I was always planning on painting the rocker on mine blue but guess I shouldn't. Does anyone know if this Santa is from a painting or some such thing? I'm not very good with stuff like that but always willing to learn something new.

Well Caro, I guess that means you wouldn't enjoy making the fresh wreaths and garlands every year! But surely you'd miss the ritual of re-discovering and hanging the ornaments each year. About the other idea - you have invented a gardener's 'registered gift lists', similiar to the brides system! Very clever. I wish plants had been so easily available as they are now when I first began gardening in Texas. The internet has made so much so much more possible for us gardeners! It would sometimes take me years to locate some things, never mind manage to receive them as gifts! Great idea.

Sorry I have no info on the rocking horse Mk. Altho, I do have several myself that are usually pulled out with the nutcrackers each year. Will try to get a pic of them if you like.

Larry took this last night and asked me to post it. Maybe I should have used it to open the craft thread, if there is enough interest in such.

I got yet another letter from David Austin Roses yesterday informing me that my gift of a rose will be shipped next month. This was one of my better ideas. J

Garlands and wreaths would be fun to make. However, my skin is allergic to pine and cedar greenery, which is why I have a fake Xmas tree.

That's a neat picture Larry took, but what room is it a picture of?

Maggie, I'd love to see a craft thread!

I'm glad Carolyn asked which room that is. I keep thinking of a room in Santa's workshop where you would find elves working late at night on toys.

You must have ESP Mk - the top shelf isn't visible, but stores all the toys. In fact, nothing much beyond the front door is visible, so I will try to get better pic of it. The light fixture is 1 inch across, most things being on a 1" scale, somethings are on 1/2" as they are being 'stored' at the General Store until the 1/2" house is constructed. The elves that made it are Lar, me and the girls. We have been doing scaled miniatures since Callie was little. Lars builds the exterior and does wiring. I design, decorate. Callie and Alex have contributed a variety thru their diff ages, including a little demolition in the early years ;-) Some of the pieces are store-bought, but alot have been made from bits and bobs, buttons and beads, bottle caps, glue and paint etc. There are a lot of old-timey things in there that remind Larry of his days on the grandparents farm, such as a checkers set (drafts) on a barrel near a pot-bellied stove, coffee grinder and such. It and/or some other minis get stored for years and occassionally get drug out at Christmas time, then stay out for a few months until being stored again, when we run out of room (happens often around here). Must say I was pleased it looked like a real room, for a while there!

I got a feeling there was something unusual about it, must have been the angle of the shot being too high, but I would never have guessed that the room wasn't full size.

Talking of size, have you seen how quickly this thread has grown?

Should we start another? - theres still a few more days before the big deal. Will you post more pics if I do Terry? I could do more chrissy pics for posting if you guys will stop teasing me about how "much" I decorate ;-)

Maggie, please post more pictures!

It practically knocked me off my chair when I found out the room was a miniature. It looks so life size, I wondered why you had a whole room inside of a room. That door is an exact copy of my back door storm door. Until the wind destroyed it. I know I won't be able to replace it and I loved that door. Anyone there care to make a large scale version?

I wouldn't have a clue how to start, but it might be worth fibbing about, if it meant staying in your haven till you found I had lied !!

Right then, we shall have a crafty topic after the hols. And I will start a new holiday decorations thread right now, since I have a new Chrissy pic to post.