How to decorate a Christmas tree, The Christmas Waltz, Ballerina Pirouettes, E-I-E-I-O Jingle Bells

Miss G4 asks G3 to dance with her.

I got all 3500 lights on my big tree, plus I don't even know how many ornaments.
CLICK on the pictures to enlarge them.
I made all 3 of these ornaments.

I add new ornaments every year. We buy ones that remind us of special events, we get some from fun craft shows, we collect Hallmark ornaments and we make ornaments every year.
This is a Hallmark Lionel village. the trains run and the transformer really works.

My Dad retired from Hallmark Cards and so each of our children
have a Hallmark Keepsake yearly ornament.

G1 has Lionel Trains
G2 has Airplanes
G3 has Fire Engines and
Miss G4 has Gingerbread Houses

The stocking was made by a friend who sold at a craft show. I love the icy drips at the top and the silvery tinsel. I love this metal deer as well.

The feathered ball with greenery and berries is beautiful. The oven lights up but if you take a sniff the stove smells like vanilla cookies baking. The stop watch helps Santa as he travels to different areas around the world.


Each year we get the kids a personalized ornament-the year before Miss G4 came along all 3 boys hadballs so we added a pair of ballet slippers for her. I love this over sized gingerbread man with a recipe on it. The Mad Plaid Ball-are you mad about plaid-it's all the rage this year-I've had this one for years.

The glass snow man picks up the lights and it glows so pretty. I have 4 of the red santa. You put a light down through the top and it glows. I will take pictures of the snowman and ice cycle that I have like him and add to tomorrows post. I love my silver ornaments like this sleigh.

I guess I could call myself an expect at decorating Christmas Trees a crazy lady who did a lot of work with no pay. I was in charge of our, rather large, church's Christmas Decorating project, which included over 20 trees on the floor, each decorated with a different theme (yes there are that many different themes) plus the stage decorations which also included another Christmas tree plus a multitude of dead trees that we built platforms for then sprayed them all white and added white lights, the Grand Foyer entry, the ledges (one included over 20 more trees just filled with lights) plus a huge wood stable and empty Manger, and the side entry of the church. I was in charge of getting every tree delivered along with all the decorations for that tree, assigning people to help with the decorating of each of those tress. I had to know how much wattage each plug could handle and make sure each tree had enough light protector plugs going down the inside of that tree, so we did not catch the church on fire. News Media had to be called to cover the event when the lights were turned on for "The Lighting of the Trees" ceremony. I had to choose a bar of music for the theme of each tree as I announced the tree and which class/classes or programs within the church were responsible for the decorating of that tree, plus write the entire program for the event. I also orchestrated a dinner for the evening, hostesses for each table, table decor and desserts. Santa and Mrs Claus came riding in on a sleigh built by a builder in our church. He had bent the wood so the front of the sleigh looked like any sleigh from the finest movies and had rollers hidden in the runners so Mr and Mrs Claus came gliding out onto the stage. Mr and Mrs Claus suits had to be ordered and the right people had to be asked to play the part for the evenings festivities. A photographer was there to take family shoots with the Claus's. We also had the builder make a fireplace and had artificial logs (that looked like the real deal) burning in the fireplace. Of course the mantle had to be decorated and we needed overstuffed chairs so people could take family shoots there as well.We had 3 ledges decorated, each in a different theme. We had 6 foot stockings hanging from one ledge. The fake candy I made for my kids this year (Go HERE to see it), I made a larger version that draped on the ledge of the over sized gingerbread village that I created. We had a large choo choo train that puffed smoke as it ran under the main center tree. I had a computerized baby grand piano delivered, that played Christmas music any time a service was not going on. It was a very fun project to be involved in. I will pull out pictures and do a post about that event.I enjoy decorating at Christmas, actually all year long.

The sleigh and reindeer are our stocking hangers. I got those before our 2 little ones came along. I need to see if I can find 2 more so we can hang all 6 stockings.
I got them from Target about 5 or 6 years ago.

My birthday is Christmas Day so it is a good thing that I enjoy decorating for this season so much. I usually have it done much sooner than this but Google issues sucked up so much of my time this last week.(BE SURE that you don't just follow people but also subscribe.)

Google confirmed that follower info is not updated like subscriber info and you can receive info a week or more later than the post--SUBSCRIBE!!! I will be getting over to all those that I follow to subscribe--be sure to subscribe with me--even if you have done it before. Click on subscribe to make sure you are still subscribed to my blog. Google lost hundreds of my subscribers--hundreds just gone.

My tips for decorating a beautiful tree
1. Start with lots of lights. I wrap my lights all the way to the back of each branch. This way the tree glows even more.
2. As I go down the tree I step back and squint my eyes to make sure the tree looks balanced and if there are bare areas I fill those in as I go.
3. To get the best lighting on your tree twist the branches (of artificial trees) around the lights so the lights are pointing up.
4. Make sure you have plenty of tree surge protectors.(I blew lights this year and had to add another light surge protector and change the fuses in several strands of lights.)
5. Once all the lights are on the tree, add the heaviest or biggest ornaments first then add in the smaller ones.
6. Be sure to place ornaments inside on the inner branches as well as the outer branches and be sure to hang ornaments from the bottom branches of the tree as well.
7. Place your tree topper last, then add your tree skirt.
8. Our final step is to add in our antiques Lionel Train under the tree.Prince Charming thinks there isn't anywhere else another ornament could fit on this 10 foot tree but I see plenty of spots for more ornaments.

Here is a video of my large tree this year with a few of our favorite ornaments.
(I tried letting it run all night and after 7 hours Goggle still didn't load the video. I am off to redo my video-sorry ladies)

Finally 2 days later Google has loaded the videos. To see the videos click on Christmas Tree VIDEOS

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