[JuliaM]

My trees a very eclectic and, I guess, kitschy, one. It's got ornaments from when I was a kid as well as the ornaments my sister and I have collected on our various vacation, and some Hallmark ornaments that reflect our interests (Barbie, M & M's, Star Trek, etc.). We both prefer colored lights on the tree and gold tinsel garland. I like to also have strands of silver tinsel icicles...I think it reflects the light and makes the tree twinkle. My sister's not so keen on that. We've made a compromise, as long as we still have boxes of tinsel, I get to put it on the tree. Somehow there's a Christmas miracle ever year and those boxes of tinsel just keep multiplying so there's enough for the next year and the year after and the year after...*LOL*

We're going to be moving in March and the house we'll be in has a largish enclosed back porch. I want to get a second tree to put out there to put the rest of the old ornaments on that no longer fit on the tree in the living room. So, hopefully, next year I'll two trees.

The first year after my dad remarried, my step-mom did the tree very "Martha Stewart" like with white lights. That was the year I found out that that kind of tree might look beautiful in a department store, bank lobby, or the like but I absolutely hated it in the house I lived in (I was still living at home at the time). It all just seemed way to perfect and sterile to me...and I missed my tinsel and garland.