What do you do when your Christmas decorating tastes don't match those of your spouse?
Compromise, of course!
Joe and I don't always see eye to eye when it comes to decorating our home. Luckily for me, he leaves most of the decorating decisions up to me, but occasionally, he brings something home that he wants me to use in the house in some way.
Enter, our little fiber optic tree. Not my style. At. All. But after gathering a few items from around the house, it matches my style much better!
Joe bought this little tree years ago. We still lived in our apartment when he bought it. But for some reason, he never brought it home. It ended up in storage at our friends' house instead. That is, until we moved 4 years ago.
When it came time to put up our Christmas decorations that first year in our new home, Joe dug out this little tree. He was so proud of the good deal he got on this little guy. I don't fully remember how much he paid for it, maybe five or ten bucks.
After a couple of years of skipping the decorating in our apartment, I was really looking forward to putting up my twig tree and filling it with all of my primitive/homespun ornaments that I collected over the years. I had no idea how I was going to include this little tree without it sticking out like a sore thumb. But I also wanted to be fair and use Joe's tree somehow.
When I was a kid, my Mom never went overboard with the decorations. She kept things very simple. So, I never thought I'd be the type of person to decorate the kitchen for the holidays, but since our kitchen is actually the front entrance to our home, I thought there should be some sort of Christmas decoration in that room. So, I decided that the kitchen was the perfect place for this little tree!
In addition to bringing a little holiday cheer to the front of the house, it was also far enough away from my little primitive tree in the living room so not to ruin the look I was going for in that room. (Yep, I'm a snob when it comes to my Christmas decorations!)
Well, after looking at the fiber optic tree sitting on my kitchen table, it started to grow on me. I realized that it would look much better if I just covered the base of the tree somehow. It sat too high to use a make-shift tree skirt, so I ran down into the basement and poked around in some of the boxes that still weren't unpacked from the move. I had no idea what I was looking for, but knew I would know it once I saw it!
That's when I found this great tin canister with a gingerbread heart them that I picked up at Ikea several years ago. (It's the largest of a set of three.) I plopped the tree into the largest of the 3-canister set and decided that, although, the can was a little too deep, it was the perfect solution to hide the not-very-attractive base of the tree. Next stop, the garage for a scrap of wood to put in the bottom of the can to prop the tree up a little higher. After that, I raided the linen closet and found an ecru doily that, once draped over the edge of the container, softened the look of the arranement very nicely.
Now, I have to admit that this little tree is always the first decoration I put up every year and even added the little gingerbread baker to the tree last year! Isn't he cute?! Someday I might even remember where I put the little ornaments that match the gingerbread hearts that are on the side of the tin!
This year, our little tree has a new home in the house. I had to find a safer place to display my
vintage ornament tree (away from Grace) and since Grace can't really cause much damage to this little tree, it's now sitting in our dining room adding some holiday cheer to that little corner of the house!
Need a quick and easy recipe to take to your Christmas office party or family gift exchange this year?
Check out this Easy as 1-2-3 Funfetti Cookie Dip!
This is going to be my new go-to recipe to take to parties!
I've linked this post to the following blog carnivals and linky parties:
