Tip Junkie Christmas Tree Challenge!

***I ADDED ANOTHER TREE AT THE END***

If you know much about me or Fostering Creativity you know that just the title of this post excited me! I LOVE LOVE LOVE decorating Christmas trees and in our small two bedroom condo we had four trees last Christmas and will have at least that many this Christmas!

Let me introduce you to my trees and how they have come about... a wonderfully decorated tree must always have a story to go with it!

The Main tree in our Home
Each year on the day after Thanksgiving my family goes to the mountains and picks out our own trees. We have been going since my mother hiked up the mountain very pregnant and I have not missed a "tree hunting" trip yet! So each tree is very special and is picked from the farm especially for our home. Here is our tree (from last year) among all the others in the field!

And with a little patience, lots of lights and an overflowing amount of love this seemingly simple tree from the field turns into a beautiful added decoration to our home.

This is a picture of the tree after decorating before the presents made it feel like home! Most of the ornaments have a story behind them as well; which makes decorating a fun event! My husband and I buy an ornament on every trip we take so as we decorate our tree we remember where we have been that year as well as years past.
Here is the one from our trip to Hawaii, it was our honeymoon!

Here is one from our trip to the NC Outer Banks!

Of course at our home a large bow on the top of the tree streaming down is the final perfect touch.

Here is the tree not feeling so lonely and surrounded by Christmas Joy!

The Carolina/State Tree
We have all heard of "a house divided" and here is our rendition as a "tree divided." My husband is a graduate of NC State University and I am a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill so in our guest room we have the divided tree!

The Carolina-State tree includes ornaments we have received, mostly as gifts, over the years because of our pledged allegiance to our Alma Maters.

This tree is complete with Carolina and State Santas and lights as well as a combined red and blue on top.

The Wedding Tree
In our entry way to our home we have a small wedding tree.

This tree contains ornaments received as a wedding gift signifying our marriage a couple of years ago!

The Crystal Tree
This tree has been in my bedroom since I was a young girl. My God Father started buying me a crystal ornament each year for Christmas and soon I had enough to fill a whole tree.

This is probably my favorite tree in the house. It is surrounded by snow globes as well!

The crystal tree at night!

Finally, the Fostering Creativity Tree
This tree was put up last month for my Home Show.

This tree was decorated with a uniformed theme. There were only a handful of different ornaments and then multiples of the same one with multiple dried stems placed throughout the tree. If there is anything you see on the tree you think would look perfect on your tree let me know, I still have many of the items available. You can see them in more detail in this post.

The newest addition to trees in our home!
The Black and Silver Mini Tree

This year I added another tree to the mix and went with a mini real tree in our sunroom. This tree has a black and silver theme. There were just a few ornaments on the tree to keep a simple look. A few white lights and it coordinates with the decor in the sunroom.

The small table in the sunroom beside the mini tree.




This is the tree we put our presents around so they will be out of the way and not in the middle of the walkway in the den.

The Black and Silver tree at night!

The first thing to decorating my trees is to put on the lights. I think a lot of lights makes a tree beautiful and as you can see I only use white lights (with the exception of the Carolina/State tree that has Carolina Blue and State Red hues to the lights because of the plastic coverings). Once we have added the lights, next I like to put all like ornaments on the tree at the same time. This ensures that they become evenly disbursed throughout the tree. The final key thing to remember when decorating trees are odd numbers are your friend! I tend to not have an even number of anything on a tree, they just look better in odd numbers!

I hope you have enjoyed my Christmas trees as much as I do! Head on over soon (the contest has not started yet) to Tip Junkie to see what other great trees you can find, not to mention other great holiday ideas!