What's Your Christmas Style?

matuofm

Or holiday style, if you prefer...
This is kind of a vent, but there's a question at the end.

I just discovered a key incompatibility between DH and I that we had no reason to suspect until now.  We're buying our tree this weekend, so while we were at Meijer this afternoon, I suggested we grab a tree stand and some lights, maybe some basic colored bulbs, etc.  I'm super-excited because this is the very first time I'll have a tree of my own.  My apartments have never been big enough until now.   It turns out we have exactly opposite Christmas aesthetics.

 I'm a very "chestnuts roasting on an open fire," "for a centerpiece I'll gently brush a smidge of gold powder glitter on these lovely Bosc pears to give them a sheen and then arrange them in this crystal bowl" sort of a girl.  I like white tree lights and monochromatic trees (like...all crimson ornaments, but of different sizes, shapes and shades).

DH's opinion is "REDGREEN!  REDGREEN!  REDSTRIPESONGREEN!  GREENSTRIPESONRED!  MORE COLORS IN THESE LIGHTS!  CAN WE MAKE THEM BLINK?  WHY IS FROSTY THE SNOWMAN ONLY ON HALF OF OUR ORNAMENTS?!?  WHERE IS THE RUDOLF HEAD FOR THE FRONT DOOR???"

(He wasn't actually yelling; this is just what it sounded like in my head as I was hyperventilating as he showed me what was literally the tackiest and ugliest ornament I've ever seen for the third time.)

An oddly melodramatic part of me legitimately feels like Christmas is being ruined and we are going to end up living in the nightmare of Claymation-land for the rest of the month.  There's a tiny part of me that keeps rearing up and thinking at him  "Why do you want to ruin Christmas???  Christmas terrorist!!!"
 I'm reining it in.  Don't worry.  But...

Now I'm curious what other people's holiday aesthetics are.  Tell me!

emarston1

We had very similar issues for our outside lights (we have yet to do one item of Christmas decor inside the house.  Oops.)

Actual quote from DH at Home Depot two weeks ago while discussing (read:  arguing) what our outdoor decorating would be:

"Unless I can go Clark Griswald on our house, I don't care how we decorate.  So do whatever you want because it won't ever be what I want."

DH is very much COLOR COLOR COLOR.  While I like my color too, I happen to like the white icicles which DH has for years told me he hated.  Considering we don't have the money to go decorate ala Christmas Vacation, we ended up getting the icicles.  Plus a few colored items for the bushes.

I also had to flat out tell DH I would serve him with divorce papers if he bought anything inflatable for our front lawn.  No, just no.  I think a little part of him died inside home depot.

BUT!  DH's festive (read:  tacky) decorating style did serve one great purpose.  He wanted colored bulbs for our outside lights on the porch and garage which I agreed to as long as he installed them.  The entire time I've lived in the house, I was convinced that our porch light didn't work because I could never get it to turn on no matter what bulb I was using.  Turns out it's a separate light switch right next to the one I had been using.  Oops.  Homeowner FAIL.

Although our biggest argument over Christmas so far has been Christmas Eve vs. Christmas Morning.  We always opened Christmas Eve and his family is Christmas Morning.  Doesn't matter so much now but we'll have a big fight about it when we have kids

Jashley05

Funny you should ask... We had a Christmas party at our house last weekend, and everyone was admiring our tree, but they all asked the same question, "Why is only one strand of lights on the tree blinking?"

My husband and I have very similar tastes, except for this. I HATE HATE HATE blinking lights! We compromised and bought one strand of twinkling lights. They are less likely to give me a seizure and flicker enough to keep him happy.

When we move into a larger house, he will have his tree and I will have my non-blinking/flickering tree and all will be well.

rcj2rcd

Inflatable snowmen and blinking and/or multi-colored lights shall never cross our doorstep. This stems from my childhood - all I ever wanted was white lights, real garland wrapped around a lamp post, and a color coordinated tree. I decorated the house with golden acorns and candles, handmade stockings for each of us, and a porcelain nativity scene. Our tree is gold and red with a few family ornaments we have collected. DH came home and said the house seemed warm and cozy and felt like Christmas PS - Mel, my first thought when I read your post was "her DH wants to decorate the house like Red Green?!? Duct tape doesn't go well with golden pears..." hoping you know who Red Green is...

Meg1036

I like colored lights and a variety of ornaments on trees.  That's what I grew up with - we each got an ornament every year that represented something we were interested in or did that year, so its a real hodge-podge of ornaments.  But I would say its more "homey" than "tacky."  I'm not into inflatable lawn ornaments, blinking lights, etc.  Just homey.

Allycat11

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_michigan-detroit_whats-christmas-style?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:88Discussion:b7095f6e-6c9f-44c4-8d1c-1e2e924fb9e1Post:9166aac8-62d0-453b-8341-a7a79116235c">Re: What's Your Christmas Style?</a>:
[QUOTE]I like colored lights and a variety of ornaments on trees.  <strong>That's what I grew up with - we each got an ornament every year that represented something we were interested in or did that year, so its a real hodge-podge of ornaments.  But I would say its more "homey" than "tacky."</strong>  I'm not into inflatable lawn ornaments, blinking lights, etc.  Just homey.
Posted by Meg1036[/QUOTE]

One of our trees at my parents' house is just like that.  It is the tree that Santa always visits :)  It still has the handmade ornaments from preschool, sunday school and girl scouts as well as ornaments we have received as gifts that mostly represent all of our personalities.  My mom also had a snowman tree, a santa tree, a miniature tree and a train tree for my dad...these were all trees wit a theme for the ornaments.  Our "homey santa" tree had colored lights, all the others were white lights.

DH and I haven't had as much money to decorate as I would like. to yet, but we seem to agree so far.  except I love icicle lights and he hates them, so I agreed no icicle lights (he will be responsible for all outdoor decorating so I figured this was his decision).  I like multicolored SIMPLE outdoor lights. We both agree no inflatable, outdor nativity sets, light up reindeer, or anything else gaudy. 

We both agree that we always want artificial trees, for numerous reasons.  I think real trees are beautiful, however I love artificial because, they always fit in the same spot every year, more cost effective in the long run, no weird gaps, we don't have to worry about tranporting or disposing of the tree, better for people with allergies, they shed less and less pointy when decorating.  We were both raised in houses with artificial trees though.  Right now our tree is decorated with all red and silver ornaments which looks nice and also matches the use of red throughout our house. We have a couple ornaments we have recently received as gifts on the tree as well.  My mom plans to give me all of my ornaments from her house and when that time comes we will need to re-evaluate our decorating style. Our stockings coordinate but are basic cheap ones for now, I am still deciding what I want for stockings in the future. We do not want to spend a ton on decorations until we purchase a home.

If we ever have a house with a finished basement, I would like to have the upstairs be more elegant decrorations, maybe red and silver or red and gold...which the downstairs is more fun and homey. My parents' house is set up with a formal upstairs and laid back Christmas downstairs and I love that. The upstairs fireplace and "For show" stockings that all match with pretty stocking holders and everything, while downstairs are all of our hand sewn stockings thatw we have always had, with mismatched stocking holders to each person's personality/interests (mine has always been a black and white kitty with a red bow on his neck :) ).

matuofm

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_michigan-detroit_whats-christmas-style?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:88Discussion:b7095f6e-6c9f-44c4-8d1c-1e2e924fb9e1Post:2634fa03-b725-4ef5-a921-4993a47e54cd">Re: What's Your Christmas Style?</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: What's Your Christmas Style? : One of our trees at my parents' house is just like that.  It is the tree that Santa always visits :)  It still has the handmade ornaments from preschool, sunday school and girl scouts as well as ornaments we have received as gifts that mostly represent all of our personalities.  <strong>My mom also had a snowman tree, a santa tree, a miniature tree and a train tree for my dad...these were all trees wit a theme for the ornaments.  </strong>


Wait...so you had FIVE christmas trees???
We had trouble fitting our one in the living room.  <img src="http://cdn.cl9.vanillaforums.com/downloaded/ver1.0/content/scripts/tinymce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-surprised.gif" border="0" alt="Surprised" title="Surprised" />

TheFutureMrsB81

We have a simple LED tree with colored lights. No blinking. I have a seizure issue, so there is to be no blinking ANYTHING inside or outside of our house. My FI thinks our house needs to look like Clark Griswalds, where as I'm ok with icicles and some on the bushes, which he has done. I think I made him cry inside when I told him that we were NOT going to be "that house" in our neighborhood or city (since our city is like 1 mile x 1 mile lol). I really don't like the hoilidays, so I'd be ok with nothing, but I allow it for the kids. Our tree has all blue ornaments (things that FI had before me) and then some personalized with the kids names on them i.e. snowangels with their names, bulbs with names.

theleos

We have a small apartment, but agreed well on the tree. White lights, our childhood ornaments- but i wanted an angel tree topper, he didn't. so we went with a snowflake. The first year, I wasn't pleased, but i love it now. It's more of the "shock" of not doing things your own way- but look at it as a new way together

Meegles4

Well, crap, we haven't really talked about this...are you telling me I'm going to need to bring it up in our premarital counseling sessions?! ;-)

Seriously, though. Mel, I'm totally picturing your hubby running through the store grabbing at christmas things and yelling like an excited child. Because that's what my FI is like.

Since I've lived on my own, I've had a tree. First a little 2 footer, now I'm up to 6 ft. I have ornaments that my mom gave me -- many are the ones I made for her in grade school, etc. I've supplemented with some generic balls from Target. Sure, I love the idea of doing a monochromatic or themed tree, but that's just entirely too much coordination. I grew up with a tree that had varied ornaments and that's what I intend mine to be.

All that being said, I really wasn't into decorating this year. I finally got my tree up last weekend and remembered that half the lights didn't work (it's pre-lit). I bought another string to supplement, but I can't get the non-working pre-lit lights off and it's a bit of a jumbled mess. Takes the fun right out of it.

Milsey32

Thank you DIY pre-marital counseling!

We sat down and discussed how we each celebrated holidays/birthdays growing up and how we would like to celebrate in the future. 

We didn't really argue about any holiday decor, but that may be because of our lack of space/money/decorations. Only time will tell...

larzhope

omg Mel,you crack me up!!!!

H and I have pretty similar tastes - very understated for lights, except when it comes to ornaments.  All of "my" ornaments, are at home on my parents tree - the ones I made when I was little, etc.

H's family is OBSESSED with Christmas ornaments (as in, his mom gifts him and I at least 5 ornaments a year). And they all have some sort of special meaning (for example, this year I got a "gremlin" xmas ornament because I watched Gremlins for the first time ever).  He took all of his ornaments with him when he moved out.

This makes for a cluster of a tree.  and, because H has all of his childhood ornaments, there's like a 90:1 ratio of ornaments that represents H's childhood to any of the ornaments that reference me.  sad times.

we got a real tree this year and put up all the ornaments - I sent MIL a picture of our dog which happened to have our tree in the background... she immediately called to ask where all the ornaments went because she couldn't see them. um... they are all there, you just can't hang them on the tips of the branches with a real tree like you can with a fake tree.

So she sent us 10 more ornaments to "fill in the gaps"

Sue-n-Kevin

OMG, you ALL Crack me up! I have been laughing and smiling non-stop reading this! Loved the REDGREENREDGREENREDGREEN .........too funny.

As you can imagine, yes, I am a little anal about my decorating. Thankfully Kevin is not. He has not thrown one hissy fit yet about what I wanted to do. But he's spent 4 Christmases with me, so he sort of knows how I am. He's mentioned the blow up decorations a couple of times, but I haven't said yes. He did buy a couple of those circular trees that light up for either side of the front step, and I'm fine with that.

Like some of you, I color coordinate my trees and decor...........but to the room that they are in. When I re-did my living room a few years ago in shabby-chic-Malibu-house-I'd-have-if-I-could, of course the tree had to reflect that style. So I spray painted real shells with yellow or white, put sparkly paint over that and hot-glue gunned beads & clear string to them. All the ornaments are blue, yellow, white, silver or green, some with nautical looks. Only white lights.  I won't go into more detail or your eyes will glaze over. BUT, the mantle in the living room has similar colored decorations and candles.

The family room tree is the larger one, but last year and this year I have just NOT felt up to decorating it.............I'm attributing that to pre-wedding stress last year and post-wedding stress/tiredness this year. We do have a silk ficus tree with lights on in the corner year round (Kevin has to have some lights on when he watches tv......really irritating), so I put some of our family ornaments on it, add a tree skirt, and put the gifts under that tree since it's the main room we sit in for tv and family time. I did decorate that mantle too, but I've used the same decorations for years.

Lest you think I've never had disagreements, my daughter's dad when he lived here only liked the large multicolored bulbs (think 1950's) for outdoors. I didn't fight him on it, but I never really liked them. I like the icicles, or plain white lights, but being a mom and working full time, I really can't be bothered.

matuofm

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_michigan-detroit_whats-christmas-style?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:88Discussion:b7095f6e-6c9f-44c4-8d1c-1e2e924fb9e1Post:d4c025ab-4a4e-4c4e-a2e2-6698401b25dd">Re: What's Your Christmas Style?</a>:
[QUOTE]We do have a silk ficus tree with lights on in the corner year round (Kevin has to have some lights on when he watches tv......really irritating), so I put some of our family ornaments on it, add a tree skirt, and put the gifts under that tree since it's the main room we sit in for tv and family time..
Posted by Sue-n-Kevin[/QUOTE]



*snort*  Christmas ficus!
Not that I'm judging - it just struck me as randomly hilarious.  <img src="http://cdn.cl9.vanillaforums.com/downloaded/ver1.0/content/scripts/tinymce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-laughing.gif" border="0" alt="Laughing" title="Laughing" />

Sue-n-Kevin

I know, right? Don't care about judgment either. I do so much other stuff that it's my one concession to saving time.