Decorating for Christmas!

Does it happen to you too, or is it only me?
I was really bored to decorate this Christmas!
First I was on a decluttering mood and so was hubby so the one thing that left first was our huge Christmas tree! It took too much space into our little storage room over the bathroom so he insisted it had to go!
I on the other hand who loves Christmas trees and decorating them I was the last couple of years begging hubby or son to take it down and put it up and I was just decorating by myself, listening to Christmas songs on the CD player. And then again after the holidays I had to put everything away all by myself.
So I accepted hubby's proposition to give it away! But to whom?
And then I had this idea that maybe it would be useful at school.
Although each classroom has its own small Christmas tree, the one that was decorated every year by the Parents' Association in the school hall was nothing much.
So I donated it to my school! Some years ago I had donated my previous tree to another school. That was a 2m high tree. This one was 1.80 but really thick and beautiful.
The mothers of the Parents' Association who came to decorate for the bazaar were really vey happy with it and although they didn't have too many ornaments to decorate it with they managed to make it look really beautiful! All the children really liked it and all the parents who came for the bazaar and the teachers liked it too so I am glad I gave it to them after all! And I will be able to look at it every year!

 Isn't it gorgeous?

So what about my home?
Well my first idea was not to decorate at all. Then I decided it will be only decorating the big living room table and that's all!
So I put my old favourite snowman, the collection of green vases, the collection of little Christmas trees (most are gifts from my brother), my old time angel on the glass Italian vase, the vintage soup pot filled with pine cones, otchipotchi stones, my new little birdy box bought from a bazaar, my Nafplio candle holder from last year's trip, Marabeth's caroler,the star tealight holders I bought from the States, fabric birdy ornaments made by Cathy, clay ornaments from last year's school bazaar, Tua's reindeer, old vintage toys,

 Then I decided I wanted some greenery so bought a couple of fir tree branches and put them in the green vases. Then hang my collection of otchipotchi ornaments on them along with felt heart ornaments made by Cathy, ornaments I bought in the clearance sale in July in the Metropolitan Museum of Art  shop in New York, ornaments made by my niece or cross stitched ones by myself.

My Christmas tree collection, vintage toys, a Resurrection Fern friendship stone, some Ioannaspottery bowls brought from Skyros.

 The felt tree I made last year at In My Closet workshop,

 Frieda's crochet wreaths, Andria's little love parcel, Cathy's fabric birds!

I love the lights everywhere!

Then I decorated a bit around the room with my little elf bought at a Koperti bazaar years ago, the cross stitched picture Marabeth gave me (the red frame looks very Christmassy) and the Winter scenery cross stitched picture I made some years ago. Also the little embroidered angel from Laura of Bugs and Fishes sale.

My Finland red snowflake garland and Cathy's fabric birdies along with some special sea glass and sea glass ornaments made by my sea glass friends Lynne of oceansbounty (sea glass star), Andria of Andriasserendipity (peace symbol) and Juliana (sea glass turtle).

 My little candles from Finland which I always light as they remind me of that wonderful trip there in 2007.

And of course we always light some real candles.
Juliana's candle inside a lovely Christofle silverware bought at a tag sale in the States and lots of semi-precious stones all around it from the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington DC.

 I also put a little pink wreath in the bedroom along with a white porcelain ornament.

Finally I decided I needed some space for my Christmas cards (the ones I receive) so I made a washi tape Christmas tree on the back of our door. It needs a bit of work still! And I think I haven't received all of my Xmas cards yet!

How did you decorate?
Hope you have a great holiday!

A Christmas tree exhibition.

Yesterday morning I went for a while to the Goethe Institute which is in my neighbourhood next to the Ethnological Museum. There was a designer's Christmas tree exhibition. It wasn't really anything special but you could get an idea of how people's artful minds work. And you could laugh!
Here are photos I took there.
This was the poster of the exhibition and this little tree was lovely! I wanted to light it!

 The Goethe Institute.

 The gardens.

 Another exhibition poster.

 Be careful! Christmas!

Everything can become a Christmas tree!There were some paintings!

 I loved this one, so so simple to make!

 A haircut!

 Logos and trademarks!

 A fish bone!

Glass bottles.

 Pencil sharpening bits.

 Melted wax.

 Wine glasses one on top of the other.Or were these left over from the opening ceremony?

A book can be cut into a Christmas tree!

 And a Japanese artist made a Coca cola bottle into a tree!

 Look at this one!

 And that was called Atlas.

Chilly peppers turned into a Christmas tree!

 And that's how Christmas trees end up into ashes!

 Unless you hang yourself from one of them!

My Christmas Tree this year.

I used to have a very big Christmas tree.
Some years ago my dear and I decided that it was too heavy to put it down  from the " attic " so we donated it to my old school and bought a new, a bit smaller, one which hubby insists that it is still huge!!!!!
As my dear is suffering from his back lately my dear brother helped out to bring the tree down and I put some Christmas music on the computer and started decorating it on the 5th of December.
In my dream world the Christmas tree is something the whole family does together!
Well in my real world my teenage son and my hubby prefer their computer so I decorate myself.
This year I decided to put the tree in another corner of the house next to the sofa and the Billy (Ikea's wall to wall bookcase).

Then I added some lights, not too many but I decided I won't buy anything for the tree this year.

Then it was time to put the ornaments on. I have lots of ornaments, vintage ones from my grandfather and from my father, store bought ones I accumulated for years, handmade ones made by friends, and finally handmade ones I made myself.

When in 2006 we visited Finland for Christmas I bought some ornaments there and ever since then I have been decorating the Finn way...that is wooden ornaments, felt ones and straw ones.

This year I decided I wanted a combination of Finn, wooden, handmade and vintage so here is what I put.

 The big red heart is from Lapland and there is reindeer fur on it. The wooden and straw ones are from Finland, the cross stitched pouch was made by Cathy, my friend in England, years ago and the pearl angel was made by my niece Vicky who loves beading and handicratfs in general.

 This is a box of wooden toys I bought from Lidl years ago and decided to put them on this year. I was planning to add them as tags on gifts and maybe I will in future.

This is not a very good picture but maybe you can spot my friend Marabeth's photo ornaments, sea glass friend's Gara's crocheted snowflakes, my dad's vintage baubles,a dove heart by Maria Jose, my Portuguese pen friend and Cathy's felted hearts.
 Then I stopped decorating the tree for a while and hang some glass ornaments on my light fixtures. The fused glass hearts were made by Deed, another sea glass friend.

 The angel is a gift from Marabeth!

And after stretching on the lights I added some decorations on my big table.

My various material collection of Christmas trees and some glitter stars and fern leaves.
After all that I was too tired to continue.
You will see more of my tree in future as I continued decorating it.