Monday, August 17, 2009

The History of the Christmas Tree:

History of Christmas tree is as intresting as Christmas tree decoration
The tradition of having an evergreen christmas tree, which has become a symbol of Christmas, goes back in past recorded written history. The Druids in ancient England & Gual and the Romans in Europe both used evergreen branches to decorate their homes and public buildings to celebrate the Winter Solstice.

Over the years, these traditions were adopted by Christians, who incorporated them as part of their Christmas holiday celebration. Christmas Tree is also known as xmas tree, is used specifically to celebrate Christmas. It was first used as a decorative in the early 1600's in Germany and surrounding countries. The families would set up these christmas trees in a prominent location of their home and decorate them with colored paper, small toys, food and sometimes candles. As these people moved or immigrated to other countries, they brought this tradition of christmas tree decoration with them.Through the years many different things were used to decorate christmas trees. This is a glimpse of Christmas tree history.

As the world moved into the 1900's, many christmas trees were decorated with strings of popcorn, homemade cards and pictures, cotton to look like snow, candy in all shapes and sizes, and occasionally, fancy store made glass balls and hand blown glass figurines. Candles were sometimes used, but often caused devastating fires, and many different types of candle holders were devised to try to prevent tree fires. Electric tree lights were first used just 3 years after Thomas Edison has his first mass public demonstration of electric lights back in 1879.

The early Christmas tree ornaments and lights were handmade and quite expensive.Today, christmas tree ornaments can be found in nearly every size, color, and shape imaginable, and they are used to decorate the millions of christmas trees used throughout the world.So I hope you enjoyed the history of the Christmas tree




Once you have brought the tree home the next question that comes to your mind is how to decorate your tree for the celebration. Decoration of Christmas tree is an art but you should know the tricks of the art.

Christmas tree Ornaments

Stars :Mix stars of different shape, size and color.This is an essential part in Christmas tree decoration.


(Lighting does the trick in Christmas tree decoration)

Lights :Lights are an essential part of the decorations s, a lighted Christmas tree looks the best. For decorating the tree you should go for smaller bulbs instead huge bulbs. Use strands of multicolored lights. Start your lighting from the top and then move downwards. Use green wires to make the strings less visible. The lighting should be evenly distributed throughout the tree

Garlads :Instead of buying it from the market you can make it at home.Garlads of chocolate and popcorns also looks nice. It can be of anything depending on your imagination. The easiest way to wrap the garland is to do it in a spiral, staring from the top. You can attach long ribbon streamers to the top of the tree instead of the garland.This will add a flavour in your Christmas tree decoration.



(Satin flowers gives a classic look )

Flowers Silk flowers orb natural flowers gives a bright touch to more formal trees and can be clipped on to the branches

Stocking: Fill the stockings with candies and just hang them with ribbons. These can also be used as Christmas tree decoration.

Special ornaments : You can decorate your Christmas tree with a wide variety of things available in the market. Items like small dolls, teddies, pinecones, balls, painted fruits, music notes, toy alphabets, costume, jewelry pieces and other such things that can be used with candies, cookies, baubles, berries, glittery boughs and pinecones. etc. To add a little more color, replace the string or wire ornament-hanging loops with ribbon loops

(Cotton wool giving the perfect snow effect)

Cotton wool- Use bits of cotton wool spread on the treetops for a snowy effect.

Candles- Get some clip on candleholders and add small candles to your tree. Though these candles should never be lighted for safety reasons, they give a grand look to the tree

Old Christmas cards- Its an innovative way of decorating your Christmas tree







Christmas Tree Decorating with Birds and Beads

This is special than the usual Christmas tree decoration that will make your guests’ eyes light up and their lips utter that breathless “Wow!”?







Hang doves from the ceiling with strings of beads in their mouths as though they were flying in and decorating the tree. Use white thread to suspend the birds and pushpins to secure them to the ceiling. You can attach the beads to the birds’ beaks with hot glue or with straight pins. They can also be attached to the feet. The string of beads should be long enough to drape the end over a limb of the tree. Place the doves at different distances from the Christmas tree.
The end result should look like the doves are decorating the tree with beads. You can have one or two of the doves carrying Christmas ornaments attached to their feet.
Of course the Christmas tree is already decorated with several well-placed doves among the other Christmas ornaments.

In addition to hanging birds from the ceiling and placed throughout the tree, you can place bird nests filled with tiny decorative eggs.
For children its a special treat searching for the little bird’s nest with all the tiny little eggs.

Tips For Christmas tree Decoration that you can use:











•Experiment with Christmas tree ornaments

Keep refilling lukewarm water in the tree stand frequently to keep the real tree fresh for longer period of time. At first, you may have to refill the stand quite frequently and the need tapers down slowly. You will know when to refill from the water level in the stand.

• Spray the needles with the wilt resistant spray to keep them fresh for several weeks.

• Arrange the lights from innermost branches to outside and from top to bottom for safety purposes.

• Mix special and more expensive ornaments with cheaper ones to make a greater impact. These special ornaments can include, bird nests, painted fruits, music notes, toy alphabets, costume jewelry pieces and other such things that can be used with candies, cookies, baubles, berries, glittery boughs and pinecones.

• Filler and special ornaments can be placed on tips of boughs. Put some inside the branches too, to add depth to Christmas tree decorations

Decorate Christmas tree with special memorable items , like your child’s first shoe or anything like that

Hope you liked these tips on Christmas tree decoration.


( Christmas tree storage bag)


( Christmas tree storage box)

Christmas tree storage is very important and improper storage may lead to unwanted damages to your tree. The pains that you took to decorate it will go waste if the tree is not stored properly. The availability of different options for different trees is what makes it easier for people storing a Christmas tree properly. The markets have basically three main types of storage options for Christmas tree - Plastic Box, Bags (plastic, canvas, polyester and nylon) and Storage Containers (for big trees). The storage containers are quite a popular option. In case you are still clueless about storing your tree, these tips on how to store Christmas tree should help you.



(Make your own Christmas storage bag)

• In case you are not keen on buying bags or containers, check your home for empty boxes. You can store those decorative pieces like ornaments, sequins, in empty boxes in which you might have received gifts for Christmas.

• Collect all the boxes you find at home and set them on a table top. Check the edges for splits or if they are torn on any side. Mend with a strong tape and seal all the gaps.

• Old shoe boxes and tin cans are good storage devices for those small ornaments and sequins that are used to decorate the Christmas tree. Wrap these decorative pieces in tissue papers and then place them in the box.

• After removing and storing all decorative items, take the tree carefully and lay it down in the storage container that it came in. If the stand is detachable, take it out and store it in a separate box.

• Don't forget to put labels on the boxes stating the contents and which side is up.

• Seal the boxes with tape and put it in a place where it would remain undisturbed till next Christmas. The best places would be above your cupboard, inside the attic or those storage shelves at the top of your room. One must always emphasise on Christmas Tree Storage
Christmas tree disposal is a heart breaking task.The traditional day to take down your Christmas tree is the Twelfth Night. It may give you a heartache to dispose off your Christmas tree that you had decorated so beautifully. But Christmas is over and it is time for Christmas tree disposal. Being the responsible citizen that you are, disposing off your Christmas tree should be done keeping in mind all environmental hazards that may be posed due to improper disposal of the Christmas tree. To know more about how to dispose off the Christmas tree, read on.




• Firstly, take off the lights from your tree. Make sure all light bulbs are taken off; you wouldn't want tiny glass pieces sticking in your fingers while cleaning it up!

• Next, take off all big and small ornaments and other decorative pieces from the tree. Make sure all plastic, sequins, glitter and Christmas tree balls are removed and nothing is left in the inner branches of the tree also.

• Now, lay the Christmas tree on its side very carefully and take off the stand slowly. Keep a bucket nearby in order to pour out any water that was in the tree stand.

• Next, take the tree outside your home and chop it up. You can use the small branches as humus for your garden and the trunk as firewood. If you don't have a fireplace, cut up the trunk into two or three pieces.

Collect the chopped up branches, needles and trunk in trash bags and put it in your trash can for the cleaners to pick it up. Many communities have special cleaning services right after Christmas. You can contact your local authorities for further details regarding for Christmas tree disposal.

• Another eco-friendly way to dispose off your Christmas tree is to have it recycled at a recycling center. Get your tree recycled and set an example for others to be a responsible citizen.This is the correct way of Christmas tree disposal