Wednesday 24 December 2014

Homegrown Christmas Tree


First of all I'd like to say thanks to you all for your lovely comments and Christmas wishes. I really appreciate them and love reading them all.
 
We planted these conifers in our garden a few years ago. They started off as potted Christmas trees and we used them both inside and outside the house decorated with lights and so on. We planned to cut the trees, once big enough, to use as our main Christmas tree inside. Then replace with a new baby tree, keeping the cycle going. But we never actually did it. It seemed such a drastic thing to do!


 
This year we looked for a tree to use with my handmade decorations but couldn't find any that we liked. So we came home and the husband cut this one - the one right in the middle of the picture - and brought it inside. It's just as well for, although it doesn't look particularly big growing in the garden, we wouldn't want it any bigger for the house.
 

And here it is - decorated with all my handmade decorations. You can look back at them in more detail here and here.


Here is the finished tree topper.


This is my second attempt at a robin (again based on Jacquie's owl pattern) and I really, really love it. Robins have a lighter coloured underbelly so I just wasn't completely happy with my first robin that had only a red belly.




My hedgehog family have come to live below the tree. They're very happy there; it's warm and dry and they can find tasty morsels of mince pie and shortbread crumbs when we've gone to bed.



We have another real tree (that sounds a bit strange as all trees are real - by real I mean not artificial) in the sunroom. It is decorated with a variety of baubles we've collected over the years. We have quite a lot of Waterford baubles which we bought in after-Christmas sales. They are big so you don't need very many of them. We certainly won't be buying any more!





This is our ancient artificial tree that stands in the hall and is decorated with a heap of gold and silver decorations. Not for any theme's sake but simply because I have them. At some stage in the past I must have gone with a gold theme and then changed to a silver theme for another year.


 


The husband and I both love Christmas though not the commercialism that goes with it. We like it simple and with family and friends. The husband is keen to decorate using simple things like greenery from the garden. This is what he did with some of our holly and ivy ...
 



The carnations aren't from our garden! I bought them in the market in Banbridge.
 
Well, here we are; Christmas Eve! Can you believe it? I certainly can't. It only remains for me to wish you all a very lovely Christmas. Enjoy it immensely.

14 comments:

  1. ALL of your trees and decorations are beautiful!! I love the hedgie family under the tree, they look great there! I love your crocheted star too! Happy Christmas! xx

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  2. It all looks very very festive and wonderful. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas! Suzy xo

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  3. Happy Christmas Gillian. I just love your tree with all the handmade decorations.

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  4. The star is lovely! Well deserves its place at the top of the tree!
    I hope that you and your family have a wonderful holiday!!!
    Amalia
    xo

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  5. Have a wonderful Christmas Gillian! Your trees are just amazing, I have tree envy because I have only got one tree with the decorations very top heavy (the puppy can't reach them that way). I am a bit funny with baubles, I only really like real blown glass ones because the seam of the plasticky ones annoys me.... I know, silly, with four kids, two cats and a dog! x

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  6. Lovely trees and decorations! I'm not really into cutting trees, it makes me kinda sad, so I've chosen an artificial one - but I really hope I'll get to have a garden in which I'll be able to grow one, someday!
    I wish you a wonderful Xmas, Gillian, and a very happy 2015! xx

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  7. All your trees are beautiful and I love your handmade decorations. Wishing you and yours a very merry Christmas.

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  8. Hello Gillian,
    Wonderful all the christmas shots!! Wonderful trees!!

    I wish you a Merry Christmas!!
    Kind regards,
    Marco

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  9. There is nothing like a Christmas tree and the lights and they are even better with homemade ornaments. Some years I use our old, homemade ornaments from my boys' youth. Other years I do a "cobalt & silver" tree and this year I did a bird tree with a few vintage glass ornaments, too. It hardly matters what is on them as long as they are lit, don't you think?

    Your home looks lovely and inviting.

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  10. What a beautiful tree, great! Merry Christmas!!

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  11. Merry Christmas, hope you had a wonderful day.
    Meredith

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  12. Love the pink candles and the silver so pretty xx

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  13. I love the idea of a homegrown tree. We went into the forrest for ours.
    We live så close by, just 20 m from it, so my man and kids went with a saw :)
    Have a nice holiday

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  14. Hope you had a lovely Christmas. Wishing you a happy and industrious new year.

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