This is not much in focus, but it's a shot of my tree, in the dark. I particularly like having the tree lit up when the rest of the room is dark; the lights almost get a bit of a halo from all of the crystal bead "icicles" I have on the tree.
They are tiny colored lights. I prefer the colorful lights; I don't think there's anything wrong with white lights but I just like the colorful ones better, perhaps partly because they are what we had when I was growing up. (Well, we had the big old "C 7" lights instead of the tiny bulbs I have on here. And we had a lot of twinkle bulbs, which were made so they would randomly - each bulb separately - blink off and on. I loved those and I don't know if you can buy them any more. I know you can set the small strands to blink with a single blinker bulb, but I preferred the random, more "organic" seeming blinking on and off of different bulbs at different times, rather than the (to me) reminiscent of a marquee all on or all off at once)
I remember as a kid, when the tree had a lot of twinkle bulbs on it, how nice it was to lie down on the floor next to the tree, in a darkened room, and watch the changing pattern of the lights on the ceiling.
Really, a lot of those things are the best parts of the celebration - the simple little things that are different from what you do the rest of the year.
I also have the mantel decorated. I like being able to do this; there's something nice each season about coming up with a different theme.
I have a faux evergreen garland with tiny white lights on it, and then I put up the various little figures I have.
Like snowmen:
The one on the far right sings and plays Jingle Bells (and has a snow dog with him that barks the chorus) when you press the button on his hand. It's kind of dumb and silly, but I think if you can't enjoy dumb and silly things at Christmas time, when can you?
This little elf has made kind of a resurgence (apparently there is a children's book tie-in where the parents move the elf around the house, the idea being that the elf is "watching" the kids to report their good deeds back to Santa). But this one is vintage, from an antique shop. (I think I've already mentioned that my grandma had one of these and I was always kind of sad that when she passed away, a lot of the little stuff that she had wound up getting lost/stolen/thrown away. I would have liked to have that elf. But at least I have one of his brothers.)
4 comments:
About a decade ago, maybe longer, we bought a string of lights that had a switch that let you choose between non-blinking and fourteen different blinking patterns, including twinkling, chasing and fade. Each color light was in a different circuit and one of the colors (orange I think) quit working and we never could figure out which bulb was burned out but we still used them for a couple of years but we finally did the lazy thing a couple of years ago and bought a tree with the lights already attached. Sometimes I sort of miss the other lights.
I like the random-twinkle lights too, and haven't been able to find them anywhere.
If the house is really quiet, you can not only watch the changing light patterns but also hear the tiny random "pings" when individual bulbs turn on or off.
Unfortunately my parents went to an artificial tree after awhile due to my mom's allergies. I haven't had a tree in several years (not too compatible with playful cats ;) but I still miss the smell.
Your decorations are always so lovely.
I have a few bubble lights still but if they don't stand up straight they don't bubble.
Love your Christmas decorations.
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