JYC Day 11 - “Christmas Tree”

We’re getting our tree for several years from “Caring Christmas Trees” (Bethany’s) – and have been “adopting” trees who nobody wanted in the past … I coined them “Tiny Tim” trees (i.e. crooked ones. ;) ).  With a bit of creative adjusting of the tree base and some good decorating they turned out nice either way. :)
Different decorations from the UK as far as I can see – we do not have a Fairy or Angel at the top of the tree … we have  a “spire” which looks a bit like the spire of a Church (see small insert on tree at the top).  That’s something I grew up with, and I won’t put anything else on top of the tree. ;)  Unfortunately, it’s not an heirloom – I bought the spire some years ago (prior to that we didn’t have anything at the top of the tree) at the “Frankfurter Weihnachtsmarkt”.


I also bought the “Christmas Gherkin” there  (from a stall that I cannot find anymore since they removed the stalls from the “Zeil” -  “Das Glaskugelhaus”. They are at the Birmingham Christmas Market though (amongst others), so maybe I’ll go there in 2010?  Or buy stuff from their eBay shop? ;)
Americans claim it’s an old  German Tradition to hide that Gherkin in the tree for the kids to find … but the Internet shows that Germans say it’s not a German tradition.  Well… I don’t really care, it’s a cute tradition and I’ll keep it … ;) So far it’s just DH and me in the family, but I can imagine it’s a nice and fun tradition once kids are around. ;)
My colour scheme is usually  gold and red (plus individual ornaments purchased on holidays) – again a tradition from my side of the family.  It was either that  or blue and silver … although, after my parents got divorced my mum tried purple one year, and I quite like the idea of a bronze scheme.  But so far it’s red and gold. ;) And there seems to be the annual telephone call from MIL to check what the colour scheme of the year is. ;)
We also used to have Lametta instead of the tinsel which is common in the UK but as it’s not easy to get that over here I resorted to tinsel. Ah, well… ;)

Phew … quite a big story regarding Christmas trees … that’s not even all in the JYC LO!! ;)