Putting up my "midwinter pagan festival blinken light tree" - I got's questions

by darthfader 28 Replies latest jw friends

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  darthfader

  When I was little (before JWism) we celebrated Christmas. My parents got the "Truth" then we no longer celebrated it. We used to get together with family and friends and it was great! I loved the glow of the lights on the tree in a dimly lit room. Needless to say, I am attempting to recapture some of that "feeling".

  So.. what's with all the prewired trees? There used to be a lot of LED lights available in the past couple years, I dint see many around - especially on prewired trees. (Part of the fun of setting up the tree was hanging the lights).

  What's your thought about natural cut trees vs man made ones?

  cheers
• 

  WTWizard

  First, natural trees (the cut ones) are one-use only. They last about 4-6 weeks, and need to be kept watered. If you let them dry out, they become a BIG fire hazard. A well watered tree is difficult to light on fire. They cannot be left up all summer (or winter, if you are in the southern hemisphere). You are in for a mess, especially if the tree is allowed to dry out. And there is risk of bringing in insects (including wasps) with your tree. However, each natural tree is unique and they usually smell fresh.

  An artificial tree needs no watering, and is reusable. You can leave them up all summer, and there is no risk of bringing insects with your tree (aside any roaches that might have been hiding in the warehouse). However, each tree tends to look too "perfect". More expensive trees look more realistic and are of better quality than cheaper ones, but cheaper ones may be all you really need. Beware that the cheapest ones tend to be flimsy and not hold up well with a few dozen ornaments and/or a nice top.

  Pre-lit trees are for those who are too lazy to do it themselves. You are basically stuck with what you get. LED strands tend to go bad in half-strands, and incandescent strands last only around 600 running hours. With incandescent strands, if one bulb blows, and you don't replace it soon, the others run hotter and will blow soon (and may well be nearing the end of their own lives). Removing a dead strand of lights from a prelit tree is almost worse than untangling a strand. They are placed with clips that are not meant to be removed--meaning you are in for hours of cutting and finding clips just to extract your bad strand. Then you will need to light it yourself anyways. Yes, you can add more--but then you have to fuss with stringing up lights, defeating the purpose of pre-lits in the first place.

  If you wish to recapture the joy of decorating a Christmas tree, I strongly advise against pre-lit trees. Part of the joy is doing that yourself. You get to choose how many lights you want to add, and the colors. Older strands tend to use fewer but bigger bulbs--C7 bulbs are recommended for this. A quality strand of LED C7s can approximate the feel of older C7 bulbs. I advise using at least 100 bulbs for a 2 meter tree, and 150 for a 2 1/2 meter tree. More is better if you really want the light, but 100-150 will do if you prefer a dim glow.

  If you use miniatures, you can use whatever you feel like in color. For a dim glow, placing 100-150 lights near the perimeter is enough. If you want the glow to come from inside the tree as well, plan to use something like 600 bulbs and up. Use miniature lights if you want that fairyland effect, and use undersized bulbs but plenty of them. It is possible to use up to 80 boxes on a 2 1/2 meter tree--which is about as tall as most ceilings (lower ceilings are just more than 2 meters). Use whatever colors you feel like--LEDs come in both cold and warm white, red, green, blue, yellow, orange, purple, pink, and multi-colored these days.

  Just remember to not stint. It is easy to look at a tree with 10,000 lights and estimate that it has only 500 or so. It is also easy to look at a tree with 4 dozen of something and think it's only 2 dozen, and get something that is wimpy. If you can't afford it now or prefer a skimpy tree, or you can't put something really outlandish because of Brother Hounder, so be it. But, if this is your first time and you want something nice, expect double what you initially estimate.
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  Morbidzbaby

  I was lucky in that I have a worldy BF who grew up with some MAJOR Christmases lol. His grandmother would get a huge fresh tree every year and hang 300 (yes, you read that right...three HUNDRED) ornaments, as well as lights. So...my man knows how to do Christmas lol.

  Our first tree together is a 6.5ft tall white faux Concord Fir. He has a 6ft green Aspen in the closet, but it was the tree he used with his ex-wife, so he doesn't want to use it. We used the mini multi-colored LEDs...2 strands of 150 each. I didn't want a pre-lit tree, even though it was the same price...Firstly because hanging the lights is a part of the whole Christmas experience, and secondly because if any blow out, it's going to be a pain in the ass to get them re-strung! We also put up about 50 medium-sized ornaments, and an LED silver star on top, as well as a silver glittery tree skirt.

  We will be having a few ornaments specially made/personalized next week. One for his mom, who passed 4 years ago right before Christmas, one for us for our first Christmas together, and one for all of our kids with their names on it and the year. We will get new ones for the kids every year, and a new ornament for us every year. Those will be our traditions.

  I didn't want a fresh tree because I really don't have the time to be vacuuming all the time. Not just that, but we can't have the risk of fire if it dries out. It's really more of a laziness factor, combined with a safety hazard lol.

  I think, no matter if you have an ostentatious tree that screams "HEY!!! It's CHRISTMAS OVER HERE!!!" or a Charlie Brown Christmas tree...if it's your first, it will mean something to you for the rest of your life. I look at mine and, although it's probably nothing compared to someone "experienced", it's mine and my BF's...it's something I can remember for all the years to come. My first Christmas being free from the cult. What matters is that I have gotten past my fears and pre-conceived notions and actually DID IT.
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  only me

  Our first tree was a 4 foot white tree from a discount store. We strung a few pink lights, hung a couple dozen silver ornaments, and used pink and white ribbons for garland. We found a pink snowman topper at a dollar store. It was the most amazing tree ever. EVER!!

  We didn't leave it up long because my JW husband was visiting his family and we had it down before he returned. That was five years ago and we now have 2 trees that stay up for the whole season. After many arguements and tears,we have a peace treaty, I say nothing bad about his Witness activities and he tolerates our having some holiday decorations and joins in the meals and the fun that isn't directly holiday connected. So far,it works.
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  designs

  Blicky lights are fun. If you buy a cut tree be sure and plant a couple of trees this year.
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  TheUbermensch

  I personally think man-made trees are utterly worthless. They look awful (sort of like those "incognito" cell phone towers that look like a horrible stage prop), they're a real pain in the ass to put away (they never fit in the box like they did when you opened it), and I find it tremendously annoying when they come with built in lights. I can easily drive to the grocery store parking lot, pay for a tree, bungie cord/strap it down to the roof of my car, drive back, bring it in the living room and put it up. Takes 20 minutes. Then, when you're done, you can just burn it as firewood. It also looks/smells authentic... because it is, you can hang ornaments on it (I have a BUNCH of heavy ornaments which don't even hang on the crappy wiring that they call "branches"). I'm probably just sour because my mom always got a real tree when we lived in CA, then we moved to AZ and she got a crappy plastic one that went up to my stomach. Pitiful really.
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  ziddina

  I looked into the "green" aspects of artificial trees versus live trees, a few years ago...

  As I started my research, I expected to find that artificial trees were more "green", and that live, fresh trees were more harmful to the environment... I already had several GORGEOUS artificial trees picked out, from which I was eager to select my future Christmas tree.

  But as I looked further into it, I was astonished by what I found...

  LIVE trees are actually "greener"...!!

  The reason?

  They're grown on "tree farms", and said "tree farms" offer GREAT shelter for wildlife. Plus, they're usually grown by small farmers- and it helps bring in extra income for the small farms, too...

  The same can be said for small farms/ranches who allow you - for a fee - to go cut trees on their land.

  If your town has an After-Christmas "tree recycling" program, it means that the used trees will become mulch - here in Denver, they use the mulch for city landscaping and especially use it for environment landscaping at the Zoo.

  On the other hand, artificial trees tend to be cheaply built, and are often thrown away after a few years - thereby clogging the landfill/trash dumps with prickly plastic and wire non-bio-degradable crap...

  BUUUUUUT....

  There are "green" artificial trees out there, now. Made from recycled plastic bottles - they're a bit pricier, but often better-made, and therefore more likely to last you many, many years...

  ON THE OTHER HAND.....

  [WHERE ARE YOU LOCATED? I'M IN WESTERN U.S. ...]

  I LOVE living, green trees!! They smell SO GOOD!!!

  Here are my tips for handling live trees - since that's what we get, every year:

  First, buy a GOOD tree.

  I've made the mistake in the past, of buying crappy trees from King Soopers - NEVER buy a tree from a grocery store chain!!

  I found that Home Depot - in our area - carries the BEST trees - and they're priced about the same as the crappy trees from the Snoop - aka King Soopers...

  Second, once you've picked out a good tree....

  When you get it home, lay it down gently in your driveway and get a couple buckets of warm to very warm water. Add a few drops of liquid dish detergent to the water as you run it, then take the buckets out to the tree and douse the tree thoroughly.

  This will help knock off any lingering beetles, spiders, bugs, and forest floor debris...

  Use a couple more buckets of water to rinse the tree off, LEAVE THE TREE OUTSIDE TO DRIP-DRY - preferably upright, then go inside and prepare your tree stand. Do NOT put water into the stand until the tree is in position, but prep the tree stand before hauling the tree inside.

  We lay down a plastic trash bag first, then newspaper, then place a cardboard box down before positioning the tree stand on top. The bag and newspapers underneath the tree stand will help to catch any extra water, if you happen to overfill the tree stand later on...

  Now, as long as the tree is still outside at this point, cut off the bottom 4 inches to 6 inches of the trunk, and shape the very bottom of the tree if needed...

  Bring the tree inside, position it in the tree stand and screw the metal screws into the tree; make sure that the tree is completely stable, then add HOT WATER to the tree-stand basin.

  At this point, you can also mist - spray - the tree with cold water - this will close the tree's pores and help it retain water.

  When you place the tree-skirt around the tree, keep the misting spray bottle, a flashlight and a long-spouted plant watering can next to the tree, so you can add water [nearly every day that the tree is up] - BUT CHECK THE WATER LEVEL FIRSTand ONLY add water- warm water - as needed, and mist the tree with cold water occasionally.

  If you're going to have a party and you want the tree to smell especially nice, then mist it with very warm water just before the guests arrive. That OPENS the pores and causes the fresh, crisp pine-tree fragrance to out-gas from the tree...

  If you buy the freshest tree available, have pre-washed the tree, keep the tree well-watered and misted, that will drastically reduce the loss of needles. Needle-loss is caused by an over-dried tree that was harvested too long before being sold.

  Live trees are more work, but in my opinion, they are well worth it!

  Zid
• 

  charlie brown jr.

  We use the fake trees.......

  I used to work at a Landfill and we would burn the Xmas Trees Dec. 26 -27 that people would drop off..........

  Talk up going up in flames in NO TIME!!!!!

  I'll be silly ...and buy the Fake thing!

  Ps... Nothing beats the smell of a real tree though
• 

  ziddina

  Hmmmm......

  Hey, Charlie Brown, are you in an area that practices recycling?

  They are very active here in Denver, with recycling. All of the suburbs in the northern area of Denver have city-wide recycling plans in place. We can actually go to the area where they haul the trees and see them being chipped into landscaping wood chips - from outside of the security fence, of course...

  Denver used to have TERRIBLE smog - still can go that way, if people don't keep their cars repaired and if they burn leaves, too many fireplaces going, and so on... For a while there, in the 90's, Denver BANNED FIREPLACES in new construction - the smog was that bad!!

  So, they don't burn trees in the public landfills here, at all...

  Zid
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  charlie brown jr.

  It was in the early 90's when No one Cared about ..."Recycling" LOL