Christmas tree decorations, do you change them every year or so?

[EleanorLavish]

We have been married 16 years, and I think our first tree decorations were very cheap multipacks which I gave to charity shop after a few years. Since then we have been gathering decorations each year. The kids get to pick one each every year. We go to a garden centre or similar and they pick whichever one they like. So the decorations are all individual.
I have a few glass baubles, a few gold ones etc that I’ve splashed out on, but there is no theme. It’s lovely when we decorate it though as the kids (mostly teenagers now!) love getting out ‘their ones’ each year. They can take them with them when they have their own houses and families.
But I’ve noticed people on here talking about ‘themes’ or ‘this year we have gone for’ type comments.
Just wondering whether many people do switch decorations every year/few years?

I’m always chasing the magic feeling of the ‘specials’ of my childhood. I often buy a new set of 6 or so which I think will add something to the tree. The truth is some decorations are just more magical than others, and some do get the heave ho after a bit, they aren’t sparking joy.

I try and buy decent ones and usually get around 6 new ones a year. But only restarted that this year after around 5 years of no new ones unless second hand or homemade. But I have enough ornaments to choose colour themes each year!!! Pink gold and cream this year with a back up of green to give depth within the tree - DD 14 in charge this weekend....I am off on a weekend away with Dad and youngest brother his girlfriend and 2 dogs - could be interesting... the dogs have never met!

We have a colour theme (red and gold) but also 5 or 6 random baubles that have been collected over the years. Ones that DS made at nursery years ago, a random Star Wars one that DP was given, one with all our names on that a friend bought me, that sort of thing. I do love the colour theme, and I also love the idea of collecting ones over time but I'm not sure I could have the whole tree looking random. My parents tree was an eclectic mix of decorations and I loved it. It looked magical to me. But I'm too matchy-matchy to let ours look like that.

The personal, eclectic ornaments are the point for me.

I’ve invested close to £1000 in a tree and lots of decorations, if I don’t get at least 30 years of use I’ll be miffed.

It’s an approach I use to everything - save money to buy high quality, near indestructible stuff.

I occasionally get a few new ones, but most of mine I've had for years, or have been inherited. I've a few from my grandmother that are about 40 years old and a couple from my grandfather when he was young which are about 80 plus years old. My tree never has a theme.

We have built up out collection over the past 16 years and add a few new ones to it each year. I like old fashioned, tradtional, scandi type decorations and have some beautiful wooden ones from a Danish shop. I tend to gravitate to more traditional colours too - red, cream, green, gold, glass, wood etc I could never see myself buying a hot pink decoration for instance. I love taking them out each year and remembering the occassion of buying each one.

The very first year we had a tree, 16 years ago I bought a box of mixed red and gold baubles and they are still going strong. They were actually a lovely set with different sizes, and textures and some like crystal jewels and some stars etc. I still like them.

I would rather get a beautiful decoration as a present than a candle or chocolates but I rarely do..

I do know some one who themes her decorations to match her sitting room almost on an annual basis - she also decorates her sitting room annually. Last year she had a white, teal and grey room and then, of course a tree with baubles to match (very next catalogue! But she would take that as a compliment ) but this year the room is grey and yellow so I am avidly following FB to see an update on the tree to see if she'll use the now clashing teal and white baubles OR..get all new yellow ones.....I know where I'd place my bet

It's not for me at all, I love the collected, eclectic trees and I would love to have inherited my grandparents decorations but I think they were most likely dumped. Must sow the seed in my folks heads that when the time comes...I will give theirs a good home!

The theme of our tree is chaos.
Nothing matches. Either stuff the kids made or something we've bought over the years or inherited from relatives who are no longer with us.

But due to altering the house this year I have new surfaces to decorate... So treated myself yesterday to a few pieces.

Why is it sad? As for the environment, nothing has been thrown away unless it is broken, I buy about 10 new decorations a year, so hardly a catastrophe!

Like you, our first year had a few supermarket plastic baubles and some donated by DSis when she moved house beforehand.

As this is our 21st year, while we still have the original tree, we upgraded that for a newer fake (prelit and taller) last year. I gave away the original baubles a few years ago, between various DSiblings who moved and needed some for themselves, and then a bag to a charity shop.

We have a lot of individual ones that we have made or bought on trips worldwide over the years. I still have about 4 of the extremely precious ones we bought that 1st Christmas (about 12 glass balls and drops from Primark, where I also got the tree - but quite interesting ones that I really love).

2 years ago, I had actually realised I had a lot, and started trying to put together a red/gold/green more traditional set (mostly already what we have) and a second more modern set (blues/silver/white, with turquoise, pink, lime green etc) that I was going to put on the original fake (we had a real tree that year). It didn't happen, but I have now gathered a few more bits to make that bluer tree (mostly decorations like robots, astronauts, log cabin, and lots of marine life things - blue whale, jellyfish, other fish etc) come to life this year in the kitchen/diner.

I probably should stop buying new decorations though, even when I see ones that are lovely...this year I only bought things for flower arranging purposes.

We have our basic, reasonably cheap red/gold baubles etc, a few decorations the dc have made over the years, and then I let the dc choose a new decoration each year. I'd kind of like to get rid of the red/gold stuff because it doesn't go so well with our house now, but it's too wasteful! The gold goes ok, so maybe I'll just not put the red stuff up!

Oh and we have had to replace the tinsel a few times, as it has been used to decorate boats before going on the tree many years (for the end of training season annual boat decoration competition in early December) so has been shredded by wind or enthusiastic young sailors on more than 1 occasion!! (I actually now have a new set of baubles from Lidl this year for the boats!).

(I never want to add up the cost of what is on the tree, as some are priceless due to their handmade nature, and others were significant money like a Waterford Crystal figure - and there are very many that are not terribly expensive by themselves, but as there are so many, um, yes, our tree is a significant investment piece...)

I can't get my head round anyone who changes their 'theme' regularly. Surely Christmas is about family and memories.

We have the same decs as when the DCs were young (now late 20s, early 30s) and they love it like this. Even now they look on the tree for specific decs they made or they love and we still have a ritual with a particular robin that they took it in turns to put on the tree when they were little. They still do it now!

I also have some decs that were my DM from her DM... they are really retro and I love them, sadly only 3 left. They are similar to my pic

No themes here. Our tree probably wouldn't be featured in a magazine, but we have loads of inherited stuff, some of it very old. When dc were young, we bought some and it still goes up, too. My dc have favorite pieces and I have tried to stock up on some of the old stuff, but it's hard to find and very expensive. Bottom of tree has all the newer stuff because of our cats .

Where I'm from it is very trendy decorating with old things and they sell at top prices.

We have a set of shatterproof baubles that go on the tree every year at the moment. When DS is older we’ll look at changing it up and adding more individual baubles but as he’s fallen on the tree twice so far and it’s only been up a matter of days, I think this is the way to go for now.

I have some of the same that my mum gave me @Roussette 😁
Handled with care due to them being very thin glass.
My tree looks like it been thrown together in the dark while wearing a blindfold. 😂

I've had the same ones for seven years. Since I've had a tree.

I have mostly silver and white.

I have blue ones also which go up with the silver and white ones but I'm sick of them.

I'm having pink next year and will have pink until I get bored then will go back to my blue ones.

They are too expensive to just throw away!

Noooooo!!!!

I think the fashion today is to embrace a more eclectic decorating “theme”. My tree, like my friend’s, is a hodgepodge of supermarket baubles and decorations from various holidays or significant life events. We have random Disney characters, Mexican nativity scenes and Baby’s first Christmas baubles. I love the memories that are associated with them all.

My mum on the other hand would baulk at the idea of putting up a decoration that didn’t suit her red, green and gold colour scheme.

I have some of the same that my mum gave me @Roussette 😁Handled with care due to them being very thin glass

Yes they are very thin and fragile... the ones that have shattered made me wonder how they lasted so long!

Shamelessly snobby about this.

Theme decorated trees are for supermarkets and shops.

A proper home tree has a collection of decorations spanning decades, preferably mostly unique, though small collections of similar ones permitted.

I judge hard otherwise! Especially if outside the Christmas colours of red, gold, silver and green primarily.

I think the fashion today is to embrace a more eclectic decorating “theme”.

I hope the fashion today is to be more conscious of the environmental impact of what we do and not feel the need to constantly buy stuff we don't need just for the sake of a few facebook pictures.

We do the same as you, @EleanorLavish - we started with some basic sets, and have added decorations over the years - I buy at least one new one every year.

The original decorations are long gone now, and we have a big collection of all sorts of different decorations, and I look forward to seeing them every year. For me, it would lose some of the magic if we just bought all new ones every few years.

This year I am feeling a bit bah humbug about the tree, though - to be honest, I just can't face the thought of getting all the decorations out and putting them on the tree - so I have delegated that to dh this year. He can do it with any of the dses who are home then. I might help, if the bah humbugness has faded, but I might just go and hide somewhere with a book until it is all done.

@thecatsthecats agree .

The oldest decorations on our tree will be 63 years old, older than me as bought by my parents the first year they were married. The new ones are probably about six or seven years old. I'm allowed to decorate the tree but there are a few special decorations that have to wait until my adult children arrive home just before Christmas. They still insist on doing them themselves which is very sweet.