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?

We have an electric tree too, we're only recently married with young DC so it's a bit bare but the plan is to add to it each year. We used to have a theme with generic baubles until DC1 came home from nursery a couple of years ago with a hideous salt dough decoration he'd made and I felt myself not wanting to put it on the tree because it would ruin the theme. So I had a word with myself and have gone full on hodge podge of stuff and I love it! We now have that decoration pride of place, along with ones we got from my grandma when she died last year and bits and bobs. This year we're making a couple from air dry clay to add to the tree....I can't wait.

We bought a cheap set our first Christmas together, they lasted us about 7 years and we changed them 2 years ago. The new ones are of a similar colour theme but then we have 'special' ones that the kids have picked or have some sentimental value and don't really match the theme. I don't intend on changing the main set any time soon but will add each year as the kids will pick one each to add to the tree.

We use the same ones every year and don't buy any new ones. Admittedly they're only a few years old because we've only had a tree since ds was a baby (before that we didn't bother decorating the house) so they're the modern ones and are in a bit of a theme (a small black tree with silver baubles goes in the dining room and a bigger green tree with red & gold baubles goes in the living room) but we're not bothered about trying to follow some sort of Christmas tree fashion.

Do people really throw away perfectly decent decorations?

Sigh. I might buy the odd new thing but keep and reuse the old ones year after year until they break.

No I use same ones
Red and gold theme on gold table cloth
I could do purple blue and silver on a silver cloth but since getting curtains with red on them I’ve stuck to red and gold
I have special ones with the names of departed loved ones on
I would like a few more to make it more special
I also have about 6 different snowmen of different sizes and two silver knitted hedgehogs
That’s as good as it gets

We have a very loose theme - gold and Quality Street wrapper colours. It's been the same for years and we add to our collection every year with a couple more - usually though we wait until the January sales when they're really cheap. It's nice to have a few bits to put away for next Christmas when it's otherwise dark and depressing and the festivities are over - it helps to remind us that the year will turn and it'll be Christmas again before we know it. Plus I'm tight

Our tree currently has everything from a glittery gold dinosaur to a cat dressed as a musketeer to a little gold frame with a picture of the Smiths in it. And my personal favourite, a diamanté-encrusted gold cobra. All have been made/collected over the years. We had to buy an 8ft tree to accommodate them all.

If we do fancy changing it up a bit, we buy a new set of lights and use the old ones elsewhere. This year we have pastel coloured lights and amber firefly ones - they don't flash, they flicker like candle flames. It's a right bobby dazzler this year!

My now adult children would riot if I got rid of any Christmas tree decorations.....

Looking at my tree now and I can't figure out if we got rid of baubles along the way. We are 20 years here and have red and gold baubles and lots of other ones too - Newbridge and Tipperary crystal ones are my favourite. We took some from mil house when she died, took a couple from my mums when she died, so they are special. I actually bought more today in primark (60 for a fiver so you can imagine the quality ) I felt there were a few blank spaces. If we didn't get rid of any over the years, then I can't imagine how sparse the baubles must have looked before our newer ones - I must dig out a few photos of years gone by.

a bit of both...

I have a vague colour scheme - some years it can be red and gold, some years silver, some years more wood/straw characters, this year is white/ glass with a bit of silver. The favourite ones from the kids are still on there, and they have a small Christmas tree in each of their bedroom.

I don't bin the decorations , just leave them stored until I fancy using them.

I personally dislike a tree that matches the room exactly, but that's just for my own house.

I do believe that people change regularly, just look at photos and all the current pink and grey trees . and the amount of decorations people buy.

I can tell you where every decoration on our tree comes from, including a couple my parents passed on that are older than me.

Christmas is about hope, faith, peace, joy, love. Not themes on the tree! Our decorations celebrate all of that.

Bonkers to change every year. Whoever does that needs to learn a few lessons.

We’ve had the same for 17 years. They are put away carefully with delicate decorations wrapped up, so they’ve lasted well.

Kids "helping" to decorate the tree invariably means a few smashed baubles each year and sometimes sob they veto their home made ones from preschool going up!! So we add a few every year or so. I have a few friends who have "themes" and buy new each year- their houses look amazing like a grotto and it takes several days to prepare. I've no idea how or where they store all the decs or whether they reuse them

No,

Have different colours in boxes and rotate them round each year.

I buy the odd new decoration each year

Bonkers to change every year. Whoever does that needs to learn a few lessons.

lessons of what?

My first decorations were bought in a supermarket because I needed something, no history, inheritance or sob story behind them. Not everything has a meaningful past! Why should i keep them.

My Ddad died a few months ago and now I'm thinking about looking for the tree decs from my childhood, some of which my parents had had from their childhood.

Very wasteful to keep buying new stuff, but people can have a range of decorations to choose from each year, which is not as bad. Eventually they get older and need replacing anyway.

My tree has a scandi feel - white silver and red with some wooden decorations but it’s added to each year with a couple of new ones and broken ones are discarded.
I also have an angel collection. It ranges from an angel that used to be on our tree when I was a kid, an angel I made with my Nan, lots of angels DD has made me over the years and now she’s 11 bought instead of made! Plus angels from other places like our trip to York and Venice etc

Same ones every year bloody ridiculous replacing every year. Wasteful.

We do the same as you. Our friends also buy a decoration each year dating back to uni so I have so many lovely memories. My boys pick one each and we add them. We have cars, buses, pugs, unicorns etc. I love it and it gets lots of compliments. My mum changes hers every year and it had no sentiment to it.

The best thing about Christmas is getting all the tree decorations out! Every year our girls pick one new one so its lovely to get them all out. So many memories wrapped up in our Christmas tree.

It’s so lovely to hear how many other people don’t have perfectly matching trees. My sister has a colour scheme every year and pretty much decorates her tree with a set square. It’s depressing. There is nothing that says Christmas about her trees. Also, we’ve seen lots of very neat, co-ordinated trees in greys or blush pinks or even beiges on social media this year. Utterly soulless.

Ours is an eight foot mish mash of different colours and styles. We get a couple of new baubles every year and I love everything on there. My most precious one is a 60 year old robin which my Nan gave to my mum and my mum gave to me. Coupled with tinsel, seventies style coloured fairy lights and a smidge of lametta and it’s beautiful.

Mine are 20 plus years old. Only broken ones are binned.........all the dcs artwork and decorations they made as children is dragged out every year and put up. Looking a bit dog earred after 15 years or so but wouldn't have anything else

And coloured fairy lights everywhere.

I've finally relented and my proper, 70s lights have been replaced with LED after they broke......mainly for safety reasons.

I'm already eyeballing the tree tho and considering wrapping my tree ones round my banister and getting proper fairy ones for my tree again.

Oh I think the biggest improvement in decorations is the fairy/led lights.

Nothing compared to the candles my dparents had when I was growing up, but my nerves are so much better . (Still remember the bucket of water placed nearby, but also remembering the smell and flickering lights when entering to see the candles lit for the first time).

Tree is now mostly full of baubles we have collected from our travels. But we had lots of 1970s glass baubles but most have now broken and a we had some from when we moved abroad for a bit and brought home. But these have now mostly been replaced too

All other decorations are the same year after year with few new additions if we see something we like or we have a piece if furniture or something that needs decorating