To love glittery tat Christmas decs and not two colour trees and tastefulness?

[CowboyJoeFromMexico]

It's not just me, surely? My friends and family all have beautiful tasteful matching decorations and colour schemes and I'm the only one who loves tat and tinsel and coloured lights. It's colourful and sparkly and Christmassy. Where are my people?

Queen of Tack reporting for duty OP. My favourite purchase this year is my dancing Xmas tree which sings Rocking around the Xmas tree a thousand times a day as my toddlers adore it. Husband and teenager and neighbours not so much ;-)

My mother always had a tasteful colour coordinated tree, it used to change to match how the living room was decorated. One year it was olive green, brown and cream baubles ffs. And just baubles! No gingerbread men or candy canes or little Santa Claus's . Hated it, so cold and unfeeling...

You should see ours! There's barely two decorations matching. A LOT of gingerbread men, candy canes, robins, a few vintage ones, there's even a Cliff Richard decoration . The only thing is this year I've ditched the tinsel and I think the tree looks so much better for it... There's just silver beads, white lights and I'll do popcorn garlands soon. You can see the tree decorations so much clearer without tinsel IMO! I prefer white lights though, multicoloured ones aren't for me..

But agreed that Christmas is tacky! It just is, it's meant to be colourful. I saw a tree yesterday that only had black and white baubles on it . It's not halloween!

We don't do tinsel, but that's only because PedantKitties would probably kill themselves eating it, the adorable idiots. But tree is multicoloured, crammed with Precious Baubles, including some I made as a child and, now, some DS has made.

I've mentioned thus on other freds, but I'm noticing a weird trend re lights: lots of people who, for most of their adult life had Only White lights, will start craving coloured lights when they have kids. I'm glad I'm not the only one there.

However, I personally hate lights that flash.

And I do do tasteful, colour-coordinated garlands. However, in my defence, I also do coordinated, tacky-as-hell garlands, too, including the bathroom one (fishes and miniature rubber duckies). Hope I can still be in the club.

Colour schemes are just a way to get people to spend money on new trees and decorations each year.

Your tree, your rules, innit? That also goes for soulless colour scheme trees

We have the same tree we bought for our first Christmas with DD. She buys a new bauble each year. All different. No tinsel but ropes of beads. The same decs come out every year, same nativity set, same wreath.

The only addition is lots of solar lights for the garden, only ropes and icicles, not laughing reindeer, etc.

My dh originally thought I was slightly mad due to my love of tinsel & mismatched decorations on a Christmas tree! (Also due to his dm's ultra coordinated Victorian themed tree every year).
Thankfully he now just lets me get on with it & this year I'll have a proper helper in the form of dd (4.5y) who loves all things sparkly!
Christmas trees have so much more meaning when they're crammed fully of homemade or randomly collected stuff from over the years, like a green & spiky memory box!

I've found my spiritual home! I hate colour themed trees-chez ghost it's about how much colour you can throw at the tree & if you can still see bare tree at the end of it I've failed

I have absolutely NO input into our tree. DD does it all herself, including the siting of it. I am just 'allowed' to buy chocolate and candy canes as required.

Consequently it looks like Santa threw up in my living room. And I love it.

I have never met anyone with a colour scheme... I thought it was just malls and the odd crazy person. What do they do with all the decs that they've collected over the years??

pedant that's me!

Always loved matching baubles and tasteful white lights. My DD came along and it's multi coloured lights all the way. They just are Christmas, no other way to describe them.

I did our lights this year but 5 year old DD did the rest and she loved every minute of it. Feel slightly sad for my friends children who weren't allowed to join in...

We've got a tasteful tree with a colour scheme and white twinkly lights. But we do have cuddly toy tree decorations, santas, reindeer, sugar plum fairies, snow globes, all the kids ancient homemade dec and even a bit of tinsel!

Laura, dustbunnyfarmer, all of you :: clutches posters on thread to bosom, tremulously:: !! We have all found our people!!
(In fact, poolomoomon, your tree sounds exactly the same as ours. I am happy just thinking about it.)
It is interesting, though, that the matching tree brigade probably think my house, tree and decorations are deeply naff. Whereas, like another poster, I can aesthetically appreciate their beautiful trees... but I also think there is something a teensy bit naff about having a tree that is so impersonal. Rather akin to wrapping up a load of empty boxes and putting them under the tree, all square and beribboned. Yes, it would be lovely, but it's hardly the point, is it?! ;)

I have decorations from when I was a child and ones that my children made when in nursery and school ( the youngest is 22yrs now)They have been collected over the years. Much the best way!

I used to have the most tasteful tree. One year it was just very nicely placed red bows. They always looked amazing (if I do say so myself )

This of course was pre children.

Now they look like an explosion in a tinsel factory.

They actually look more festive these days I have come to love them and over the years have stopped sneaking a moment to rearrange the sparkly tat so that it is more symmetrical

This year, I even allowed the putting up of the decs for december 1st (we did it sunday night actually)

And I'm even going to put up a photo. And we aren't even in the Christmas section. [rebel]

Gotta love a bit of lametta on a tree. Sparkly shizz that looks nothing like icicles.

My tree's very boring. It has fake snow on it, white and silver baubles, no tinsel with bead garland, white lights and glitter star on top.

It's been the same since about 2002. Thanks B&Q :)

We have two trees, a very tasteful tree made from twigs and with a sprinkling of 'snow' and a larger slow changing colour 'minimalist' one. I thought they looked a bit bare last year so added...then added some more...then a leeetle bit more...

They're going up again today and by the time I've finished they'll look like Santa and all his elves and half a dozen reindeer have farted glitter in a shit-storm over them.

figgypuddings there's more than one tree. I should do do a stealth-Elvising one evening with them all

I like matchy-matchy. Our theme is red and gold. No tinsel.

My parent's decorations are like the aftermath of a rainbow explosion. Tinsel draped everywhere, multicoloured lights, random baubles collected throughout the years, ceiling decorations hanging all over the place. I loved it when I was a kid!

DD2 told my mum last weekend that 'daddy doesn't want you to bring any more Christmas tat to our house'. Cue embarrassed DH and me trying not laugh! I haven't told him about the Santa hat chair covers she's bought yet! I love it

I started out with matching colours. And my plan was to stick to it. Ha! Now, 25 yrs after buying my first tree, we have every colour, shape, size and material under the sun. All the DC have been allowed to buy a new decoration for the tree every year - there were times when I gently tried to steer them away from the garishly pink and plasticy but it rarely worked.

Draw the line at pink or blue lights though.

And we always have real trees.

My toddler is afraid of Christmas trees

My grown up children ignore that and go mad on the decorations anyway

I do white lights and multi colour lights and have musical bells and various colours of tinsel and decades of baubles none of which match. I have snowflake window stickers I love and this year got some giant paper snowflakes and a peeping raindeer window sticker. I love miss matching decorations much more than matchy matchy.

Christmas is all about the mismatched tacky decorations for me. I love gaudy and glitter and colour. I can admire other people's tastefully decorated, picture perfect trees, but it's not the sort of thing I grew up with, and I don't aspire to it as an adult, either.

I have a Ronald McDonald bauble (Happy Meal toy I think) saying "Merry Christmas 1989". My mum was having a clear out and I refused to let that one go. That says all you need to know about my tastes.

I luffs a bit of tat,bring the tinsel bling on!

We have a competition to hide bizarre stuff in the tree and see who spots it. Bonus points if a family member pulls a cat bum face and tries to inform us we have done it 'wrong'

I've spotted a hideous,gold glitter reindeer head and antlers. Will look fab on top of tree in place of tasteful angel or star.

We always let ds & any random friends decorate tree. again I'm quite happy to have wonky baubles and mismatched tinsel wound round and round the bottom of the tree- guaranteed more cats bum faces.

YANBU.

Coordinated Christmas decs scream 'anal retentive killjoy' to me.

I love sparkle, tinsel and decorations made by the kids at school. Christmas wouldnt be the same without it.