Tell Homebase how you decorate your Christmas tree for a chance to win a £300 voucher!NOW CLOSED

[RebeccaEMumsnet]

It’s officially December, which means that most can’t deny that it’s time to start thinking about putting up your Christmas decorations!
To celebrate their Christmas range, Homebase want to know how you decorate your Christmas tree.

So, do you have a family ritual for decorating the tree? Do you put on some festive music and get all the DC to help, or are you quite particular about what goes where? Does each year mean a new theme for your decorations, or do you like to mix old and new? Do you love homemade decorations, or do you prefer a more polished look? And finally, the ultimate question, is it a star or an angel on top?

However you decorate your tree, post a comment below to be entered into a prize draw where one Mumsnetter will win a £300 Homebase voucher.

Thanks and good luck,

MNHQ

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We are very traditional. Lots of red and gold decorations that have been collected over the years and white lights. No tinsel.

One tree has the 'special' decorations - baubles from DS's first Christmas, some gifts and some handmade decorations but all still fairly tasteful.

colour coordinated with the living room...huge tree so no room for an angel or star!! ....handmade tat goes on the tree in the hall!

It has to be a real tree. We usually bring it in the first week of December.
It has to be only warm white static lights, no blinking maddness!
And then some (not too many) colourful baubles, really simple and not too busy.
I just can't stop looking at it, it's so pretty and the smell of it is just pure childhood Christmas happiness!

It's getting earlier and earlier! Children love helping and I am not precious about the tree. Whatever goes is fine as long as they enjoy helping.

We use lots of tiny white lights then red and gold decs...lots. It is a gold star one year gold angel the next. Beautiful !

We have a special decoration for each year that DH and I have been married, based on what we've been doing during the year. So a decoration from where we've holidayed, the original keys for our home when we moved in, markers for the years our DC were born, etc.

We label them with the year and keep them in a separate box to all the other decorations. Each Christmas when we get them out, it's lovely to be able to reminisce. :)

We usually put ours up the first weekend in December. We stick a Christmas CD or three on, and the kids love to help out. Although I confess I am one of those mums who has to rearrange the things they've put on, after they go to bed!
We have two trees, one in the dining room which I call the kids' tree as it is an "anything goes" tree, decorated with coloured lights and all different shapes, sizes and colours of decorations including many of my mum's old ones, some bought from Woolies when we first bought our house, and some bought from Christmas markets in Germany. The main tree in the living room is an altogether more tasteful affair, clear lights and gold/brown decorations. Secretly though I prefer the kids' tree!

We have a real tree in the window and decorate it with a mixture of homemade, bought and inherited decorations.

We have a large artificial tree. It is decorated with wooden Christmas decorations, crystal beaded balls, candles (which we never light!), and tinsel. We have a star on the top. We should have started putting it up today but have been so busy we haven't got round to it.

The 'elves' come overnight. The decorate the house & outside and put the tree up for the children to decorate in the morning.

I have flashbacks of the painful wait while my dad set up the lights on the Christmas tree which took HOURS!

The kids decorate it and I have to help slightly as being 2 and 4 they can only reach so high! They also like to keep moving the decorations around so the tree never looks the same each day. The only decoration I am a bit precious about is a hand knitted one i was given when the youngest DS was born as it it was a gift from the hospital staff for him being a Christmas baby

I've always let the children do ours, so it ends up looking like I've dipped it in glue then run up and own the Christmas aisle in the pound shop.

We do have some traditions - we choose 2 new tree decorations per year each and they go near the top, to be moved down a level each year.

Our 3 small children decorate our tree with a mixture of baubles and decorations that they have made!!! On top is an angel that my mum gave to me many years ago

We have a tradition of buying a new decoration for the tree when we go on holiday. When we come to decorate the tree it is a celebration of all out fun summer family holidays, and a few soggy ones!

I try to stick to a mostly red and white scandi style for my tree ornaments and have done ever since I've had my own tree. Over the years, more natural-themed ornaments have crept in and they mix really well with the scandi theme.
I always have a 'grumpy cat' to top the tree. It's a little soft toy cat with a red scarf and grumpy face and we put it on the tree one year as a joke and now he goes up on tip every year!

My house is a little busy with 9 kids and the living room isn't very large, so many years ago we decided to decorate the living room window area and put a tree outside the house where it was in full view of the living room window for the kids, but out of the way of meddling little fingers and a mischievous cat! We bought a small living tree, decorated it with outdoor lights, baubles and tinsel and it looked great and it grew taller year by year. Sadly this last year the Summer was too long and too hot and our tree did not survive so we have just bought another living tree from Homebase to try to grow it tall again. The last 2 years the kids decorated the garden and the tree as they are old enough to do so. I had to insist that they waited until December as they were too over-excited and wanted to do it mid-November! I think it's nice that the kids do the decorating as they really use their imagination and do stuff that I wouldn't have thought of - some of it is a bit wacky, but they get a lot of fun and enjoyment out of it!

I tend to do the tree myself and sometimes the kids help if we do it at the weekend. It has to be done in order:
*assemble the tree
*put lights on (coloured led)
*add tinsel, beads, etc
*add baubles (we use black, silver and white)
*put the tree topper on (a light up silver star)
*sit and admire your handiwork (and adjust things that don't look quite right when you're sitting looking at it!)

I have done mine today and I did it myself as the kids are at school and dh is at work

We all go to Elvedon Forest and we take our 3 kids to see santa. Then we look around the stalls and shops. The children get to ride 2 fairground rides each.
Then we choose our tree and we hunt for the best shape and then.... we name it!!! This year he is called Treacle!!!
Then DH and I put on the lights and hand over to the kids!!!
No designer trees in our house. DS9 has ADHD and ASD and loves decorating the tree ... DS7 has a rare gene mutation and is very delayed and he loves the flashing lights and usually takes more off than he puts on but he loves investigating all the decorations before he puts them on!!!
DD picks out all the girlie decorations and she like to be in charge of putting them on!
Then when the tree is finished we turn on the lights and there are lots of ooohhh and aaaahhhhhs but mainly as we have two ASD lids there is lots and lots of flapping!!!

My tree has to be done by me - no one else would do it properly! (I.e. The way I want it done...)

Decorations are all red and gold or wooden - with a European/Scandinavian influence. And it's definitely a star on top!!

I've got a white christmas tree that i decorate with brightly coloured baubles and star, and ice blue chaser lights, im quite particular with how the baubles are placed and often change them around until im suitably happy with it :)

We do ours on the 2nd Saturday of December, we put carols on and go through our decorations getting rid of any that are broken, we hold our breath to see if the lights still work and then my daughter take charge. She's pretty good now at 13 (I might have a little tidy up when she's not looking) We buy one or two new bits each year and add those to our old favourites.
I'm looking at it now and it's very pretty indeed!

Traditionally - a mixture of handed-down (now antique) decorations and lovely individual ornaments. We each choose a new one each year so the tree (always a real one) looks colourful and interesting and, especially when lit, really pretty.

It was always my job to decorate the tree for my parents &, as my DH always panics about doing anything 'arty', continued to be my job when we got married.

When the kids were at nursery & in the early years at primary, I would put the tree up on the last day of term so that they came home & didn't think that Christmas was already 'done'. Now it is a family job, but with the same mix of decorations from when I was a child plus all the homemade ones that the children have produced over the years.

It used to be a fairy/angel on the top which my a Dad decorated, probably for the last time about thirty years ago, just before he died; it's far too fragile so we now have a star on top which DH & I bought together. I think we could do with some new tinsel this year...

Two trees is the answer in this house! One for the kids with all their home/school made decorations which goes in their playroom. Then the main one in the lounge with my nice decorations! Everyone's happy! Star on one tree, homemade Angel on the other.

We put the tree up and Christmas basically just vomits all over it. Taste goes to our house to die!