remember the days of going out an picking out that perfect tree...the beautiful aroma of it...

now everything is fake it seems ...traditions are in the toilet the holiday doesnt have the true respect it should be given...customs are lost...so even the feeling TRUE feeling that is gets washed away or watered down and then we wonder why do we start to dislike the holidays...

have we diluted the TRUE meaning of them to this point

what are your reasons now for getting a fake tree when all the newer lights for decorating are cool burning and safe...be honest...is it because you dont like the clean up afterwards...or no one seems to pitch in and help take it allll down???

it doesnt make sense again to me to buy fake wreaths NOT make them even or fake trees then buy a can of evergreen scent or ginger or whatever to spray in the air...and of course this is a no no if you have birds.

do you ever hand make something anymore...even a tree ornament...or some gift...or is everything bought...

growing up we had a ton of lil traditions we followed ...and native americans have a unique type of what we call Nikkoma give away...what are some of your thoughts and traditions if any do you still follow?

We still have several traditions and we do them because we love them.

We always make wassail on Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. (My recipe is the best, if anyone wants it)

We always have the family recipe for cheesy potatoes and never even think of changing it. (Again the best, if you want it)

One week before Christmas we go to a very large and wonderful tree farm and get the family trees. We go by horse and buckboard and chop our own trees and the horses haul them back to the cars for us. In the past when we had riding horses, hubby and I would saddle up and ride with the driving team and buckboard and drag our own tree home by horseback.

We pick one house each year and everyone gathers Christmas Eve morning for breakfast and then we put up that families tree and bake Christmas cookies. Late in the afternoon when its dark we light the tree, sip wassail and have the children open their gifts from grandparents and aunts and uncles. We have a great dinner of ham, cheesy potatoes, cabbage salad, and Christmas cookies. The kids play with their toys, take baths and get their new pj's from grandma on and we watch a Christmas movie.

Everyone goes home and enjoys a quiet Christmas day with plenty of phone calls and stories over the phone of what Santa brought.
My kids do our home on Christmas Eve and their spouses on Christmas, but it works for us.

This year we are decorating my oldest boys tree and Christmas is at their house. We wanted to bring everything to their house because in about 10 days they are having a new baby girl. My 4th grand child. It is truly a blessed Christmas for us.

I'd love your wassail recipe, please, Tessboss!!!

The best Wassail

1/2 gallon of good cider
1 large can of pineapple juice
2 cups of water
2 cinnamon sticks (add an extra one if short sticks)
20-25 whole cloves

Put all the liquids in a large pot and put spices into a garner bag or wrap in cheesecloth and tie it up.

Bring to a slow boil for 30 minutes and turn down the heat to low. Serve hot in mugs...yummy!

We do a real tree each year. I love walking into the room and smelling the scent of the tree.

We make most of the presents we give out and the kids and I have a great time making them. A couple of years ago we bought some of those popcorn cans and decorated them to look like snowmen and fabricated a top hat on it to make a basket and filled it with cocoa, homemade cookies and candies, and popcorn and then added a homemade ornament. They turned out very cute and everyone loved them. Last year we made Christmas/Winter scene plaques. And this year my daughter came up with sock snowmen that are adorable. She's made a girl and boy and we're putting them in baskets that we're going to fill with cookies and candies again. This is one of the things I look forward to the most, not only because of the time I get to spend with the kids while doing it, but also because I see that they really do understand that putting time and effort into making a gift can be so much more meaningful than just buying something. I love to see the expression on their faces when the person they give the gift to really likes it.

tessboss, I've never had Wassail, but I'm definitely going to try it this year. Thanks for the recipe!!

geeeeee keeper...those all sound so cute...i dont suppose you have any pictures of them you could upload onto here???

growing up we always had a live tree and my dad would select one when he went hunting and bring it home...we didnt get to go out and select one till i got married and that was a nite that was selected where we would all go out from place to place to find that perfect tree...and we also made our own wreaths.

then one day the kids decided they wanted not the so called perfect tree but a charlie brown tree...that was the most fun picking out a tree that someone else surely wouldnt want and then bring it home an decorate in a charlie brown fashion...we had so many laughs about that and soon the charlie brown tree became a regular thing...

We had a real tree we would decorate Xmas eve. Mom still makes her own cranberry sauce. We got ornaments every year from everyone with the date on them. I now have many antique glass ornaments. However I am not putting a tree up this year because Bob is going away for the holiday to visit his sister. I am putting up wreaths and swags real of course!

I would gently offer that we always felt sad about killing off living trees just to sit in a corner of the room for one month, and then tossing it into the trash. That seems like a waste of a large, useful tree. I would much rather that trees weren't been chopped down by the hundreds of thousands each December just to all be thrown away.

We have an artificial tree, because this way we can display our family-heritage ornaments without causing any more trees to be slain. It is simply an ornament display unit, it doesn't need to be a living entity to do that.

Christmas trees only date back to the 1500s, they weren't around for most of Christianity's history. So in terms of history they're a fairly modern invention.

I would say the valuable traditions to keep are the ones involving loving all humans, loving all creatures, and tending to our earth. The rest is simply decorative around those themes.

christmas trees are planted specifically for this purpose and to provide someone with a lively hood there is really nothing lost or "slain" in the process anymore than raising chickens for consumption... and it puts smiles on the faces of many ...with no loss to habitat...in fact while they are growing they even provide some habitat and help with the air...but cutting is what they were raised for ...just as i mentioned ...our meat market.

you like the imitation ones and many like the live ones...

not only that but...imatation only creates more non friendly materials of plastic...an wire to rust...not all trees planted are harvested so there is always something left where there was once nothing ...and...even a dead tree is more environmentally friendly than the disposing of artifical..