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

I have always had an artificial tree and never really enjoyed putting it up very much to be honest. I always had matching, colour coordinating lights, baubles, tinsel etc. and the tree had a "place" in the corner of the room.

This year in a moment of madness last Sunday afternoon I went to a garden centre and bought a 7ft tall REAL tree. DH just managed to get it into the dining room and I have had to have a major switch around to fit it in but I absolutely love it. I now have a slightly wonky, real tree with mismatched baubles including 3 fancy glass racing cars, a sock monkey, a robot, some little caravans, mice, fairies and everything else you might imagine. The tree looks fabulous and I have started talking to it on a morning when I get up and remember it is there. I bought a special base too that you can top up with water so hopefully I can keep "my first real tree" until about March ! DH is convinced it is going to bring us some good luck. Such a small tree to carry so many expectations.

My tree tends to be traditional reds, greens bits and bobs, multi colour lights etc however I saw a tree today in a restaurant that was just white lights with silver decorations and looked stunning so think I might do that this year.

We bought one of your Pop Up comes in a box white tree 2 yrs ago and we love it . I add a few of my own beloved baubles and hanging chocolates for the grandchildren but it takes no time at all to put up I add my Angel on top and I'm done. I even dress the box to stand it on 'perfect'.

my tree is a black one with lights attached, i decorate it with all the Christmas ornaments the children have made, plus one or two that my GD has made me, We have some "vintage ones" LOL, that belonged to DHs mum. all in all is a true family Christmas tree with loads of memory's and laughs about wonky stars ect

We get our ancient artificial tree down from the loft and then let whatever DGC are with us, decorate it with mainly little wooden toys. We then let them loose with tinsel etc.
After they have left, we move some stuff further up the tree, which is bare as they haven't been able to reach.

I used to buy real trees but was attracted to a (HomeBase!) artificial one which was tall and slender but not huge in diameter - perfect for my living room.

Decorating the tree is quite late by most people's standards - the weekend before Christmas. The job involves grandchildren (oldest is almost 13 now, so may be too cool to involve himself this year) and follows the same pattern each time. Firstly strings of silver and red beads are draped around the branches, followed by silver and red balls. Sounds like a classy theme, yes? Well the next step is where enthusiasm overcomes stylishness - assorted baubles are attached whilst I relate the story of their origin - gifts from friends at home and abroad, some made by the grandchildren themselves in earlier years and some from the Christmas market in Copenhagen. Excitment this year because a friend who visited the Middle East brought a swanky gold camel for my tree! All of these add a riot of colour, to be topped off with silver lametta (strict rule of no more than 3 strands at a time when putting it on) and a silver star on the top. No lights.

After the job is completed, my helpers and I will find a suitably festive snack to revive our spirits, take photos to send to their parents and faraway family members and generally congratulate ourselves on our wonderful creation. Christmas has come to Grannie's house!

We've always had artificial trees the current one is a 6 footer that we've had for about 10yrs now.
It will be decorated with white lights, strings of red beads and a mix of baubles from my childhood, two special ones that mark the names and dates of my children's first Christmas items made by my children when they were small. I usually buy a new decoration for the tree every year. This year it's in the form of a polar bear.
There is no colour scheme, I just use what I like.

We have two, an artificial one in the bay window in the study covered in white lights and white decorations. We have a house with a long frontage; garage, 3 windows and bay window. We have white light candle arcs in each window and the white tree is the 'punctuation' in the bay.

However the real tree is in the living room at the back of the house. It goes floor to ceiling, not that large as the house is 15th century and the ceilings are low. This is covered with decorations, few less than 20 years years old, some 70 years old plus. The tree is a wash of red green and gold with multicoloured lights. It is the focus of the room and before Christmas all the presents are piled up under it. When all the family are with us, 7 in all, that is quite a pile!

I use a mixture of old and new baubles for the Christmas tree.Always an artificial one these days, but used to have a real tree years ago.
I colour match whatever I use and ring the changes from year to year, silver, white and pink, purple and gold, red green and gold.etc.
I like to buy about three or four new ornaments every year to add to the stash, and look for anything that is a bit different.Birds, feathers, Nordic, unusual.

We have a real tree and the decorations have been collected over the years. When our son's were young they chose a new one each, every year to add to them, now we add one or two. My Dgd decorates it.

i put up tree by self 1st december. when child i used to have lovely job of decorating family tree, since married i still have task and joy of decorating at christmas. we have a large realistic (not cheap) artificial tree, have to put in each branch individually, fiddly. it was a treat for ourselves a few years ago and had to save up all year to buy but gorgeous. I put on xmas carols, loud, to sing to. then start on putting togeather tree. decorations tend to be traditional/craft with red/gold, clear glass ornaments.next 3 strings of led lights, 2 warm white. 1 multicoloured. 1st set(multicoloured) go deep into tree branches, the others looped from bottom to top of tree. stand back and check evenly spread and look good. then beaded garlands, star garland, 2 small gingerbread garlands. stand back and check again.baubles (cheap) go into middle of tree branches almost against trunk.makes tree look bigger and fuller. then carefully unwrap all trinkets and ornaments collected since first married. each one a gift,celebrate a special event/birth/death or bought at xmas markets, german markets and american holidays. takes ages as each holds a lovely memory. finally stand back for final check. last but not least husband places angel on top and fastens tree skirt around base. time to sit and admire. next day start on rest of decs. lights and garland on bannisters, hall table, wreaths, large window display (snow, village houses with snow, trees, snowmen, reindeer, hanging snowflakes and icicles, window stickers) and flower arrangements. takes days to finish, worth it to see kids/family/visitors faces and oohs as they spot this years new ornament. love christmas

We have an artificial tree and have various decorations some years old but they all hold special memories. My youngest son likes helping but often overdoes the tinsel and I remove some of it later!!

I love a real tree, but for the past few years we had an artificial tree - however, it began to shed as much as a real one last year!

Our baubles are a mix of old and new. Each year I like to buy at least one new bauble, anything which catches my eye and I can remember when and where I bought most of them. When my musical DD2 was at home I bought some lovely little musical instruments which come out every year; some of the other baubles belonged to my DM and my MIL.

The fairy was given to DD1 when she was a little girl by an aunt and she comes out of her own special box every year and every year I have to fix her head back on as it falls off when we try to put her on the tree.

So far we haven't purchased the new tree and I will try to head towards the real ones, and I hope that the DGD may come and help to decorate it.

gillybob I do like the sound of your tree and M0nica I would love to have a bay window at the front of the house!

We succumbed to the dreaded artificial tree a couple of years ago when the only possible place was right next to a radiator. However after some furniture changes, we may have space for a real one this year. Hurrah! Will dress with a riot of baubles and decorations plus candy canes for DH to break his teeth on. He cannot resist them. And lights are essential. Favourite family story involved my brother at two ordering Lights! every morning when he came downstairs while the tree was up. Poor soul was 60 this year! Perils of having an older sister I suppose.

we all stand around it and work bottom to top so all the kids can say they helped

We put the tree up last Sunday we brought everything down from the loft and awaited the arrival of our two verry excited grandchildren ages 5 and 2 to give us a hand (while the parents went to do some Christmas shopping) Needless to say we had tinsel a baubles everywhere but had so much fun in trying to dress the tree. The rest of the decorations finally made it onto the tree once they had returned home along with the older ones Which have been in the family for years Which I deliberately kept out the way for safe keeping until they are a little older to manage them.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201612/medium-127035-img-1006.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201612/medium-916652-img-1021.jpg

We always have a floor to ceiling, real tree in our dining room. It has three hundred mixed lights and about 200 beautiful baubles collected from our travels over the last 35 years. Recently these have been bolstered by varying glass angels from our city breaks of the last few years. My husband insists on lametta, we have to have chocolates and candy canes for visiting kiddies and the piece de resistance is the teddy on the top. He appeared in my Christmas stocking from my new husband on our first Christmas morning together and has been on top of every tree that we have had for the last 35 years. My son got married at Christmas 2012 so we were away from home and didn't bother with a tree and the residents of our little town were up in arms at its absence.

We've changed to an artificial tree after years of a real one. I decorate it with a different colour theme according to what grabs me each year. I have less and less decks every year and more natural things plus my own handmade things. I often buy one new decoration every year though!

We have a 2ft artificial tree on the dresser and a flattish wooden thing on the window sill with lights and Santa, snowmen etc. placed on the shelves it has.

We live in a very small house and our living room would be full of tree if we got a proper one.

We have a good quality 6ft artificial tree which I decorate with a string of white lights and baubles. I've several bags of decs in basic colours. This year I used silver & gold as I bought several boxes of baubles in a supermarket clearance sale at 10p each. The lower part of the tree fits partially inside our living room fireplace, so a real tree wouldn't work, as it is I have to find a temporary home for the large houseplant which lives in the hearth the rest of the year.

We have a 6ft tree that hubby insists on taking apart and putting it back in the box every year. I don't know why he won't leave it up and store it in the garage. That aside, I have a mix of old and new decorations. I went through a stage of buying a special one every time we went on holiday. I also have some that have been in my family for sixty years!

We always used to have a large real tree. Daughter remembers her and I carrying the tree home from the town centre. Recently we had a very small pop up artificial tree until two years ago daughter came with her husband and went and bought a large artificial one plus lots of decorations. Time to retreave the box from the loft for this year.

We have artificial tree which is still in the lift. Along the way we have some real tree in between. I decorate mine with multicoloured baubles- like the silver snd golden one more . I tend to use the one I have already (loads). I do it all myself. May be be in a a week or so. I have not asked him to get it from the loft yet. I am waiting. He might buy a real one. X