I LOVE our tree. We just bought this 7 1/2 foot tree at Costco this year. It was pre-lit with 1000 “ultra bright” white lights. We prefer artificial primarily because it goes up in or house right after Thanksgiving, and comes down right after New Years.

We have tried several decorating schemes; multi-colored, blues etc but keep coming back to this one. We decorated with burgundy colored ornaments primarily. Those are actually pretty difficult to find, especially if you do not like gold accents (Let me know if you have a lead on a cache of them somewhere).

Some of the ribbons date back to our wedding decorations over 15 years ago. Setting them off are the white lights, along with ornaments that are silver, white, and clear. We love this combination.

Additionally there are several unique pieces with some special memories attached, including some from Russia (where we adopted two of our sons), Disneyland, and a few that were given as gifts.

This year we also added my oldest son’s train around the tree. We have never done that before but I love the addition.

Take a look below.  Also scroll down for our 1st “gift” under the tree this year.

See our 1st gift under the tree below. This is Oliver, our 14 year old cat. He was under the tree before we had started decorating it.