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We’ve got a big storage room, and that’s lucky, because The Missus fills about half of it with her Christmas nick-nacks. She has at least 2 trees’ worth of ornaments, because she likes to alternate between uptown-elegant and downtown-trashy, year by year. (Well… not really “trashy,” but more like the commoner Christmas tree rather than the “decorating magazine” Christmas tree. I personally prefer the NON-fabulous decor, but I have no vote because I’m a sidelines spectator rather than a participant.)

My all-time favorite traditional Christmas CD: “Christmas with the Cambridge Singers.” Exquisite! Scoop it up (or ANY of the C.S. Christmas CDs) and thank me later.

You are both wrong! I am NOT a Chardonnay, or a Riesling!

I am a Perth Pink, not a wine for drinking, a wine for laying down and avoiding!

When my now deceased kat was a kitty we wired the tree to the wall. She loved that tree to death. As she got older and more arthritic, we limited decorations to the top half of the tree as she couldn’t reach that high to bat them off. In her final years she would lie below the tree and look lovingly at all the ornamanets that she no longer had the energy to mess with. Our tree is now a beautiful fully decorated masterpiece. It isn’t as much fun without a cat to ruin it all.

Very pretty Stoaty, and Uncle Badger. I bet the fragrance is wonderful. Sweet and nice to have a kitten that wants to play with the decorations.

I’ve been listening to jazz Christmas collections on YouTube. No singing, but very pleasant.

(cheapskate) Pro Tip: If you’re a bit low on ornaments, you can get ready for next year by cutting colorful used gift wrapping paper into squares and making a pile of origami cranes and butterflies. They’re so light and have so many little angles and points you can just put them on the branches and the needles hold them gently in place. No string loops or wire hooks needed.

That’s a lovely tree even if you think it is under-adorned. Well done, my friends!

I’m thinking ornaments made out fried bacon would divert the cat from your baubles.

Very festive! I love white lights; they make the colors of the ornaments pop. Can that be Uncle Sam on the left side, toward the top?

When my first cat as a kid was a kitten, on his first Christmas Mom put up the tree with some trepidation. We needn’t have worried. The next day, looking for the kitten, we found him curled up under it, atop the cotton “snow” blanket that we wrapped around the stand.

My then-wife and I had real trees when Arizona, the next red tabby, was a kitten, and for the next 2 years. I don’t recall him wreaking any real havoc with it. He preferred playing “chase the ball of typing paper” with me.

Much as I’d love to, I haven’t had a tree — real or not — in years, and so can’t report on the feline thugs I’ve known and lived with since then.

Ooooo…very pretty. I love your homey ornaments…bet every one of them means something to you and Uncle B. There’s nothing like enjoying the glow of the first night of your Christmas tree.

I’m not a fan of decorator trees. A friend does a different one every year and they’re very pretty, but oddly, as she spends a great deal of time planning and buying the bit & pieces, it feels impersonal.

I wrangled a 6 ft. live sequoia from a late season bargain buy that we are overwintering in the cold greenhouse.

It’s kind of wonky and completely against type for our modern house and I loveses it.