Christmas Decorating with Natural Materials

I really like a real Christmas tree.  My uncle grew them so they came from there for many years.  I have also cut them from the yard when they were in the way.  This was the case the first year we lived in our house.  The balsam fir was smack dab in the middle of the access point to the back yard.  We knew walking around the tree was not something either of us was going to do, so we made it into our first Christmas tree at the new house.  It was so fresh that it even started to bud out on the window side of the tree.

Such was the case with the exterior tree I have decorated outside the house.  The spruce was growing too close to a planting area and the upper two-thirds of the tree was in great shape.  Being a spruce, it would not make a good interior tree (too much needle loss for as long as we keep ours up).  I had planned ahead on this job and put a t-post into the ground before it froze.  The tree was cut and wired to the post for stability.  I used the lower branches not cut as part of the "tree" and placed them around the base as a ground skirt.  Six string of LED lights and we're in business.
My husband prefers colored lights, I prefer white.  I made a gathering of curly willow, alder branches with "cones" still attached, red-twig dogwood and cedar trimmings.  I even had a white birch log in the yard so that became part of it all.  The upright branches got white lights and the evergreen ground cover is graced with multi-colored sets.  It also gave us a little bit of Christmas in the back of the house.

day time view of garden assembly left to right: alder, red-twig dogwood,
birch log, arborvitae, curly willow

Night lights together

Up close view of alder

Get real, buy real

Cutting the tree is women's work in this family!

I miss my Uncle Bob as he was one of the best uncles around.  He never had kids of his own (biologically) but had his step kids and every one of his nieces and nephews that he treated well.  His wife, Marvel, also opened the door with a smile and treated us to her homemade chocolate chip cookies every "Green Friday" (hey, we didn't go shopping, we got our Christmas tree!).
I paid tribute to my Uncle Bob and every year I think of him and how I miss his tree farm visits.  It was more than just the tree I miss, it is the tradition of getting it.  I have gone with my oldest daughter and her husband to cut a new tree twice now.  I went to a lot sponsored by the Boy Scouts last year and had to go back to the cut your own again this year.  The lot just is not my style...yet.  So here's to all the Wisconsin Christmas Tree Growers out there...thank you for staying in business and keeping my holiday REAL green!

Frasier Fir from Evergreen Acres Christmas Tree Farm in East Troy, WI