I realize we're two days away from the BIG day, but I wanted to share with you the one thing that, when it comes to Christmas decor, we all seem to cherish, love, and throw a ton of tradition into: the tree!This is our second tree as a married couple, and being in a fairly small house, the tree takes up some prime real estate during the month of December so we have to use a slim tree.  Last year I didn't share with you what it meant to take up as little space as possible and still have a tree, so this year, I'll give you the full tree tour!We're all about decor with meaning, and though we have a few filler pieces on the tree, most of them are either ornaments given to us by my parents over the last 15 years (5 for Alex) plus a few additions of our own.  Of course the tree has ornaments representing Luther, our engagement, our home, vacations and the Nativity scene. One thing I tried this year is the addition of outdoor lights.  Regular lights just were not enough so I decided to pump p p pump pump it up!This tree is, in fact, an outdoor tree given to us by my parents, and I was going to add some regular lights to it, but I have a few strings of outdoor lights that will eventually make their way into our backyard.  I purchased several of these string lights from Target at the end of the Summer and thought I would try the larger bulbs on the tree.  And I LOVED them!!!  The extra glow added extra magic, and as soon as Alex saw it, he loved it, too!  I tucked them into the tree so you don't actually see most of the large bulbs, just their extra glow.The other thing I tried for the first time this year is putting the tree in a basket.  I love that it's tucked in with a "blanket", which is actually our tree skirt!  This was a great way to keep the pup off the the skirt and made moving things around (as we have been doing quite a bit this month) extremely easy!Though it's hard to see int he photos, we have several things on the tree (like angel wings) that match the feathery star up top.  Nothing really "matches" but I do think that somehow it all comes together and just works!

Want more Christmas projects?

How do you decorate your Christmas tree?   Do you have a theme?  Specific colours? For us, it's a magical reflection of us as individuals and as a family. It's a wonderful reminder every night as we light it what we're waiting for, and Who we're waiting for. I hope your Christmas tree can be a reminder of all of those things for you as well!