Christmas trees.

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kimrst

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Apr 15, 2007
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West Michigan
We love the con-color tree that smells like citrus and christmas. But this year our tree guys are out, so we'll try a douglas fir instead. We take the kids out to a tree farm and ride out into the fields in a wagon pulled by big draft horses. DH and all of us scout the trees for the perfect tree, then dh and ds take turns lying on the snowy gound cutting off the tree with a hand saw provided by the farm. When the tree is cut we drag it over to some farm workers who shov it thru a bailing machine that kind of shrink wraps it. Then the horses and wagon comes by and picks up all the people and the trees. Back at the barn they drill the bottem of the tree for the stand and we give our $45 to the cashier. There is a place to get hot chocolate and warm up or buy already cut trees. Santa comes around to see the kids or drive the horses back into the fields.

Our kids are 20 and 24 now and now we take our niece who is 3 with us. I thought we could just go pick out something easy but the kids love doing it this way. Its cold and its rained, we've lost car keys out there and walked out of our boots in the mud. Kids have almost gotten lost. But the kids love it and we'll do it one more time tomorrow...

So what do you all do? I like the new trees that come already wired with white lights! How cool and easy is that? That is what I want after the kids are gone. My mil has a small tree she just covers up with a garbage bag and its the same every year!

What do you do for your holiday? Kimrst
 
We usually take our kids to pick out the tree at either the Home Depot or the "street side tent", which are the people that come down for a few weeks with their RVs and a lot full of precut trees.
Once it's picked, we set it up, and have the in laws in the following night for dinner and trimming of the tree.

I normally have the lights already put up, but this year, I JUST finished the lights and outside decorations tonight.

My sisters travel in from Texas to Melbourne, FL and my brother and mom travel from So Fla to Melbourne also for Christmas. We then come back down around Christmas eve or Christmas day, so we can have Christmas at home, then the next few days we spend with my wife's side of the family.

Fortunately for my wife, our anniversary is the 27th, then her birthday is the 30th......so she gets party after party after party.....

After New Years we take down the tree and put is curbside for the bgarbage truck to pick up.
 
I miss those aluminum trees with the color wheels from the 60's. I wish they would bring them back! We have a 9' artificial tree we use every year. This year so far we lost a few glass ornaments thanks to one of the dogs and the cat broke the art glass menorah from Israel we use for Hannukah! (We celebrate both.) We have the outside decorated with some lights and garlands and a wreath on the front door and replaced the outside doorway lights with red and green ones. We just put up the inflatable snow globe in the front yard but didn't bother with the animated reindeer this year. All and all I would say the house is festive. We are going out of town to see relatives this year so that's about it for holiday decorating.
 
In the past years we have gone and got a real tree from either a tree farm and the past few years from Home Depot. This year with the way the economy has been my wife has finally talked me into getting a fake tree. I'm not fussy about a fake tree but I thought why not ... It actually looks pretty good !! (Wife did a great job decorating it)

Outside we put up lights on the house and some ground decorations which take me about 2 days to do. Both the tree and outside decorations stay up til the new year.

Christmas day we get up early go visit our children and grand children using this as one of our many opportunities to spoil them. Not sure what eating arrangements have been made yet but I'm sure some of one kind or another have been made and I just don't know about it yet ! :)
 
Kimrst, very very cool that you and your family have done and still do that!! Back when I was young we lived in the country and we would go out and cut down a live tree, but we've had artificial trees for years now. The one we have now has 1,000 multicolor lights on it (it was prelit when we bought it), and I add some bigger G40 lights to it for a nice contrast. We ummm..kinda go all out decorating for Christmas and Halloween. :) Here are some pictures from this year's effort.

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We had to build a storage barn a couple years back to hold all of the decorations for the holidays. I think it's 10x12x8. Yeah, we got it bad...and no, we have no children. I'm one of the biggest kids there are when it comes to Halloween and Christmas. :wink:

EDIT: and before anyone points out that I have some lights out on the roofline at the front of the house, note that I fixed 'em before I took the panoramic shot. :wink:
 
waterbear said:
I miss those aluminum trees with the color wheels from the 60's. I wish they would bring them back! We have a 9' artificial tree we use every year. This year so far we lost a few glass ornaments thanks to one of the dogs and the cat broke the art glass menorah from Israel we use for Hannukah! (We celebrate both.) We have the outside decorated with some lights and garlands and a wreath on the front door and replaced the outside doorway lights with red and green ones. We just put up the inflatable snow globe in the front yard but didn't bother with the animated reindeer this year. All and all I would say the house is festive. We are going out of town to see relatives this year so that's about it for holiday decorating.
Click to expand...

Hey 'bear, I've actually got two of those old aluminum trees (4 footer and 6 footer), plus an old color wheel. I used to put the 6 footer up when we lived in east Tennessee, but we don't have enough room here to put one up, or at least to where it can be seen from outside. Brings back memories from my early childhood, for sure.

EDIT: Found some old pics of my aluminum tree from days of yore:

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Great looking decorations guys! Mike, I like to tease that I'm "Opryland"... :lol: (For those that don't live around here...the Opryland Hotel is lit up like a planet every year....2 million lights!) I don't have as many as you though! I have a question...I only did HALf my lights this year and I'm having real problems with my GFI in the garage tripping. It hasn't tripped at all for the last couple of years or so and I've had twice as many lights up. How are you guys lighting all these lights without tripping the breakers???
 

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meatloaf - very, very nice! I especially like the lighted arch and the red and green lights in the lamps. :goodjob:

fpm - Thank you dear! :-D

midtngal - Thank you as well! :-D If your breaker's tripping w/ half the lights you used to put up, then my guess would be that somehow you're getting some current flow back on the ground to that breaker, or the trip mechanism's getting worn. It could be the weather we're having right now, too. Sometimes the GFI's on my outdoor circuits will trip when it's rainy and drizzly. Does it do it when it's dry out too? How many outlets does this breaker control, and is there anything else plugged in to another outlet? Do you use the breaker to turn them on and off with, and when you turn them off, does the breaker feel weak, i.e. do you just have to barely move it with your finger and it trips off?

Just full of questions, aren't I? :lol:
 
OMG Mike! Yes, you are! :lol:

Okay...this particular GFI is in the garage so weather doesn't get to it...at least directly. It controls the front and back porch outlets (both covered or inside) as well as the garage. All have multiple things...drills, weed-eater battery, tvs, refrig, rope lights and such...plugged into them. It is this way year round and only this time of year does it have the extra Christmas lights and that it's a problem. And it hasn't even been a problem for 3 or 4 years now with twice as many lights! I thought I might open the outlet up this weekend and see how it is wired. I found info online as to how it should be wired. I also thought I might replace it, but this same article says they don't go bad very often (although I've already had to replace the outside one in the back and it was only a couple of years old at the time).

So does enlighten you any?? As additional info.....I had to just unplug them tonight...it tripped as soon as I plugged them in! AAARRRGGHHH! :grrrr:
 
I'm thinking either outlet or breaker. Is there another outlet close enough to reach with an extension cord? If so, plug your lights into it, and see if the breaker for that outlet holds. If it does, then check the outlet. I'm hoping it's the outlet; GFI breakers can tend to get expensive. :cry:

You haven't added anything new to the circuit load this year, have you? Everything that's on there this year was on there last year, right? Refrigerators, etc?

EDIT: BTW, I just bought some LED lights that were on sale @ Home Depot. 8 strands of lights will use less electricity than 2 100w light bulbs. Gotta love LED's. :goodjob:
 
Hmmm...wonder if I should replace the outlet? It's the only thing tripping. The breaker is not. Correct in that there has been no change in load capacity since last year...except less! I opened it up today and all looks (like I know!) to be correct there. It seems to be getting more frequent. I think that's what I'll do...replace the outlet and see if that helps.
 
You know it IS possible that there is a short or some sort of problem with the Christmas lights... LOL. I'd try pluggin something else in that uses about the same amount of power as the lights. If that trips it, then back outlet. If not, bad lights. Remeber, start with the cheap solutions then work your way up the chain.

HTH,
Adam
 
Hey Adam, that's why I suggested she plug the lights into another outlet via an extension cord and see if it trips that outlet.

MTG, I guess I misunderstood - the GFI in the outlet is what's tripping, and not a GFI breaker in your breaker box? If so, that'll be much easier on your wallet, for sure. :goodjob:

EDIT: The more I think about it, I'd go with the outlet. I had a string of lights this year that developed a short, and the fuses in the plug went before the breaker tripped in the breaker box. had some other lights plugged in end-to-end with that string, and it smoked all six fuses. I smoked six more before I figured out which string was causing the problem.
 
Hey guys...I opened the outlet up and pulled it out some and it looked like it was wired the way it was supposed to be. So I put it back together and turned the lights on and it has't tripped since! Maybe something had gotten crimped or something. I don't know! Very strange. Well, stick around...I'm sure it won't last long! :lol: Thanks for your help!
 
I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. :) Few things aggravate me more than Christmas lights that don't want to stay lit. Makes a person forget their religion real quick, and say words that aren't exactly reflective of the season.. :oops:
 
Well, I've got my fingers crossed too! Everyday when I drive down the street I hold my breath to see if they came on (on a timer of course!)!! And so, since you guys have been so helpful, I thought I would at least post a picture! My camera doesn't do night pictures very well so it's not the greatest......................

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Merry Christmas All!
 

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