Published December 9, 2008 by

Adventures in Holiday Decorating

christmas treeIn my hometown of Hollywood, Christmas trees come from parking lots. My family and I would go to Home Depot every holiday but now that I live in the East and am in love with a man from the Poconos, cut-your-own is the only option.

christmas tree
Because I'm the city girl, my Pocono counterparts made me cut down the tree.
christmas tree
We got a 14' tree for Mike's mom (we nearly broke the bale on that one) and an eight-foot tree for our Hoboken apartment.

The Neola Christmas Tree Farm turned out to be fantastic all-around. Not only was it a bargain at $25 a tree, but they let us have all the branches and logs we wanted for my various decorating schemes.

christmas tree
As quick solution for the front door, we hung a single branch with an ornament and it turned out to be a pretty cute alternative to a wreath.
christmas tree
Mike and I are getting ready for our house warming this weekend and decided to create a swag over the door with the rest of the branches.

treeThe tree is up (smelling better than any Home Depot pine) and ready for decoration. Since we only have a small smattering of ornaments, we’ve decided to lay out craft supplies at the party and fold ornament-making into the festivities. I’m sure it will be hysterically kitschy but in exchange for personal touches and genuine character, I wouldn’t want our first tree to be any other way.

Anne Collins Howard

Anne Collins Howard

Born in Hollywood, schooled in Amish country, and most recently residing in New York City, Anne E. Collins quit her job as a magazine editor (formerly for ELLE DECOR, House Beautiful, and One Kings Lane) to take a 675-day honeymoon around the world with her husband Mike and chronicle the journey on HoneyTrek.com. During arguably the most extensive honeymoon ever, they were brought on as “Newlyweds at Large” for Honeymoons.com, scouting and reviewing the most romantic destinations on the globe. Their writing and photography have also been featured in acclaimed publications such as Condé Nast Traveler, The Knot, and CBS Local. Extremely passionate about long-term travel, they've decided to take all they've learned from their two years on the road and help more people get out there and explore the globe with HoneyTrek Trip Coach, a one-on-one guide to world travel.

Places Projects

decorating holidays

Be First to Comment

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.