The Evolution of Our Christmas Tree: 2007-2011

I hope you enjoyed a look at our 2011 Holiday decor last week.  I felt sort of amazed that I was able to fulfill a post for each day of the week, phew! 

It has been really fun to read or hear sweet comments about Our Merry Little Vintage Christmas decor because it's actually just my second time decorating the house for the holidays.  Last Christmas was the first time I tried to make our house look really nice and spirited for the holidays. My (few) attempts before that were pretty sad, but it is kind of sweet and funny to see how holiday decorating has evolved for Alex and I.

  With that said, let's hop in our imaginary DeLorean, bring it up to 88mph, and cruise through Christmases past...because where we're going, we don't need roads. (Sorry, to hard to resist!).

 Christmas 2007: Our First Place, Our First Tree

Behold!  The very first Christmas tree decorated by Alex and I....

Underwhelmed?  Shame!  This tree was in the first apartment Alex and I lived in together when we moved to Minneapolis.  Sure, it is small, plastic (not that it is bad), and sort of skinny, but this tree might be the most memorable of all our trees.  We opened presents together alone for the first time by that tree (sans Rocco & Sadie, life was so different!). I think we only bought one 15 piece red & green ornament set at Target along with the simple silver beaded garland and that was it!  Christmas decorating complete! 

Christmas 2008: Same Tree, Swankier Place

Behold!  The very first Christmas tree decorated by Alex and I.... uuuhh Take Two!

Hmmm, does it look familiar? After our first apartment, we moved into that swanky ultra-modern (teenie tiny) condo in downtown Minneapolis and didn't have much room for extra holiday decor.  So the same tree and ornaments went up (hard to tell with the bad bright photo but it was the same). Alex and I had company though this time after we got Rocco.

 Christmas 2009: We Own a House & Have No Idea What We're Doing!

 Yep, you guessed it, same little sad tree. Who knew it could look worse just by sticking it in a much larger room?  I guess we didn't because up it went without even considering alternative options.  Heck, we didn't even have anything on the walls then though.  We were still pretty new to home ownership.

Sadly, I didn't even take a picture of the tree itself that year (so unlike me, even pre-blog).  These are the only photos I have where you can see the first Christmas tree we had here in the ol' Dutch Colonial.  At least we added more ornaments to it this time.  Yes, the tree and overall decor was still boring/ bare but that Christmas was the first one that we didn't spend with family in Michigan.  It was just us, in our new house, with our own little family (which included our new little puppy Sadie).

Christmas 2010: Starting to Get the Hang of Holiday Decorating

What's that??? No little scrawny tree? Bright, cheery holiday colors? Even stockings?!?! My goodness, it appears to be our first big stab at holiday decorating!

Yes, just last Christmas I finally got into holiday decorating, and now I don't think our house could have any less for future holidays!  It was too much fun, and I think we discovered even more charm to love about our house when it shined with traditional holiday spirit. 

It all kicked off with our new favorite tradition- cutting down our tree Griswold style! Once we got a bigger tree in our house, Alex and I both felt a lot more excited about decorating! We felt so proud and excited about that tree, I think it was our first "grown up" Christmas tree.

Christmas 2011: Our Merry Little Vintage Christmas Unfolds

After all the fun last year, I felt anxious to take another stab at it this year!  I truly loved our previous tree, but I feel like I might have topped it (just a little) this time!  It just feels so warm and special, I love, love LOVE seeing this each night...

And it makes me happy seeing all these little reminders of the Christmas season throughout our house...

I can't lie though, it is a lot of work and I did put a lot of thought and time into it, but it is because I really do enjoy it!  Even when it did make me a little bit crazy for a couple days :)

It is pretty interesting comparing our first tree to our most current. I imagine my 2007 self would be SHOCKED that I'd take the time to do that much decorating! HA!  Oh, how things have changed though!

Now, I have a whole year to think about next year's tree & decor, hehe!

****************

Okay, you can hop out of the DeLorean now, but watch out for that Tannen boy, he's a real big idiot!