I've been waiting for this one to open!

I love bright, loud, colored lights. Nothing says Christmas season quite like a multi-spectrum assault on one's visual receptors . Seriously though, as long as I've been on Earth my family has always gone with the colored lights (twinkling ones optional) and so I have a great fondness for those. White lights are just so....sterile and kind of emotionless. They're not unpretty, they're just a bit bland and clinical (if you understand my meaning) to me.

And of course what Christmas is complete without enormous, tacky, inflatable lawn decorations??? Who's with me, eh?

My family has always used an artificial tree and it serves its purpose well enough, although I'd like to give a real tree a shot in the next year or two. My mom is neurotic and was always concerned that if we had a real tree and left the lights on longer than 3 minutes it would turn into a giant Roman candle, so artificial was always the way of it for us. As for the rest of the inside of the house I bling it up as much as it humanly possible, although it makes it a pain come early January when it's time to take it all down.

Looking around our house, I'm surprised that most of our decorations are really rather hideous. I think they're mostly gifts from other people rather than things my parents have actually bought, so we didn't choose them. Our tree is resplendent, of course, but my parents always thought spending money on something seasonal was not a priority I guess. We do have on of those flying light up reindeer for the front yard though.

We only got a Nativity set a few years ago and we've never had an angel or a star for the top of the tree. Instead we have this porcelain ballerina thing with a soft body and she always falls off or is doing some sort of ridiculous upside-down pirouette on top of the tree.

I think I've seen your house from here, SL.

I grew up with artificial Christmas trees, but it was fun visiting friends or relatives who had real ones...the pine aroma just filled the room! Never mind the needles on the floor.

In recent years we switched to real ones. Ahhh...and another advantage: we'd stick it on the woodpile once the holidays passed, and by summer it'd be dry enough to burn in our fire pit.

I like a combination of white lights and colored ones.

As far as Christmas tree decorations themselves, it's astonishing how many of them really have nothing to do with the original meaning of the day. On the one hand this is a little disappointing. Nevertheless, I'm becoming more nostalgic in my old age, and some "secular" ornaments quickly evoke fond memories of Christmases past.

In fact, I'm reminded of a Hallmark advertisement aired this season, in which a mother asks her children to retrieve the ornaments from storage. But while digging them out the kids begin reminiscing about the memories attached to each one.

One of my neighbors has a garish, and yet quite impressive Christmas display in their yard. It's Santa in what appears to be an old monoplane. The whole thing glows up red and the propeller spins. It's tacky yes...but I want one! I want 10 of them lined up on my front lawn, and I'll take pictures and send em' to Pattert---er...someone who would appreciate such a sight.

I love Christmas decorations, but only in a short span of time. If they've been up since Thanksgiving they've been there too long.

We usually put up our tree a week or so before Christmas. We used to get real ones, but then Dad discovered that he wouldn't have to haul an artificial tree on the roof of the car and we've never gone back. And we always use colored lights. White lights are not only on the boring side, but too much white light hurts my eyes.

I want 10 of them lined up on my front lawn, and I'll take pictures and send em' to Pattert---er...someone who would appreciate such a sight.

We need to get Pattertwigs Pal in here so you two can discuss the finer points of tacky vs. non-tacky lawn decorations.

On our tree, we have white lights, red garland, and homemade Christmas decorations. For years, my siblings and I made beaded Christmas ornaments to sell at the annual Arts and Crafts fair. Well, we kept some so all we have on our tree are our beaded ornaments.

Our tree, according to the packaging, is 6 feet tall. However, the last foot is a spike that is not strong enough to hold up the lightest star. So Dad folded it down about four times so the tree is now about 5'2" tall.

I like colored lights best but Mom insists on always having white lights. My grandparents gave us a fake tree and a white star with colored lights one Christmas (before that, we didn't have a tree) and I loved the star! But my dad, decided to pull all the colored lights out and replace them with white lights. Well, of course, after that, it didn't work and we had to buy a new star which isn't near as pretty.

Anyway, we don't do much in the way of decorations. We have a snowflake garland over the door and some garland and lights over the doors but that's about it. We have no exterior decorations.

We have a nativity scene that we normally put up when we decorate the tree. The decorating the tree used to be this whole big deal and my siblings insisted on it being a "tradition" (it wasn't although their insisting every year started to be one ) that my dad put the star on top. Our tree was in a corner and in order to wrap the garland and lights around, someone had to stand in the corner behind the tree. Well, it also became a tradition that my siblings would argue over who got to stand in the corner to pass the lights and garland the rest of the way around. I skipped out on the whole deal this year by having to work.

There are five of us kids and five nights of Advent. Well, it became a tradition for my little siblings to argue over who got to be the one who did the final night and got to light all five candles. We each put up two or three of the Nativity figures and it also became tradition to argue over who got to put up baby Jesus and Mary in the Nativity Scene. 'Tis the season, eh?

We used to do Advent. But starting about four years ago, we've always forgotten the first night and then we played catch-up. This year, we haven't even done it although we still have the advent wreath up.

White lights are not only on the boring side, but too much white light hurts my eyes.

Agreed. We do mainly colored lights, although white lights are pretty too. I mostly prefer them when I'm at someone's house visiting - then I can enjoy them but I don't have to look at them all the time.

This year has been a different year for us. A lot of the time we go all out with our decorations, but this year has been simpler due to time and energy constraints. I was going to put up garland & lights on our mantle, but I forgot... oops...

Other than that, we do have our stockings on the mantle (we hang them up with the tree, unlike some folks who hang them Christmas Eve), our Christmas tree, and a couple of Nativity sets. Mom also switches out her little knick-knacks on our hutch with Christmas-y ones that we only see once a year. Oh yeah, and then there's the snow that tends to grace us with its presence around this time of year. That's a decoration in and of itself.

We use a fake tree, because my parents say real trees cause fires. (Does anyone know about that, like if its true or not?)

We don't decorate much for Christmas anymore, but we do still put certain favorite ornaments on the tree. Such as this cute little red bird ornament I have loved since I was 4 years old.

~Riella

We normally use a fake tree because pine needles upset my allergies and besides, I don't like the idea of chopping living trees down. Besides a fake tree is reusable. We actually managed to use the same tree for over thirty years, before we decided to get another one which was damaged after two years.

I don't know if this is the right place to put Christmas Greetings. But here they are:

A very Narnia Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone here.

I hope all your dreams are pleasant ones, and that the coming year will be prosperous for everyone. The Dawn Treader as well.