November 27th, 2011
Styled Christmas Tree
The Christmas tree is used to display light, glitter and color. It is the focal point in our living room or hallway.
The decoration of the Christmas tree adds to the attention it will get. There are countless variations in the style of the decoration. The most common decoration is the tree ornament and especially those made of blown glass. There are numerous designs and styles in the tree ornaments.
The Christmas trees in most homes have a variety of tree ornaments in multiple sizes and colors. The selection of tree ornaments in the average home was built over many years and the tree ornaments include heirlooms and presents from Christmases in the past. Such Christmas trees have family value and contain a lot of dear memories and wonderful tradition.
If you are ready for something different and dramatic consider the following. When deciding to add a second tree in another room or hallway we suggest to envision a style tree.
The simplest style tree is decorated in a single color. Select a set of tree ornaments from your existing set, or go to the store and buy tree ornaments in a single color. Add other decorating materials in the same color and you will have a very stylish Christmas tree.
Other stylish tree décor would be a two tone set of tree ornaments. For example burgundy and gold, green and white, blue and silver. Imagine what an impact that would make on the room this tree is placed in.
One could also chose a particular shape of tree ornament in multiple sizes. Obviously a set of ball ornaments is the first shape one could think of. Also just bell shape ornaments, or finial shapes, etc.
Just browse in a tree ornament store such as The Christmas Duck and let your imagination do its work while looking at the endless possibilities of creating a Styled Christmas Tree.
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November 24th, 2011
The Christmas Duck offers a discount coupon to be used during the Black Friday weekend.
Place your orders from November 25 thru 27 and receive a discount of $10 on orders of $50 or more (excl. shipping).
Enter coupon code TXD10XMF when checking out.
Happy Holidays!!!
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November 19th, 2011
Baby's First Christmas
A new baby in the family? Is this going to be baby’s first Christmas? That calls for something special this Christmas.
How about baby’s first Christmas ornaments in the Christmas tree? Or a little Christmas tree in the baby room decorated in blue or pink and of course a couple of baby’s first Christmas tree ornaments.
Make this baby’s first Christmas a memorable one complete with special tree ornaments.
Feel free to take a look at the beautiful Baby’s first Christmas tree ornaments here in the online store.
Happy Holidays!!!
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November 15th, 2011
Artichoke Ornament
Gone are the days when a Christmas tree was decorated with just ball ornaments. These days the selection of tree ornaments is sheer endless.
One can make the Christmas tree really personalized. Think about your personality, your hobbies, your profession. There is bound to be an ornament theme that fits your interest.
Do you like cooking? There are ornaments galore fitting that hobby. From utensils to cooking ingredients such as fruits and vegetables.
Are you a fireman? There are all kinds of fire trucks and firemen ornaments.
Are you commuting to work every day utilizing public transportation? There are ornaments made as buses, trains, subway cars, subway tokens and many more.
The possibilities of finding an ornament theme that suits your type of life are endless.
Lacking imagination of what would fit your situation, feel free to take a look around in this tree ornament store.
Happy Holidays!!!
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November 6th, 2011
Christmas Finial
Most Christmas trees are decorated with glass ornaments. Glass tree ornaments were invented in the Erzgebirge region of Germany and Bohemia (Czech Republic) in central Europe. The first products made of blown glass were the traditional balls in all kinds of colors. Later various items from everyday life were made into glass ornaments.
Today the majority of Christmas tree ornaments are glass ornaments in all imaginable shapes, forms and colors.
Unless you have a particular hobby or taste, there is little doubt that your Christmas tree is also decorated mostly with glass ornaments.
Now, how about the decoration on top of your Christmas tree? A doll? A star? Yes, these are the familiar tree toppers used in the USA.
Guess what? The makers of the traditional glass ornaments also make matching tree toppers of blown glass. These tree toppers are called Tree finials or Christmas finials.
They co-ordinate beautifully with the shiny colorful Christmas tree ornaments. The Christmas finials are the perfect finishing touch of any Christmas tree.
Take a look at these beautiful Christmas Finials. Won’t they look good on your tree?
Happy Holidays!!!
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September 27th, 2011
Collecting is a favorite pastime for many people. Collecting stamps, coins, thimbles, postcards, watering cans and anything you see around you is a candidate for a collection.
To some of us it is all a little to overwhelming or time consuming. Many people lose interest and then the stuff sits there collecting dust.
For the less fanatic collectors I have a new idea: the seasonal collection. The seasonal collection brings all the fun and satisfaction of any other collection, but it lasts only for 3 months out of the year. For example in relation with the Christmas season one could collect nutcrackers (like I do), snow globes, Dickens’ village houses, or a certain style of Christmas tree ornaments. You will enjoy the excitement starting in October when the new items appear in the stores. Come January the interest starts to wane and then you store it all away and start again in October later that year. By that time everything seems new again and you start to collect with new energy.
The Christmas tree ornaments alone offer endless possibilities for a collection. You could collect fire trucks for your Christmas tree. You will be surprised how many fire truck ornaments are around. You could collect a floral theme, fruit, vegetables, fairy tales, Santa’s, snowmen, etc. etc.
Your collection is displayed prominently in your Christmas tree. Instead of “that Christmas tree in the corner” it all of a sudden becomes an object of interest. You will want to take a look at your collection, but your family and friend will also be interested to see what new items you have added. During the whole holiday season you will be drawn to that Christmas tree and be proud of your growing collection.
In the unlikely event that you loose interest in your collection in the future, your ornaments will still be used every year in the Christmas tree. The collection does not end up in a dusty box in the attic, but the ornaments will keep their decorative value, no matter what.
Give it a shot and pick one of your favorite themes and start collecting Christmas tree ornaments. See examples at The Christmas Duck if you need some inspiration.
Happy Holidays!!!
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October 13th, 2010
Finial - Tree Topper
Decorating the Christmas tree is subject to a number of influences. How the Christmas tree was decorated at your parents’ home will often reflect in your own Christmas decorating. Your cultural background and native country may add certain symbols to the tree. You may be influenced by scenes from certain celebrities’ homes or designer trees in large department stores and hotels.
One has historic baggage in terms of taste or what you are used to. Along the way we are influenced by many impressions we are collecting on a daily basis.
Blogs like this may hand you tips and ideas. At least that is what we like to do.
Whatever the theme or design of Christmas trees, they are all equipped with an item on the top of the tree. Many Christmas trees are topped by a (red?) bow. Other Holiday trees have an angel in top, or a fancy doll. Very popular is the star preferably lit.
In Europe the favorite topper is the Finial. The Webster dictionary has the following meaning for a Finial:
1. a usually foliated ornament forming an upper extremity especially in Gothic architecture
2. a crowning ornament or detail (as a decorative knob)
When you get the chance to visit Amsterdam and tour the canals, make sure you look at the top of the gables of the buildings. There you will see geometric objects, or statues, or other artistic creations crowning the facade. These are finials.
Finial - Santa
Hundreds of years ago the artisans started creating all kinds of Christmas tree ornaments in glass. They also designed (matching) finials for the Christmas tree. Finials are now also available on the US market, as an alternative tree topper.
There is a great variety in finial tree toppers. From stylish finials in warm colors combined with sparkling gold to playful finials with Santa’s or nutcrackers on top. There are even finials in patriotic Red, White and Blue.
Are you in the mood for something new in 2010? Consider adding a stylish finial to your Christmas tree.
Happy Holidays!!!
Posted in Christmas, Christmas Trees, Decorations, Ornaments | 1 Comment »
October 11th, 2010
Nutcracker Soldier
For many years the year-end holiday décor was dominated by Christmas trees, Christmas tree ornaments and candles and other lighting. And let’s not forget Santa.
In recent years a new phenomenon entered our holiday decorations: the Nutcracker.
It all started with a nutcracker coming to life in a story written by E.T.A. Hoffman in 1816. The setting of the story is in a living room with a family around the Christmas tree. Later the composer Tchaikovsky wrote a ballet based on the story and the ballet was first performed in 1892. The ballet and a selection of orchestral pieces from the ballet forming the Nutcracker Suite became very popular. The ballet is performed in many cities and the music can be heard all the time during the holiday season.
The nutcracker came originally in the figure of a soldier. Over the years the nutcracker intrigued more and more people and especially artisans who transformed the nutcracker into various types of soldiers and kings.
Nowadays the fantasy of nutcracker designers has gone wild. Nutcrackers are made to represent all kinds of professions, sports figures, animals, Santa’s, snowmen etc, etc. They come in all sizes and the wildest color schemes.
Nutcrackers are no longer just available for Christmas time. Nutcrackers were also introduced for Halloween and Thanksgiving, obviously with totally different figures such as witches, skeletons, turkeys and pilgrims. Last year the first Easter bunny nutcrackers were spotted.
This results in the nutcracker becoming a true collector’s item. The variety is endless and the limit is only money and storage space. Just to give you an idea about the possibilities: the Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum has a collection of 5000 nutcrackers. The Nutcracker Mania store is also a source of Nutcracker inspiration.
The Nutcracker brings color and conversation opportunities to your Holiday decorated home.
Happy Holidays!!!
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October 6th, 2010
Hassle Free Christmas Tree Lights
Many years ago the candle holders and real candles were replaced by electrical Christmas tree lights. It was a major step forward. The lights can now be kept burning for many hours and the fire hazard is drastically reduced.
Still you must be familiar with the following problems related to the tree lights?
Every year we retrieve the box with the lights from the attic or the basement. Whatever care we took to store them neatly, they are always entangled when they come out of the box.
When we put the string in the tree we always end up with too many or too few lights at the top or the bottom. Then when we try to spread them more evenly it is always difficult to shift the whole string around the tree. It ends up to be a struggle to get an attractive result.
Here comes the next leap forward in Christmas tree lights: the Trim-it-Quick lighting system. This system eliminates the problems with which we are all too familiar. You can now trim the tree quickly and with a much better result.
Trim-It-Quick works with a central cable running up and down the trunk of the tree. The lights come in strands, bundles of short strings of lights. The strand has a hook to anchor around the trunk and the multiple strings are spread over the branches. There are different sizes of strands for the different sizes of branches on the tree. Each strand hooks up to the central multi-outlet cord. The lights are easily distributed over the branch and each individual strand can be hooked up and disconnected at any time. One can adjust the density of the lights by adding or removing a number of strands.
Trim-It-Quick Christmas tree lighting takes the stress out of the tree decorating task. The lights are easier to install and the result is much more attractive. Take a look at the Trim-It-Quick product here.
The Trim-It-Quick system is also suitable for outdoor trees and bushes and a similar product is available for palm trees.
Enjoy a stress free Christmas tree decorating experience with new tree lights.
Happy Holidays!!!
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October 4th, 2010
Frosted Colorado Spruce
The Christmas tree has been around for a hundred years or more. Initially the Christmas tree was cut in the forest and brought fresh into the living room where candle holders were installed and real candles were burned on Christmas Eve. The early first ornaments were fruit and candy.
When the tradition of the Christmas tree spread over Europe and later to the States most people were not in a position of hauling a tree from the forest and farmers saw an opportunity for growing Christmas trees on a commercial scale. In Europe it is still the naturally shaped tree that is being sold in the cities, spruces in most cases. The American growers went a step further and started to prune or shave the growing trees resulting in a dense and evenly shaped tree.
These days many people switch to artificial trees. Artificial Christmas trees have been around for many years. The early ones did not really resemble their natural cousins. Over the years the quality of the artificial Christmas tree has become very good. Many artificial Christmas trees are hard to recognize as being different from a natural tree. They are available in the same varieties as the real ones: spruces, firs and the many sub-species. Feel free to take a look at some realistic Christmas trees.
A major advantage of the artificial Christmas tree is the absence of loosing needles. After one or a few weeks in a warm living room the real Christmas tree leaves a big mess of fallen needles behind. In a city it is also a problem to get rid a real tree after the Holidays.
Although not completely absent the fire danger of an artificial tree is much less that that of a real one.
Most artificial Christmas tree come with lights pre-installed. This avoids the hassle of installing light sin the tree and the challenge of spreading them evenly.
Until recently a real looking artificial Christmas tree was very expensive. The prices of artificial trees have come down and at the same time the real trees become more expensive every year. An investment in an artificial tree is now earned back in a matter of a few years.
If you have not made the switch to an artificial tree until now, you should give it serious consideration. Take a look at your personal or family’s requirements and expectations and imagine how an artificial Christmas tree would fir in your Holiday decorated home.
Happy Holidays!!!
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