Christmas Tree

Our Christmas tree is from Balsam Hill. There were so many choices to sort through, but ultimately I decided on the Stratford Spruce Tree, 9′ tall with clear lights. I ended up calling customer service to help narrow down the selection and was guided towards this tree, which was less expensive than the other option I was considering, and, it is now on sale! So, even cheaper if you still need one. 
There is a mix of “filler branches” and natural looking branches that are arranged with filler towards the center and natural on the outer edges. The filler branches do not look real, but you cannot see them. The natural needles look nice. Here is the tree immediately after we set it up. I like it!

It was easy to set it up and shape the branches, but we couldn’t have done it without the labels so we will keep them for next year so we don’t get stuck. Setting up the tree was fun. We put it together over the course of an afternoon. 
I wanted our tree to be different this year – “artsy” and organic. I wanted it to be monochromatic with a modern flair. I decided on purple because it is a nice contrast to the green walls in our dining room and a totally “new” color in our house. I bought 6″ thick painted burlap ribbon on Etsy and large glass ornaments from Michael’s to DIY. 

I filled each ornament with water and paint (the paint is on the inside, not the outside) to varying degrees in order to get a full set of ornaments that start out light, and move darker, so that our tree ultimately has a subtle “ombre” ornament effect. For the very light ornaments at the top of the tree, I poured in water and shook it with a drop of paint I dripped inside. I wanted these light ornaments to look like a soap bubble. 

The violet burlap from Etsy arrived and is perfect. I loosely arranged it on the tree and clipped the ends in a “v”. 

The ornaments were arranged from light to dark, starting at the top.

The presents will be wrapped in brown paper with burlap bows. We are separately going to buy a few wreaths to hang on the dining room shelves and I will decorate those wreaths with purple ribbon also. Very simple wreaths with one, wide, purple ribbon wrapped across each.