I sold my Christmas tree today!

[natalie_ca]

Last year I decided to put up a Christmas tree and went and bought a gorgeous pre-lit, 7.5 foot Cashmere Pine.A very lush and full tree, with slightly flocked tips.  I paid $350.00 it last year in November.

Unfortunately I discovered after putting it up that it was way, way too big for my apartment.  The height was fine, though a bit tall; the problem was the width at the bottom; 55 inches!!!  That's almost 5 feet across!  It was massive!

Once up It took up 1/3 of my dining/living area. I didn't even bother to put any ornaments on it, because it was just too big!  I really should have taken it down and taken it back to the store.  Anyway, after less than 3 weeks, I took it down. It didn't even make it until Christmas! It's sat in my storage room ever since.

Since then I've tried to give it away to family or friends, but despite its beauty, no one wanted it because of its size!

I finally posted it for sale on Kijiji.  Someone came and picked it up today. The girl got a fabulous deal on it. $90.00 for a $350.00 tree that was used for less than 3 weeks and never had an ornament hung on it.

Now I have to start shopping for a tree. I'm making sure I don't go above 5 feet tall!  That will ensure that the base isn't going to take up 1/3 of my living area! 

 

[MoochNNoodles]

Oh we sort of had that problem in our old house!  I forget how tall our tree is; 6.5'  or maybe 7' I'd guess if I extend the top tip all the way.  It's not pre-lit; those were super expensive back when we got this one.  Its fine with the height; like yours.  But the base is very wide also.  We managed to find a spot every year but the couches were crammed together.  It's less of a problem here in this house; but I need to keep it gated off this year because my son is in that "into everything" stage.  I don't trust him to not pull it over!  When DD was at that stage I bought a large play-yard to put around it.  The thing is pretty big; but the tree took up the whole thing and then some!!  

This year I need the play yard to contain DS as much as to contain the tree.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do!  I also dont like that the branches hang so low on it; you can't put presents underneath very easy.  Or see them under there.  But it does make a fantastic place for the cats to nap!  Mooch can often be heard snoring away under our tree! 

  We still have a problem with branch chewing too.  But it's in good condition and all so I can't get rid of it.  I think this will be the 11th or 12th year we've used it.   

 

[blueyedgirl5946]

Congratulations on the sale. Someone got a deal. Two years ago my husband had fallen and had an L-3 fracture in his back. The tree was so big and heavy I couldn't put it up. So I bought a six foot tree from Wal Mart for $39. I took it out of the box, stood on the floor and decorated everything, no stools. I had it done all by myself in less than an afternoon. So last year I sold the big one and used that small tree again. I loved it and we enjoyed it both years. I am over the big trees. The last time I took that big one down, I counted and I had hung close to four hundred ornaments on the tree. That didn't count the topper and the strings of silver beads I hung around it.

 

[natalie_ca]

I live in an apartment. The main living area is open concept with a breakfast bar/counter dividing up the living room from the dining room/hallway.  I had my dining table smashed up against one wall, and my love seat pushed about 3 feet from my large screen TV, with the tree sandwiched in between the 2.  There was literally no room between the table and the tree and the back of the love seat and the tree. 

Plus my ceiling are only 8 feet tall I think.  The tree didn't touch the ceiling, but it was close.

I'm going to look around for another pre-lit one because I really don't like putting lights on a tree.  I've seen some that are artificial and in a planter.  If I got something like that I could just put a bag over it every year and put it into storage fully decorated. Then come Christmas I can just bring it upstairs and uncover it, and voila!  Instant decorated tree!  hehe

 

[MoochNNoodles]

That's similar to what my Grandparents started doing about 10 years ago or so. They got a few very small trees they group together.  I think the tallest is about 3'. They are pre-lit also but they aren't the traditional style tree. I'm trying to remember the term...You see more of the trunk of it and the branches are fewer and more sparse.  Anyway; every year they put a big black plastic trash bag over the trees and bring them down to the basement.  They've even given away all their ornaments already.  

 

[andrya]

l got a small pre-lit when l moved to Ottawa 5 years ago. lt's supposed to be 6' but that includes the single stalk at the top that's about a foot long  

   so the bushy part is more like 5'. lt doesn't overpower my smallish living room.

Back in the day, we had a giant tree. Unlike this one where the branches fold up and down, the old one we had to put the branches on the stem, so we just used to build about the front 1/3 of it, and back it into a corner 

 

 

[Winchester]

Oh wow, wished we lived closer together.....we'd have bought it in a heartbeat! Our Christmas tree for the living room is well over 20 years old now, pushing 30, in fact, and it has definitely seen better (holi)days. Between its sheer age and the fact that cats have been crawling around in that thing during its entire life, well, it's no wonder that the poor thing is on its last branches. I know it's closer to 30 years and we paid over $300 for it back then....we've gotten our money's worth out of it. It was a gorgeous tree before the cats tore around in it.

We've been looking for a new Christmas tree now for the last 2-3 years and can't find THE one. I just said to Rick the other night that we need to start the tree hunt again soon, so that we have a decent tree in the living room this year. 

We keep looking at this one:   http://www.balsamhill.com/Balsam-Hill-Balsam-Fir-Christmas-Trees-p/bfr-t.htm?1=1&CartID=0   but man, the idea of spending that much money for a tree that the cats will simply destroy doesn't thrill me.

 

[natalie_ca]

If you lived closer, I would have just given it to you! 

Here is a picture of the one I just sold

tree.jpg

• natalie_ca
• Oct 8, 2013

I think I'd like to get one like this. It's 4 1/2 feet.

potted-pine-christmas-tree-2T.jpg

• natalie_ca
• Oct 8, 2013

 

[natalie_ca]

http://www.treetopia.com/

I found the above link while looking for trees. Some really cute ones there, even upside down or curvy ones.

LOL, they even have 1/2 trees!!

http://www.treetopia.com/unique-artificial-christmas-trees-p/half_christmas_tree.htm

 

[natalie_ca]

 
We keep looking at this one:   http://www.balsamhill.com/Balsam-Hill-Balsam-Fir-Christmas-Trees-p/bfr-t.htm?1=1&CartID=0   but man, the idea of spending that much money for a tree that the cats will simply destroy doesn't thrill me.

A similar tree (Spruce instead of Fir)  is much cheaper at this link:

http://www.treetopia.com/classic-artificial-christmas-trees-p/balsam-spruce-tree.htm

Here is an Alexander Fir.  6 1/2 foot for under $300 

http://www.treetopia.com/classic-artificial-christmas-trees-p/alexander-fir-christmas-tree.htm

 

[margecat]

 
Oh wow, wished we lived closer together.....we'd have bought it in a heartbeat! Our Christmas tree for the living room is well over 20 years old now, pushing 30, in fact, and it has definitely seen better (holi)days. Between its sheer age and the fact that cats have been crawling around in that thing during its entire life, well, it's no wonder that the poor thing is on its last branches. I know it's closer to 30 years and we paid over $300 for it back then....we've gotten our money's worth out of it. It was a gorgeous tree before the cats tore around in it.

We've been looking for a new Christmas tree now for the last 2-3 years and can't find THE one. I just said to Rick the other night that we need to start the tree hunt again soon, so that we have a decent tree in the living room this year.

We keep looking at this one:   http://www.balsamhill.com/Balsam-Hill-Balsam-Fir-Christmas-Trees-p/bfr-t.htm?1=1&CartID=0   but man, the idea of spending that much money for a tree that the cats will simply destroy doesn't thrill me.

Try Home Depot around Thanksgiving--they often have them on sale. I bought mine, which is nearly identical to that one (I have a foot-pedal control) on sale 2 years ago. It's 7ft high. I paid about $275-300 for it on sale. It's a wonderful tree--and easy to assemble. It's also the one where I was stalked by kittens.  I was on the sofa beside the tree, reading. I sensed that a pair of eyes were watching me. Sure enough, I spotted 2 cat's eyes in the middle of the tree! It was Lucie. She had tunneled from the opposite side, and had taken to sleeping in the tree! Watching the tree shake a bit, and not being able to see why was hysterical! No, they never did topple it.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

That's a nice tree!  I would put something like that in my foyer in addition to our big tree.  I may like decorating trees too much.  And I have a growing collection of mini ornaments!  

I actually have a decent looking tree that is about 2 1/2' tall that I picked up at walmart for $10.  And that was before Christmas!  When Mooch and Noodles were a little younger I couldn't trust them around our big tree so I got that one and put it on the kitchen table.  I'd move it to the study when we weren't home and shut the door.  Last year I put it in DD's room and we did it up in pink and purple (her favorite colors, esp pink! 

Tree Edit.jpg

• MoochNNoodles
• Oct 8, 2013

When it was up on the table we had a smaller round table (seated 4) and I put our big tree skirt on the table.  I had a different mini tree skirt for this tree but it was in the same colors.  So when I put the tree on the table it blended pretty well and the whole table looked nice and festive.  

 

[Winchester]

We got the Tacky White Tree (TWT) at Home Depot right before Christmas a few years ago; they do have nice trees. So does KMart, believe it or not. We got our bedroom tree at KMart; that thing is huge. 7-1/2 feet tall and it's gigantic around the bottom. It takes up a lot of space in the bedroom. In fact, we didn't even put it up last year because the tree and the elliptical take up so much space. We were thinking of using the bedroom tree as our "new" living room tree. But we're still looking. (I'd like to try to move the elliptical to the basement, but honestly, it's so big that we'd have to take it apart to move it. And that could be ugly.)

As for cats in the tree, you know, we never had that problem with the RugCats. Yes, they went through the tree-thing when they were kittens, but as they got older, they pretty much left the trees alone. They may lay under the trees on the tree skirts, but they don't really bother getting into them. 

The Three Meowsketeers (Mollipop, Tabby, and Muffin), however, are Christmas-tree terrors. Tabby, especially, loves to get into the tree and chew on branches. She also likes to grab the ornaments closer to the floor. She'll go into the tree and take a nap, too, every chance she gets and she has a tendency to re-arrange tree lights, which is just another way of saying that she likes to swat at the lights in the tree. Tabby's weight is not good for the branches of the tree and she's already done a number on some of the lower branches of the Tacky White Tree in the kitchen.

The tree in the living room is wired (with green wire) to the bottom of the wall.....years ago, when the RugCats were RugKittens, not quite a year old, they ganged-up on the poor Christmas tree. Not only did they topple the tree, but they also sent it down the bottom of the steps to the front door! Rick came home from work and tried to open the front door to get into the house.....and came in contact with the tree. We still don't know how in the world they managed that. Since then, the tree gets wired to the living room wall.

Natalie_ca, that's a nice tree! Lowes had something like that a few years ago; there were two to a box and I think we paid about $100 for two of them. We put them outside on the front stoop, one on either side of the front door. They're pre-lit in clear lights.

Mooch, I like your tree. The ornaments are very pretty....what neat colors!

 

[denice]

I remember these really tacky artificial trees.  I don't know if any one else remembers them, I was a kid when they were the only artificial trees.  They were all silver, like aluminum foil and they came with a color wheel that you could shine on the tree and it rotated so it changed colors.  You couldn't put lights on them.  I lived on a farm so we always cut down our own cedar tree we never had one of those aluminum ones.

 

[Winchester]

When we were kids, we had one of those tacky artificial trees, complete with the color wheel. It was silver/white and Mom decorated it with blue balls. Just blue balls, that was it. We made fun of those trees and I vowed that when I got older, no way was I having a tacky white tree in my house.

Fast-forward about 45 years or so and.......

The Tacky White Tree of 2008 (no color wheel, although you can still find them on eBay....yes, I've looked)

TWT2008.jpg

• Winchester
• Oct 9, 2013

Yes, it's white. Yes, it's TACKY. I don't care. I love this tree. 

 

[denice]

I do like some of the flocked trees if they don't go overboard with the fake snow.  I'm not real fond of the all white trees either.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

They have all pink and all purple trees out now too.  In a small size like the other tree I posted.  I'm kind of glad we already have that little tree for DD because I bet once she sees the pink trees out this year she'll want one!  Her obsession with pink didn't start till after the holidays last year!  I may try to find more pink ornaments for her this year too.  Or silver.  It's fun to have a girly tree like that in her room!  

 

[swampwitch]

We live in a small house and have to use vertical space a lot, so last year we bought this tree from Costco:

350-345551-894__1.jpg

• swampwitch
• Oct 9, 2013

http://www.costco.ca/2.29-m-(7.5-ft...ual-Colour-LED-lights.product.100034924.html#

We put it next to the fireplace and it looked really wonderful! I was worried it might be a little thin, but it's 7-1/2 ft tall, and we got complements from everyone who came to our house. We used to have to put the Christmas tree in front of the window in the living room, but that always blocked a lot of light in the winter. This one looked really festive next to the decorated mantle. It has lights already on it and you can change them from all white to colors. We did a red and silver color theme last year, so we added a string of red lights to the white ones (one string no big deal) and it looked very pretty. It's such a relief to have a tree AND have full use of the living room.

 

[Winchester]

Mooch, my son had his own Christmas tree in his bedroom. Not a big one, small enough to set on a bureau. He decorated it by himself and we always took pictures of his trees. He loved having his own tree.

I like your tree, SwampWitch. Our kids had one similar to yours because the living room in their old house couldn't handle a huge tree. I don't know what they're going to do this year in their new house, whether they'll keep their tree or get a larger one.

 

[natalie_ca]

One year when I lived in a smaller apartment, I put up a step ladder and decorated it.  I also put some plants on each of the rungs.  Of course that was when I didn't have a cat that would climb it and knock it down. 

A small tree here would not survive at least 1 or 2 of my cats.  Abby wouldn't bother it, but Katie is deeply curious and a giant leaper.  Spence also likes to jump, but not as high, but he's heavy!!

I'm pretty settled on the one in the pot that I posted above. It seems around the right size, and the pot could be weighed down with some stones so that it couldn't easily be knocked over.  And it would fit easily though my door when I took it to the storage room for storage, and not take up a lot of storage room either.