Since Wendy and I now live on our own, we are free to develop our own traditions. We have no children to scar with idealized seasonal misadventures, thus we opt to follow a slightly more simplistic and less emotionally distressing route to obtaining and decorating our tree. This year, and for the last seven years, we've jumped in our twelve year old Mustang (still waiting on our new car to arrive any day now) and headed down to our local Lowes to pick out our tree.

I know some people may have a serious issue with us buying our tree at a big box store, we had issues with it the first year we did it too, it just felt unnatural being raised on the Griswold style tree hunt! But what we've found is that every year we've done it, we get a good tree at a very good price (about $38) and it lasts at least through New Years Day.

Sure, the selection process is more difficult than surveying a field of live and uncompressed trees since you don't know exactly what it will look like when the branches fall, so we always try to get a very full tree that we can trim and thin out if necessary.

We always gravitate towards Fraiser Fir trees since their needles are firm but not too pointy and they tend to have that classic look. 

With our tree selected, we actually shove it in the trunk of our car and make the slow trip back to our home. It's surprising what you can fit in a Mustang, no? I do think it will be far easier next year with our new car.

When we arrive home I get to work trimming the trunk and drilling the hole for the tree stand. The stand we use is the simple rebar base with plastic watering tray and center spike. Knock on wood, but we've never had an issue with a tipping tree.

Once mounted we keep our fingers crossed that it is fairly straight and plumb, and transport it into the house to be unwrapped, sort of a grand unveiling.

We like to place our tree in the door opening between our dining room and living room, which means the tree needs to be only about seven feet tall, rather than the nine to ten foot tree that would be necessary to reach the ceiling. This also means we don't need to do a whole bunch of furniture moving to fit the tree in amongst the rest of our stuff. Besides, our house is too narrow to accommodate the wide base of a nine foot tall natural tree. I don't think they make them that way.

We typically unwrap the tree, supply it with 4 parts water and 1 part 7-Up, and leave it for a night to allow the limbs to fall into position. 

The next night, Wendy and I like to turn on a good Pandora Christmas station on our whole house audio system, perhaps make some tea, and commence the tree trimming, lighting, and decorating.

We have a tradition in our home that started with our first small apartment trees and has continued ever since.

We've taken the somewhat ridiculous, perhaps pretentious, but very dedicated approach that we only decorate with glass ornaments. This tradition has been ongoing for 12 years now and has been an extremely enjoyable journey to build the collection of fragile yet interesting ornaments. We now have four large containers of varying size, shape, and variety of ornaments.

Each ornament has a story or significance to go along with it, and each is special to us in some way. We make a point to search for and purchase new ornaments on vacations or when we find one in some of our favorite places. Here are the ornaments that we collected over the course of this year.

The fleur-des-lis is from our New Orleans trip back in January, the Chinese take-out container is from San Francisco, the small castle is from Copenhagen and represents the royal castle that we visited, and the firetruck is from Old Town's historic Friendship Firehouse during their annual festival.

Here are a few more of our favorite ornaments that we have on our tree each year.

As you can see, our collection of these ornaments over the years is a fun but fragile process. We've had to be very careful each year, but the tree has survived all of our and our pets' clumsiness. The end result is a fun tree that can be enjoyed from almost every room of the house on the first floor.

We love Christmas and all of the traditions that come along with it. Both old traditions passed down from our family, and new traditions formed on our own help to make the season enjoyable and special.

What sort of traditions do you look forward to every year? Is it your tree, your food, maybe presents, or just spending time with family? Let us know your favorites.

Want to see what else we're up to this holiday season? Check out our steps to quick and easy mantel decor, our 2011 list for Santa, holiday hostess gifts made easy, and the details of our first annual DIY gingerbread challenge.

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Shockingly, we apparently weren't unique in our quest for the perfect family tree conquest, as the first 20 minutes were usually spent fighting for parking in the overcrowded lots. If a spot would open, it would usually be stolen by a parking vulture who had been waiting a fraction as long as we had, after which a few choice Merry Christmas pleasantries would undoubtedly be exchanged.

Once parked and unloaded, the real tradition would begin. What would start as a simple walk to discover the perfect tree would quickly devolve into endless wandering through the rows of picked over trees that adorned the Ohio landscape. Though most good trees in the seven to eight foot range had already been thoroughly picked over by the early riser families, or the really smart cookies that came out the day before Thanksgiving to select their tree, we held out hope for that perfect tree that had somehow eluded detection by the lesser tree selecting families in anticipation of our visit and discerning eye.

This nomadic journey happened every year, rain, snow, sleet, frigid temperatures, it didn't matter, we were getting that tree. The annual Christmas tree selection was a day long event and was not for the faint of heart. If you think really hard, you may be able to imagine me as a young teenager undoubtedly praising my parents with words of encouragement on finding the perfect tree. I definitely didn't act annoyed, nor present an attitude of adolescent angst by haphazardly pointing out almost every tree we passed in the hope its very apparent deficiencies could pass by my expert tree selecting parents' eye completely unnoticed. Unfortunately, most were quickly disqualified from contention due to the fact it had a bald spot, or were too short, too tall, too crooked, or any number of fatal flaws resulting in its rather rapid vote off of the proverbial Christmas island.

When we finally found the tree of our choosing (usually at least two to three feet too tall for the room), the sap filled adventure would continue. If we were lucky and had remembered the saw this particular year, we would hop to it working like little bevers to fell our tree. Once on the ground we could marvel at our skills in tree cutting that we honed religiously on this day each year, then hoist it onto our broad and masculine shoulders to make the mile walk back to the farm's barn to warm up. While defrosting our toes and unsticking the various branches and needles from our jackets and gloves, we woukd question why we do this every year and vow to reign in the tradition the next year. Sadly, 364 days later, that conversation was always forgotten as we would prepare for our annual trek to the Wooster, Ohio area for our family Christmas tree.

I'm not sure if you can tell from my story, but I love National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. However, I love it in a disconnected youth longing for the return of my childhood sort of way. I can identify with Rusty, I can feel his pain.

Be sure to check out our current day Christmas tree traditions. Let's just say that it is significantly different than this scene.

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In previous posts we've mentioned what an awesome and friendly neighborhood we live in. Since we live about 400 to 500 miles away from the majority of our family, it's only fitting that we have a couple of holiday traditions we are able to celebrate annually with the people who have become our family away from home. 

Today we want to share one of our neighborhood traditions that seems to be most ideally suited to Old Town Home. What tradition could this be? I'm talking about our annual neighborhood gingerbread house construction competition. There's no better friendly way to settle who are the top DIYers than with a little baking and confection construction.

It all started two years ago when our good friends and neighbors, Steve and Eileen, invited us over for the first event on a snowy December night. Now that it has become an annual tradition, we eagerly look forward to it every year. The concept is simple, the competition is fierce, the alcohol can be plentiful, the rules are often bent, the activity is acceptable for all ages (except the drinking part), but fun and enjoyment of all participants is virtually ensured. Oh, and the boasting/taunting/blatant bragging can go on for the rest of the year.

To ensure fairness and equality, Eileen buys several standard gingerbread house kits. The kits are basic and come with everything you need to build a good looking decorative and edible abode.

Each kit goes to a team, usually made up of pairs or couples. We usually have about four or five groups participating, but you can do it with as few or as many people as you feel like.

A special drink for the event is selected. Did somebody say cosmos? And each team is left to their own devices. (Come on guys, I know gingerbread housing can be boring/perplexing, but you have cosmos.)

Though it is frowned upon (and technically illegal by the strictest interpretation of the rules), external contraband is sometimes necessary to set your house apart from the pack. In the 2009 competition we brought some Cinnamon Toast Crunch for shingles as I played the role of gingerbread roofer...

... And in 2010 Wendy snuck a set of cake decorating tips in under her jacket (pictured in the center of the table). Yes, we're that overkill.

Though we were technically disqualified for use of performance enhancers, we would much rather contribute a better product on the field than sacrifice our true potential. You be the judge.

Sometimes the competition can get particularly fierce, nerves can get a little frazzled, construction can be a little rushed and shoddy, and some taunting has been known to occur.

But in the end it is an event that is a ton of fun for everyone. We all have a great experience and love the time we get to spend with each other. The whole thing is something we highly recommend and are so appreciative of our neighborhood friends for hosting. And as evident by the following photo, even a little friendly competition can't sour the holiday vibe between friends.

Do you have any family or friends holiday traditions that you hold near and dear to your heart? These can be relatively new traditions or things you've been doing for as long as you can remember. Let us know some of your favorites.

An now through December 17th we're running our DIY Gingerbread House Challenge, which inlcudes a chance at a $50 gift card to one of our favorite home design stores. Check out the post for rules and how to enter. 

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