Image via www.balsamhill.com

Polled as the second most popular type of Christmas tree in America, the Douglas fir species has been widely used in the Pacific Northwest since the 1920s. The tree is named after David Douglas, a Scottish botanist who introduced the North American tree to the Scottish isles in 1827.

For all its popularity, the Douglas Fir caused many a headache amongst 19th century botanists who had problems classifying this tree. The name Douglas fir is a misnomer as these trees are not related to the true firs. Because of its similarity to various other conifers, these trees were misclassified as firs. When botanists learned of this mistake, they first debated amongst themselves before finally agreeing to classify the troublesome Douglas Fir in a genus and scientific name that is unique to this species.

The best artificial Christmas trees that claim to be Douglas Firs should be cone-shaped, with spreading to drooping branches, needles that are  1 to 1.5 inches long and radiate in all directions from the branch. Douglas Firs are typically dark green or blue green in color.

Image via www.zazzle.com

Its the last day of summer! And while we love celebrating Christmas in July, we’ve concluded that it’s best we keep celebrating Christmas in December during the winter. Here are our Top Ten Reasons why Christmas Doesn’t Come in Summer:

10. Winter is a sad sight without loud, bright colors to cheer the atmosphere up.

9. Hot cocoa isn’t all that yummy in the heat of the summer.

8. Rudolph’s nose doesn’t quite shine as brightly when it’s competing with the summer sun.

7. Candy flow is disrupted. A steady flow of candy starts from Halloween all through Christmas. If Christmas were in Summer, we’d have a lull of candy flow for the whole month of September and most of October!

6. Binge eating due to scrumptious Christmas spreads and skimpy beach attire are not good combinations.

5. Christmas trees are prettier against a crackling fire. Unless you want your home to double as a sauna, a fire during the summer isn’t the brightest idea.

4. Elves like vacationing in exotic beaches and tropical countries. If Christmas were in the summer, you deprive them of precious beach time. A beach deprived elf is not a pretty sight. Let’s just say that you should expect something green and slimey in your stocking instead of that new video game you wanted.

3. All the Christmas songs written with sleighs, snow, cold weather, and with references to winter will go to waste. We’d have to shell out money for new Christmas songs to be written and learn these new songs! It’s not only wasteful, it’s also disrespectful to all those wonderful artists who wrote the original songs!

2. Chaos due to bottled up partying energy and mood. At the start of the Christmas season, a large amount of partying mood and energy is generated and saved up for New Year’s Eve. We release a little of this partying energy during Christmas, but keep the rest bottled up for New Year’s Eve. If we celebrate Christmas in summer, we’d have to bottle this partying energy for five whole months! This can either ensue in a lackluster New Year’s Eve, or the end of the world as we know it.

And the number one reason why Christmas doesn’t come in summer:

1. You don’t want Santa in a Speedo when he comes tumbling down your chimney. Trust us.

Image via www.treetopia.com

Talk about non traditional, eh? For a season of merriment and all around joy, one might think that black trees are a little too sad or depressing. However, what you might not realize is that black Christmas trees can be really chic or fun, depending on how you decorate or use these trees.

Baby Steps

Okay, you might not be ready just yet to let go of those beautiful green or white artificial Christmas trees. It’s okay, we can take baby steps. Why not start by incorporating your more green Christmas tree with black and silver ornaments? Keep the shapes of the black ornaments simple so as to make these accent pieces that will showcase your other ornaments. On a white Christmas tree, using a purely black color scheme creates a very chic look.

Black Tree

Once you’ve grown more comfortable with the thought of having an entirely black Christmas tree this holiday season, then go on and purchase one of the many varieties of black Christmas trees in the market. When you get home, decorate the tree as you would your traditional Christmas tree. Step back and observe how the colors of your ornaments just pop against the dark foliage. Popular color schemes for black Christmas trees are an all silver, an all white, a gold and white, or a gold and silver color combination. However, as the colors already pop on this tree, any color combination would look fantastic!

Themed trees

If you and your black Christmas trees are already best friends, we’re sure you’re more comfortable dressing it up in ways that reflect more of your personality. Are you a Trekkie? The blue and silver Star Trek memorabilia and Christmas tree ornaments would be a good way to showcase this love of yours. Are you a Halloween junkie? Why an orange and black combination is just divine! Don’t be afraid to use plastic pumpkins and other Halloween décor for your tree. These even look good with the Christmas candies used as ornaments! Since it’s sure to look good with any décor, just go ahead and dress your black Christmas tree up in whatever way you want!

Image via www.itsagift.wordpress.com

These 3D paper stars are easy to make and will look amazing on your Christmas tree, or when hung at different lengths from overhead lighting, a door frame, or even when arranged around an empty picture frame. This is a great bonding activity for family members, just make sure to supervise the use of scissors and staplers around the young ones!

You will need:

• A star stencil (you may also use cookie cutters)
• Colored paper
• Scissors
• Staplers
• Craft glue
• Thin ribbons
• Glitter glue, paints, markers, and other coloring materials

1. Trace out the star stencils on your colored papers. Cut out these stars and set aside.

2. After you’re done cutting out all your stars, take thee cut-outs, and align the tips. With point at top, fold the two outer stars vertically, and leave the middle star flat.

3. Staple along the vertical crease with a single staple. Decorate with glitter glue or other coloring materials. You can also get creative and decorate with scraps of lace and other fabrics. Let the glue dry.

4. When glue is dry, cut out ribbons for hanging, attach with glue, and hang on your artificial Christmas tree.

Image via www.gizmodo.com

Lights add ambiance and color to holiday décor. If you like decorating your home and Christmas trees with lights, here are some types of holiday lights that you should know:

C7 (2 inch bulbs) and C9 (3 inch bulbs) Socket Christmas Lights

These light usually come in strings of 150 bulbs. They’re also designed so that when one bulb burns out, the rest of the bulbs keep working. This makes it easier to locate the burnt out bulbs and efficiently maintain the lights. The LED versions of these lights are increasingly popular because of their energy efficiency and long life.

Fairy Lights

These are smaller versions of Christmas tree lights and normally hold 50 to 100 bulbs per string. Because of the smaller size of the bulbs, these lights often give off a delicate twinkling appearance when placed within the body of Christmas trees. These lights also come in solar powered or battery operated versions, and are often available with LED bulbs.

Rope Lights

These lights are a special type of Christmas lights. These are usually made of LED lights strung inside a vinyl tube, making it easy to hang and store them. These lights also give a more streamlined look and can be used to create different shapes outside your home. While you can’t change any burnt out bulbs, the good news is that LED bulbs have a really long life.

Net Lights

Net lights are a special type of holiday light where bulbs are strung around a net of wires. This widespread layout makes it easier to use these lights on surfaces such as trees, bushes, or even walls and doors.

Image via www.tasteofhome.com

So we were all sitting in the break room, each of us enjoying a delicious stash of goodies we had just acquired from the now wiped out ice cream truck, when one of us noticed that we haven’t posted any recipes in a long time! Well, you could of course imagine our consternation over this oversight! So we promptly danced a little around our Christmas tree (for inspiration and mostly because we were on a sugar high), then went over to the nearest computer and overwhelmed by the overly delicious ice cream goodness now trickling down our arms, we searched for a Christmas recipe involving ice cream! This then led to this delicious ice cream cake recipe, enjoy!

Ingredients

4 cups rice cereal

1 milk chocolate candy bar

1/2 cup butter

1/gallon Peppermint flavored ice cream, softened

2 cups whipped cream

Peppermint candy or candy canes

Directions

• Grate or shave 2 tablespoons of chocolate from the candy bar. Set aside. In a saucepan, melt the butter and remaining chocolate. Stir until smooth.
• In a big bowl, pour the chocolate mixture over the cereal and stir to coat. Press the mixture into the bottom of a greased 10 inch springform pan, or molds shaped like Christmas trees for a festive look. Freeze for 30 minutes.
• Generously spoon ice cream over the rice crisp crust. Freeze for 30 minutes. Top with whipped cream. Cover and freeze overnight.
• Sprinkle with candy canes or crushed candy. Remove cake from the freezer 5-10 minutes before serving. Removes sides of pan or pop out of Christmas tree molds. Serve immediately.

Image via www.balsamhill.com

Image via www.theipadguide.com

Okay, we don’t normally do this on the AT blog, but the online world has been all a-twitter and so has Twitter! (Haha. Allow us a few seconds to laugh at our own bad joke.) A smaller iPad is coming this Christmas!

Reports say that Apple intends to launch the iPad mini this December in time for the Christmas shopping season. This pretty little thing is reportedly a full 2.7 inches smaller and 200 grams lighter than the regular sized iPad. Experts say that if Apple plays its cards right, the iPad mini could become the iPad nano of tablets and become an overnight success!

Do you hear that? It’s the sound of techies everywhere scratching out the first item on their Christmas wish lists (or blog posts) and putting this little beauty in the place of honor.

Now wouldn’t you just love to have one (or two) of these beauties under your Christmas trees this Christmas? We know we would.

(L-R) Images via www.seasonsforallathome.com and www.sheknows.com

When decorating your tabletop feather Christmas tree, you can choose between going big or going small. Above are images showing you how to decorate these retro Christmas trees using big or small ornaments.

On the left, the decorator chose smaller elements for the feather tree. Tassles and crystal pendalogues are ingenious ways to decorate your tree, while those two birds at the top makes for a quirky feel. You can also use most any small ornament for this tree! You can sit down and create some of the mini Christmas gift ornaments we blogged about last week, or even adorn your Christmas trees with some dangling or clip-on earrings! Just because you’re going small, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get your bling on!

If you choose to take on the bigger ornaments like the photo on the right, then there are a few things to remember. Firstly, big is relative. The ornaments you normally use for regular sized Christmas trees may seem rather large when used for your tabletop trees. Go ahead and take some of these ornaments from your regular tree and create a cohesive color palette throughout your decorating theme. Secondly, keep it to a minimum! The last thing you want is to overpower this delicate tree. So, just like the photo, place just a few Christmas balls on your tree. A tabletop feather tree with big ornaments should get a delicate tree topper. This just balances everything out and doesn’t distract from your large ornaments.

Image via www.pevibe.com

How about giving your Christmas a pink makeover? Since pink is a color that everyone has very different reactions to, here are a few ways to add a touch of pink to your Christmas without going out of your comfort zone.

Level one: Pink accents. Not everyone is a fan of pink. If you’re one of these people, a good way to infuse a touch of pink in your Christmas decor is to choose shades from the darker hues in the palette. Dark pinks can be used with red Christmas decor, giving your decorations an exotic rosy glow without overwhelming your more traditional sensibilities.

Level two: Liberally pink. And we’re talking about using the color a little more liberally than just sticking to the darks. Use a smattering of pink in all your decor. A pink ribbon through your artificial wreaths, pink ball ornaments, even a pink potted Christmas tree if you’re not ready to use full sized pink Christmas trees just yet! Just make sure to add small touches here and there with the same shade to create cohesion throughout your home decor.

Level three: In the pink and loving it. This goes for all your pink lovers out there! Or simply individuals who aren’t afraid of color. Why not go out and buy those full sized pink artificial trees? The trick to decorating these trees without making it look like pink Pepto-Abyssmal, is to decide whether you want to go graphic (pink and black anyone?), country chic (white, pink and everything light) or a little Victorian (dark and light pinks). Choose the decor scheme you want and have fun with decorating!