The festive atmosphere would not be complete without a Christmas Tree!
The tradition of decorating Christmas trees came to Poland from Germany in the 18th century. Before that, people would hang the top of a fir, a pine or a spruce from the roof, and place a sheaf of corn in the corner. The tree meant to protect the house and its inhabitants from evil. The star that is often put at the top symbolizes the Star of Bethlehem. Decorated with trinkets and other ornaments, the Christmas tree usually stays in the house until Epiphany (6 January).
Christmas decorations are shop-bought, but a growing number of children and even adults enjoy creating hand-made ornaments. Traditionally these have been made of straw. Nuts and apples once adorned Christmas trees. Ornaments are fashioned from colored paper, crepe paper and cardboard. Currently, such artistic techniques as découpage (gluing on paper cut-outs) and sutasz (colorful braiding) are popular.
In our family, we choose a theme and color for the Christmas tree every year depending of interior style of the room, or just my inspirations. We go from traditional red and white decorations to neutral Scandinavian-inspired baubles. We like delicate glass baubles, vintage forest animals or traditional silver designs.
This year we decorated our Christmas tree with gold set of mixed baubles, including both elegance and quaint Christmas charm. We put even some luxury red garlands. We bought some hand-made baubles artistic techniques in red and silver designs. Of course, colorful lights and many small cute angels couldn’t miss. We ended up adding few red ribbons and gold bows. The star that should be put at the top we substituted with gold crown this time.
It was a crazy moment and we made a big mess in the house but children took it seriously, helped with sorting out and even with cleaning afterwards. We all had a wonderful time decorating our Christmas tree. Home is filled with magic and love!
When the Christmas tree lights are on, the house is ready for the evening of the December 24th…
Children are just waiting to catch the Santa Claus in bringing gifts.
Take care and all my love!
