Decor Diary 2020:The Winter Tree -The Extended life of a Christmas Tree

If you know me, and I mean REALLY and TRULY KNOW me (or read this blog), you know I -

a) love Christmas

and

b) have been known to keep a Christmas tree up all year long (sometimes moved into another room)

Close family and friends went from asking, "Your tree still up? When you are taking that tree down?!" to simply accepting the fact that the tree was a part of my daily decor. I had one particular tree that stayed up for nearly a decade with the same decorations, which blended into my everyday color scheme. Occasionally, I added a little something here and there, but for the most part it was the same theme. My "forever tree". I loved that tree so much I donated the remainder of nearly 20 years of holiday decorations in various colors and themes, one-of-a-kind items, because I'd found THE tree that captured my heart and the holiday spirit. It was a plum, wine and gold dream. Rich, dark, jewel tones was my jam and my entire household decor reflected that. The tree was the piece de resistance. It literally gave me butterflies everytime I looked at it. It was my happy tree!

Anyway, within the last decade, I moved three times and only on moving day did the tree come down as symbol that my time at that residence had come to an end. When Christmas came around in the new abode, the tree would come back out and stayed up until the next moving day, years later. And no one questioned it. It was my norm. In fact, people transitioned into inquiring "Where's the tree?" if they came to my place and didn't see it right away.

After spending 2 holiday seasons NOT in my own place, the "forever tree" left my system. My taste and style changed during those years; they evolved.

So, here I am, in 2020 with a fresh, new tree; a 7-ft. flocked beauty, and totally not ready for it to come down, yet don't have the space to allow for 365 days of cohabitation. What to do? Well, the first week of January, I took the decorations down all over my apartment and stripped the tree of all its baubles, leaving nothing but a few white faux flowers and holly berry stems. And it was a vibe. Still winter wonderland, but without the Christmas spirit...and I liked it. The thought of dismantling this glorious, flocked beast made me sad.

Being as it was January and still very much Winter and snowy and in most places, this tree was a symbol of the reality for many across the world. Why couldn't it be mine, even though it was 80 degrees outside...in Miami...with palm trees and greenery in full bloom? IT'S WINTER! And with that, the Winter Tree idea was born. No longer Christmas-y, but still very wintry; the tree remaining up in it's bare, but beautiful state for an additional 60 days. This thought made me happy.

I kept the matching flocked wreath and garland up, also stripped of decorations, for about a week, but it seemed a bit too much. So, I packed them away with everything else Christmas. The tree would stand alone as a symbol of the chilly season with the rest of my apartment decor following the same theme. Fluffy furry pillows and winter whites and ivories merged into my palette of silver, gold and gray.

And then I had another idea. While the tree is up for the month of February I could transform it into something festive to celebrate Valentine's Day. This could prove to be tricky, though, because - like Christmas - V-day is all about the color red and I didn't want my place looking like Christmas, Part II, so bringing in a second V-day color was a must. PINK!

I had some V-day decor items left over from 2019, which I never got to use because, well...time flew by with the coming of the new year and getting situated with changes at work. Before I knew it, March was here and February 2019 was a total blur. So, I brought those things out for use in 2020, along with some newly acquired items picked up from Dollar Tree.

I used the baker's twine, above, to create heart ornaments out of the glittery hearts, typically used as table scatter.

The heart sticks were used as embellishments in the tree, and the heart floral bouquet was used as the tree topper.

For less than $20 (between 2019 and 2020), I transformed the Winter Tree into a Valentine's Day tree.

And this is the end result...

The Valentine's Day tree will remain until the end of February, at which time it will finally come down as we usher in Spring and all flocked and snowy things are put behind us.

💕