How to Add your Antique Collections to your Christmas Tree

I'm so happy you are here, please come in. You are in for such a treat today!

My friends Alli and Cindy and I have decorated our homes for the holidays and are inviting you over in the evening for the Tree Classics/Balsam Hill Christmas After Dark Tour.

I will be sharing how to add some of your personal antique collections to your Christmas tree, too. Because, you knew there would be some kind of antique involved, right?

Welcome to Christmas After Dark Tree Classics!

Thank you so much for coming, let's go sit by the glow of the fire in the living room. I think Christmas nights are magical, with the lights turned down low, the tree sparkles with little lights and holiday joy. Does your home shine with that beautiful glow at Christmas?

There is something so very special during this time, isn't there, when the house is calm and peaceful, and it's dark outside.

When our girls were young, we couldn't wait until the day after Thanksgiving to start decorating our Christmas tree.

We played Christmas music, everything from the beautiful Handel's Messiah to Christmas rock and the "A Charlie Brown Christmas" album, and eagerly opened the boxes containing our family holiday treasures. My Mom was still with us then, and after John put up the tree, "us girls" had such a lovely, memory-making time putting all the decorations up. I hold those memories so dearly locked in my heart.

It's what makes the holidays special, isn't it? Unwrapping delicate ornaments from crumpled tissue paper, and placing them "just so" on the holiday tree, ornaments that have personal meaning to you and your family.

Once the tree was done, we'd turn off all the lights, and watched the tree weave its magical holiday spell.

Creating a gorgeous tree should be fun, sentimental, and express your personal style.

Your Christmas tree is the perfect place to showcase some of your antique collections.

The tree is the glowing focal point of your holiday home, and what better place to present the things you hold dear to heart? In the past, I've added my children's silver baby cups, rattles and my grandparent's silver napkin rings to our tree.

My theme for this year's Christmas is A PARISIAN NOEL. Because this year's tree is all about elegance, opulence, and gilded beauty, I opted to incorporate antique French religious gilt crowns and scepters.

I was blessed with this Balsam Hill Flip Tree, it's 9 ft tall!

I couldn't believe how easy it was to set up! So easy, that in five minutes I was enjoying the decorating.

You simply snap the stand in, tilt it up, connect the treetop, and the setup is done. I love how the pieces fit together, and that when you snap in the top, the lights are all connected because the Quick Set™ lighting system connects the light strings within the tree trunk! {No wrestling with the two plug ends inside the branches, which I had to do with our old tree.}

The stand has wheels, I may or may not have changed my mind a bit here and there about where, exactly, I wanted this tree to go and rolled it around a little.

To personalize my tree, I decided to go all out for Parisian glamour and placed gold glittered branches all around the tree. I layered on a wide gold backed brocade ribbon, starting at the very top and weaving in and out of the branches for a luxurious feeling. An oversized bow made the perfect tree topper.

Aside from the beautiful glass ornaments from Tree Classics, I accented with a few aqua French blue ornaments I already had. Adding a part of my French religious collection of crowns and scepters was my secret ingredient to bring this tree from beautiful to over-the-top stunning!

I think every tree should showcase antiques, because your Christmas tree should reflect the things you love.

Adding just the right amount of "French touch", these pieces from our collection make the holiday decorations more personally meaningful to John and me. They make this tree look so opulent!

It was such a joy to decorate our tree this year, and so easy because of the way the tree is made. I didn't even have to ask for the help of Bentley, my assistant who wants to get in the action for everything that happens at FrenchGardenHouse.

{Does he look guilty to you? I noticed a small green pine needle under his snout, but he promised he had not been up to his usual mischief!}

Isn't it a beauty? The lights are gorgeous. I was pleased to learn that some of my very favorite places near our home have bought Tree Classics trees. The luxurious South Coast Plaza {my favorite shopping place aside from antique markets}, La Costa Resort Spa in Carlsbad {where our family spent a wonderful long weekend in May}, and Hearst Castle all have Tree Classic trees.

Below are a few shots of the tree in our living room with no lights on inside, at all. It sparkles and glistens.

I couldn't be more excited about how it looks. At night, after dark. But also in the day time.

The glass ornaments from Tree Classics are so beautiful! I chose rich colors of ruby burgundy and gold for this tree. The ornaments made this tree really take on the special look I envisioned. And they come in very sturdy boxes, with a space for each one, so that they are the perfect storage boxes after the holidays.

Since I know you all love a good GIVE AWAY, we're giving away the beautiful Buttoned Up Quilted Velvet Tree Skirt to one lucky winner. A festive backdrop for your presents, the Buttoned Up Quilted Velvet Tree Skirt adds warmth and charm to your Christmas tree.

It's the one underneath our tree, and features a velvety red center with a classic quilted pattern, fabric-covered buttons as closures, complemented by a hunter-green border.

We'll choose a winner randomly, and the red velvety tree skirt will be on its way to you, to make your tree happy and beautiful.

CONGRATULATIONS TO CINDY NOVICK, THE WINNER OF OUR GIVE-AWAY!

I am so thankful to Tree Classics for sponsoring this post by sending me this tree to share with all of you, and the ornaments and tree skirt, too.

The "Oh, my gosh, where has this incredible tree been all my life?" opinions are completely my own.

SOURCES:
Balsam Hill Flip Tree

Balsam Hill Ornaments

Make sure to visit both my friends for their Christmas after Dark too!

FRENCHGARDENHOUSE

EDITH & EVELYN

AN ALLI EVENT

WHAT DO YOU ADD TO YOUR TREE THAT IS PERSONALLY MEANINGFUL TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY?