My mother hung those little birds you can buy at crafts stores on the tree one Christmas. (She also hung the real Christmas ornaments on the roots of a tree that had blown over in a storm an crashed through her roof one Aug. I have newspaper photographs to prove it.) Mind you, this insanity was perfectly intentional on her part.

My guess is that people, including family members, may be a lot more polite if they think you're about to go over the edge.

Birds belong in trees anyway, and would be a sign of the coming spring. Maybe you could decorate some eggs and make ornaments. (Yes, Mom did that, too.) Maybe you could start a tradition of family members supplying handmade ornaments, either decorative or symbolic of something important to them.