We didn't have room for a tree for many years, and by the time they get to market they've been cut for so long that they're terribly dry. They start cutting them around Labor Day. I spent enough years fighting forest fires that I find the prospect of intentionally placing a dry torch in the middle of my home a rather risky proposition.

For many years I have used a macrame hanger and basket that is lined with light strings. It's a wide and relatively shallow basket that I fill with gifts, and leave the rest of the gifts beneath it.

This year we have room for a huge tree if we want it, but I can't afford it. The live trees that grow best locally have been pruned to give them the bushy look, and will look pretty bizarre for a few years out in the yard until the whorls grow out naturally. But that might be the way I go. Or I may finally finish the wall hanging that I started to use in lieu of a tree--I make an applique green tree with nylon net over the top of it and quilted it onto a red and gold background. The idea is to hang this entire thing on the wall like a quilt and loop a few glass ornaments into the mesh and let them hang from it like from a real tree. I wonder where I packed that thing away when I was getting ready to move?

SRS