upside down xmas trees. nuff said.

Oh how I hate those last 2... especially those dreadful "silk" balls!

The first two would give me nightmares, they look like they're coming to get you :O

The third one is hilarious, the woman looks like she's so neat and tidy that her real kids would mess up Christmas intolerably, so she's using photographs of her them instead, because they're better behaved

I completely forgot about tinsel and the gold silk balls of my youth!

I think what is going to date current Christmas trees are those multi-colored glittery shatter-proof balls. My tree is covered in them but I can see them falling out of favor in the very near future. Specifically the less-conventional colored ones like apple green, hot pink, and turquoise.

The first one is so amazing- there is no rhyme or reason to the way anything is put up. I also love the random ship beneath it, its a nice touch.

When my grandmother was young (in the 1910s) they used candles on trees. On Christmas morning they would have a bucket of water and a bucket of sand next to the tree, her father would light the candles, everyone would oo and ahh and then they would put the candles out. And wait to hear the sirens in the neighborhood, because there was always a fire somewhere on Christmas day...

There's a pretty darn dramatic difference in social class between the first and last photos. The first two photos look like someone's manor while the last few appear to be your average single family home...makes for kind of an unfair comparison.

I love how the first two trees have branches bent up against the ceiling!

We still get big funky trees like the first one, when we can. I hate how most trees today are "shaved" to look like a perfect cone. A more natural tree looks more, well -- natural. And the odd branches here and there are much better for hanging large or unusual ornaments.

The '50's tree could almost be my mother -- except she rationed the tinsel --only a delicate amount would be used. Our boxes of tinsel lasted decades!

In Europe, they still light Christmas tree candles...

They don't have the problems with fire which we would assume because they have different Christmas trees than we do. The preferred tree is a Nordmann Fir, which has horizontal branches widely spaced apart. As well, due to the variety and growing conditions, the sap is not as flammable.

Mid-C Frank: Although I have a fake tree, I always mix up the branches a little when assembling it...to make it look more "natural"! :)

I think the foot-wide fabric garland is on the way to dated-ville...

The stepped risers under the 1920's tree are great- we never have enough room for presents in the 8" under the lowest branch. Plus, you get more presence from a smaller tree.

I never went for fads and use a mix of new, old new and vintage stuff for a more of a classic look to my tree, Mostly it's mid century in style.

Also, my tree I think will never really go out of style as it never really was IN style in recent years. :-)

If anything will look dated it will be the LED lights. Someone is going to come up with a way to replicate the warm glow of the incandescents, and those cold LEDS will be history.

Without apology, I still use fluffy gold garland. Now that my mom has distributed the toy ornaments we collected in the late 70s and 80s as kids, I can finally recreate my childhood tree.

Just lately I have been wanting to make some of those red and green construction paper chains from my youth!

The photographs of the kids in front of the tree are hilarious.
The first tree is scary and grand at the same time. I love it.

I still can't believe most poeple have a fake tree... what's the point ? (Not including allergic poeple of course). And a white or pink tree ? Come on !

Is going green is the next in-thing, I guess plastic trees are on their ways out. So are the led lights, as someone rightly pointed out.

Here, we have a collection of tree ornaments that date back all the way to the beginning of the 20th century, when Santa didn't exist. It's such a big collection that we choose a single color or theme to decorate each year, and it's almost never the same. White and silver is a personal favorite, but we did white and grey last year, a lot of red and white, some gold and silver, and a scandinavian Christmas. This year, I'm going with cooper, white and textures. Somehow, I feel blessed to have such a beautiful collection of Christman ornaments and I look forward to adding some of my own each year.

This just goes to show that the photo I take of the tree every year is for a reason! I would love to have an album of trees like this.

I'd feel at home with either the first or second tree. Our trees were similar to the first one. It'd be a Christmas bush. It was out of control and beautiful. My father would sneek onto some distant relatives property at night with at least eight kids in tow(there are 11 children) and chop down a tree. He'd hide the van off the road, and walk 20 minutes into the woods telling us "to keep it down". It was an adrenalin rush. We could afford to buy a tree, but that wasn't our tradition and oh yeah, he wanted a cedar tree. And we'd get a few sometimes for relatives. Because it was pitch black you'd get it home and find it needed "repairs". So they'd drill holes and put branches in bare spots. Christmas was tons of fun!

ginia - LOL!!!!! thanks for that story :) it made my day :)

If anything will look dated it will be the LED lights. Someone is going to come up with a way to replicate the warm glow of the incandescents, and those cold LEDS will be history.

Speak for yourself. I love the pure, deep colors offered by some LED lights. There are "white" LEDs out there that are still way too blue (and dim), but not all of them suffer from those flaws, even today. And I'm sure they'll get better in the years to come.

I have seen warm LEDs. Target sells some under the Phillips brand name.
The plain LEDs burn my eyeballs!

i can remember as a child being ALL about tinsel and we were allowed to have it one year, but never again. Such a mess! I love my parents' trees...huge trees covered in all sorts of different ornaments from their parents, childhood, homemade, etc. It's certainly not trendy, but I think it's beautiful.

I love LEDs! They're so saturated with color.

Plumeria is right, you can get "warm" and "cool" LEDs at Target.