Your Christmas tree topper?

[Auspicious]

If you are of the Christmas-tree-having persuasion, what goes on top of your tree? Where did you get it? Is it "special" or more on par with all the other Christmas decorations?

[DCJenn]

My parents found one in an antique store that they gave us for our first Christmas that is a near exact copy of theirs (they got theirs for their first Christmas- they were married 12/21/63) It's a blown glass spiky thing.

It's put away with all of the other Christmas stuff that I refuse to get out this year.

Jenn

[Vanquisher]

As an atheist who celebrates Christmas for the purely commercial and family offerings it provides, I put a bow on my tree. We don't do Santa. I obviously don't do angels or stars for above reasons. I would love a tinkerbell tree topper, but they are a bit out of my price range. Plus, they don't really fit the scope of my tree. I have a pretty tree. Every ornament matches the overall theme. I love my pretty tree.

Everything on my tree is burgandy and/or gold. I have poinsettas, grapes, glass balls, ribbon, swirly pointy stick thingys, etc. Lights are clear and do NOT blink. LOL Tinkerbell would probably look very out of place on my tree, but I can't think of anything to match it.

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[houseelf]

We have an angel that we got on clearance at Cub's grocery store after Christmas one year. It goes along with my Super America dinnerware from college. The sheer glamour of being a dawktor's wife!

Kelly

We have a 'star' that DH made in 2nd grade. Its one of those diamond shaped things you get when you tie two sticks together at their centers and then wind yarn around in a diamond pattern. Its actually very cool, made with sticks he went out and found in the woods, and a few different colors of yarn. And, it matches our tree since we have a good number of hand made ornaments. Some DH and I made as kids, some DD has made, and some our friend's kids have made for us.

We have a beautiful "antique" painted glass globey spire thing that we got the first Christmas we had a tree, in 1993 at the Hallmark store in Amity, CT, on the edge of New Haven. Its silver with blue and sparkly white stripes around it, and some pale red roses painted on the biggest blue band.

[Auspicious]

I've never had a tree of my own because I always go to my parents' for Christmas. Hopefully we'll start doing our own tree in the next couple of years after we move out of the city, though. You guys are giving me some good ideas of what our options are and how most people do their topper.


At my parents' house, the tree has always been topped by this plastic, 2-dimensional, plain, off-white star. It looks like it came out of a cereal box. The rest of our Christmas decorations weren't like that. When I was a kid I thought this was normal, but by the time I got to high school I asked my mom what was up with the lame and tacky star.

She was laughed and was mock-offended and said "What do you mean?? Grandma Kane had that star! . . . Actually that means it's an heirloom!"

I rolled my eyes and said, "Heirlooms can't be made of plastic." It was kind of one of those teenage moments where you're horrified by your parents.

And then, my mom says "Well, if it makes you feel any better, it used to glow in the dark before it got too old, it wasn't always just plain plastic." (like this http://www.glowshop.com/en-gb/dept_570.html)

"Are you serious? That makes it ten times worse!"

So anyway, I am destined to eventually inherit the lamentable heirloom, but for the intervening forty years or so, I'd like to have a "nice" tree topper, so I'm just curious what other people do and where they got them.

P.S. I have been proven wrong repeatedly on my statement, as "heirlooms can't be plastic" has since become a catchphrase in our family that comes up, along with this story, everytime a possesion surfaces that's both plastic and passed down from a family member. Which is surprisingly frequently.

We have a red wooden star that looks "weathered" but is really from Target. My mom used to have a doll-looking angel, but I always thought it inappropriate to stick a tree branch up the wrong side of an angel ...

[SuzySunshine]

We will probably get a new angel this year, I'd like to get a really nice one that can become a family heirloom but we'll see if that happens. The little tiny angel we've been using for years was mine from when I had this tiny fake tree now that we have big real trees it looks pretty sad.

[Rapunzel]

Four years ago I found a star that I really love and it's been our tree-topper ever since. It's a wire contraption and is all glittery gold. It's pretty and stops short of gaudy.

Like Heidi, I'm fairly particular about my tree:

The rest of my tree is white satin balls, gold stars of David, and various types of angels (all predominantly gold and white). I'm going for a celestial theme, you see, with stars and choirs of angels and all. I've got strings of delicate golden bells around it that remind me of "It's a Wonderful Life" (everytime a bell rings, an angel gets its wings). And, some pretty white and gold ribbon winding around it. And, white lights - no blinking.

The treeskirt is the only thing that I'm not quite happy with, but it'll do for now. The next thing I'm looking to purchase is a nativity set. But, to this day the only ones I've found that I really love are waaaay out of my price range. :|

Jennifer