Almost everyone is a home-improvement expert around the holidays. Like Lauri Leslie of Evergreen, who has become expert at selecting dried foliage from her garden for the folksy garlands that go up around her house in December. Or Carolyn Hill, who has become expert at uncovering Asian ornaments to hang on the family tree that celebrates the Chinese and Korean heritage of her two adopted children.
There is no one way to celebrate the winter holidays – just as long as attention turns from work and school to friends and family; and from getting more to giving more.
Home is ground zero for the merriment, which is why Room turned to you, readers of The Denver Post, to glean ideas for making more of our nests during this festive time of year. Now, report back with which of these ideas is the most helpful by sending e-mail to ejefferson@denverpost.com or leaving a message at 303-954-1329. The most popular merrymaker from this bunch will receive $100 for home improvement.
Space invaders | Laura Beuther, Highlands Ranch
This “alien tree” is the favorite assembled each year by Laura Beuther, who relies on UFO toys for ornaments. Beuther also assembles a University of Michigan tree, a doctor tree with surgical gloves and tongue depressors, and a tree dedicated to cats – ironic given that felines and holiday decorations rarely coexist in peace.
Souvenir style | April White, Parker
After a lifetime of collecting ornaments whenever she visits a new place, avid traveler April White needed to rotate her themed trees each year. This jester tree is composed of ornaments from Spain. Others ended up in her collection after being uncovered in England, Holland, Scotland, Ireland, France and Canada. The ornaments are “like a wonderful charm bracelet of the exciting places we have traveled,” White writes.
Penguin power | Shirley Schweitzer, Sterling
Among the annual themed Christmas trees at the Schweitzer house is this one popular among kiddie visitors. It features puffy stuffed penguins, white snowflake ornaments, tufts of fluffy cotton and a billowy tree skirt.
Heritage tree | Carolyn Hill, Denver
Each year, the Hills add a new Asian ornament to the tree in honor of their kids, Sam and Lin, who were adopted from Korea and China, along with a new Christmas photo from the previous year. That way, “my 19-year-old gets to see himself in a Batmobile at (age) 3 and my 14-year- old daughter
sees her first Christmas in America when she was 4,” Hill writes.
Victorian abundance | Randy West and Gary Giem,, Denver
This pair of historic-home restoration specialists pay homage to their own 1885 abode with numerous themed garlands that spotlight collectible German nutcrackers, toys and ornaments. “My whole family is Christmas- crazy,”says Giem, who shops for holiday decorations year-round and is especially lucky at yard sales and discount home stores like the TJ Maxx spinoff Home Goods.
Animal magnetism | Liz Telea, Denver
Judy and Duff Kerr submitted this photo of the 5-foot-tall giraffe-themed Christmas tree conceived by their friend and Denver Zoo volunteer-educator Liz Telea. “I don’t think there’s anything about giraffes that Liz doesn’t know,” says her mother, Ruth. There are 125 giraffe ornaments on this year’s zoological holiday tribute. Telea has been buying giraffes for almost as long as she has volunteered at the zoo – 22 years. Friends like the Kerrs hunt for them too.
Sports and medicine
Laura Beuther of Highlands Ranch alternates her football-themed trees depending on the season. Some years, her University of Michigan tree
is replaced by one covered in roses in honor of the Rose Bowl. Beuther also assembles a doctor tree with surgical gloves and tongue depressors.
Earthy approach, Lauri Leslie, Evergreen
This former Denver Public Schools teacher and busy church volunteer achieves the look of a reaching cornucopia by combining inexpensive, store-bought garlands and wreaths with holiday lights, dried flowers and berries from her yard, dried fruit, pine cones and faux fruit. The idea also can be used to decorate a tree.
Red and green greetings | Meri Moller, Aurora
The Moller family brightened their first Christmas without Grandpa by giving the walls of their basement-turned-banquet-hall a seasonal shade of green. They further transformed an otherwise dark room – used out of
necessity because of the size of their annual holiday dinner – by setting up an outdoor twinkle tree to showcase homemade ornaments from friends and family.
They also made color- coordinated “Christmas hats” for everyone who arrived for the feast.
“Friendship tree” | Dorothy Swenson, Aurora
Hallmark gave Swenson the idea to hang her holiday cards on the tree two decades ago after this East Coast transplant first relocated to Colorado and found herself lonely without friends and family. “I change the look of the card tree each year,” she writes. A large bow at the top with ribbons tucked into the branches or sprays of red berries are common additions.
Downsizing dilemma | Mary Kay Dalsaso, Morrison
Celebrating Christmas for the first time in a smaller home, Dalsaso sawed off the trunk of her big artificial tree so it would fit on a tabletop in her new house. Then, to make the refurbished tree look fuller, she took branches from the discarded lower half and affixed them between branches on the salvaged upper half. Finally, she squeezed and bent the newly sculptured tree for the perfect small-house fit.
