If I didn’t have kids, I would probably not get a Christmas tree. I find the work involved in decorating to be far more than the enjoyment of said decorations, and that’s not even counting the dismantling of it all, which is (for me) simultaneously cleansing (by the time they come down I am so done with it), and depressing.
Today was the day I had promised the kids we would get our tree. And yesterday while we were stuck at home because both kids’ schools were closed due to ice storm related power outages, we assembled the gingerbread houses, so today was earmarked for decorating them.
Here my three girls decorate the tree (It was $20, which I thought was a pretty good deal! The place we got it from is a flower shop, and offered a dozen roses for $5.99 with any tree purchase, so of course we had to get them too.)
Belle gets started on decorating her house:
Krystal hard at work at hers:
And here they show off their finished houses:
Niceties and Nasties from New England 
I’m right there with you, except that I have no kids at home, so do not feel obligated to decorate…we have NOTHING up so far. Our tree for the last few years has been a live baby tree that we plant on our property in the spring.
The girls’ houses look MUCH neater than anything I could have made. Hurray to both of them!
aww, beautiful girls!! What a girly job they did on their houses, so organized and neat…my boys wouldn’t even look like houses if we did them…LOL
I so wanted to do gingerbread houses this year, but with me sick the first week of December and the kids the second, and both cars breaking down, then the gate, then the COFFEE POT!!!!!! it didn’t happen. They are lovely (and the houses are cool, too.) đŸ™‚