O Fiesta tree, how lovely are thy branches...

I don't know about you, but I'm neck-deep in my annual Christmas tree trim-a-thon, with four trees getting all decked out.  If you stop by for a visit, be prepared:  this week my house looks like Hobby Lobby exploded, with tubs and bags and boxes strewn around.  It was clean last week and it'll be clean next week but there's just no way to put up Christmas decorations without making a mess.  If there is, please let me know - I haven't found it yet.

The first one to go up was my kitchen tree.  For years I gave up precious kitchen counter space to a small kitchen tree, decorated with vintage cookie cutters from my childhood, cinnamon "gingerbread" ornaments and other kitchen items.

This year brought us to a new house with a bigger kitchen. That could only mean only one thing, right?  Bring on a bigger kitchen tree!  I spied a 5-foot alpine-type tree on sale before Thanksgiving, and I dragged it home.

But long before I "felled" the new tree, I was hunting down Fiesta ornaments.  I snagged some off eBay and a few more at the October Nashville Flea Market - an even dozen Fiesta disks and  miniature pitchers.   It's not enough to fill the entire tree, but it gave it a theme.  Then I tucked in old and reproduction kitchen utensils and hung my Christmas cookie cutters and used ric-rac in Fiesta turquoise, red, orange, yellow and chartreuse to hang everything.

As I began writing this post, I assumed I would find countless other Fiesta collectors' Christmas trees on parade in blogs and websites. In fact, I had high hopes of finding some inspiring ideas to copy - after all, Fiesta has been making and licensing ornaments for quite some time.  But I found nary a mention of a Fiesta Christmas tree.  C'mon, fellow pottery lovers - surely there are other collectors who do a Christmas homage to your favorite dishes, too!

Without further ado, here's my new kitchen tree, next to the hutch filled with my vintage Fiesta pieces:

And here's the "big picture" view, with my new eBay bargains: a Fiesta Riviera platter and Kitchen Kraft cake plate (plus my existing Kitchen Kraft red and green bowls) perched merrily on top of the hutch.  The vintage tins in the apple basket beneath the tree are on standby - next week they'll start filling up with homemade candies and cookies, then stored in the freezer until time to serve or make up plates of sweet treats to give away.

And here's Luci, who has decided this is HER favorite tree - at least until the others are up and she can check each of them for napping spots.

So how many trees do YOU decorate?  I try not to play favorites, but I really do heart this tree and I smile every time I pass by it.  (Don't tell the other trees, please? They are special, too!)

Happy Christmas decorating,