When you haven’t been out of your parents’ for more than a Christmas or two, it can be really tempting to copy everything that they did in the house you grew up in to make you feel like you’re home for the holidays. I get it, especially if you are living in a city far away from where you grew up.

But I still encourage you to stop for a minute and think about where you currently are in your life, where you’ll be in even just a couple of years, and the traditions you’ll establish with your own family eventually.

If there was ever a time to experiment with fun Christmas decorations or break tradition, it’s now! Sure, you can always have fun Christmas decorations, but when you’re living by yourself or with roommates, you likely haven’t established any traditions besides going ice skating together or having a holiday potluck. Once you’re married and have kids, you’ll have other people that will want to stick with traditions you establish, and change will become a group decision. Christmas traditions are great for families and I look forward to establishing them at some point, but while I’m not legally or residentially attached to my boo and am sans children, it’s fun to try something a little different.

Which is what prompted me to finally get the white Christmas tree I’d been yearning to have for two years. Yes, I geek out on Christmas and admire trees for years at a time. Partly because I used to work here.

I have long loved white Christmas trees. There’s something about the lightness of them, the way they reflect the soft glow of Christmas lights, and the way you can see color so well on them. They’re happy and playful and I’ve always wanted one. So this year I got one.

I bought my white 6 foot pre-lit tree from Walmart for $40. The tree isn’t the greatest quality in the world and looked pretty sparse when I first put it together, but once I put ornaments on it I was in love. I like that it’s girly and on the smaller size, like she (duh, she) is saying, “I am just so cute and beautiful that I don’t need to be gigantic and overwhelm your living room.” I decorated her with silver, pink, turquoise, and lime green baubles, and then added the personal ones I’ve collected since I was in college (my nice collection of ornaments that I gained throughout my childhood is still safe at my parents’ house where I hope it will stay until I buy a place or have my own rental at least). I also used light blue plastic icicles and silver glitter snowflakes that I bought from Walmart. I topped the tree off with a pink glitter star and used some shimmery batting snow that I bought from Michael’s.

One thing I learned when decorating this year was to think more about editing. While our tree last year was huge and very decorated, I wasn’t totally in love with it. This year’s tree is smaller but it makes me smile whenever I see it, and you can see the detail of the ornaments on it better.

For tips on decorating a tree and information on how to make your tree look beautifully decorated while using your personal ornaments, check out last year’s Christmas Tree post.