[Artists-making-art] Ideas on how to decorate a Christmas tree

Thu Dec 1 21:50:26 UTC 2011

Tatiana,

Wow, Greece, huh? You are surrounded by a lot of amazing art. Have you
been able to observe the art and structures so recognizeable around the
world? Were you always blind (I guess I'm assuming this) and if so, have
you ever been allowed to experience the treasures of Athens nonvisually?

Welcome to the group, and I love how we can interact around the world
via online, grin! I'm 30 but still amazed by technology, chuckle!

Sincerely,
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
Read my blog at:
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/

"History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan

-----Original Message-----
From: artists-making-art-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:artists-making-art-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Tatiana
Nisioti
Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2011 12:05 PM
To: An exploration of art by and for blind persons
Subject: Re: [Artists-making-art] Ideas on how to decorate a Christmas
tree

Hi, Kendra, and all, from a new member who lives in Athens, Greece,
Europe:
What a useful ideas you gave me, as a totally blind person myself, for
my Christmas tree this year! Thank you so much, personally.
I hope you don't mind me translating this and passing it along to our
own mailing list.
By the way, this list has amazed me! I'm going to introduce my self as
soon as I find a few minutes, soon, I promise.

Greetings,
Tatiana Anastasia Nisioti

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Kendra Schaber <mailto:Baltimore777 at comcast.net>  
To: An exploration of art by and for
<mailto:artists-making-art at nfbnet.org> blind persons 
Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2011 10:10 PM
Subject: [Artists-making-art] Ideas on how to decorate a Christmas tree

Hi all, I posted my ideas on how to decorate a Christmas tree on the
Krafters' mailing list. I figured that I would also post them here for
anyone who is interested in a few ideas. I figured that I'd post my
preffered way of decorating a Christmas tree as a blind person and make
the tree look presentable. First of all, you decorate a Christmas tree
the same way whether the tree is real or not. You do however, work with
the tree's branch make-up so that you don't have heavy ordaments falling
onto the floor. 

The Christmas tree: 
I preffer a real Nobalfur Christmas tree that is six-foot-tall or taller
because it's very stirty and has everything that a Christmas tree should
start out with before decorations. You may also get any kind of fur
tree, spruces, seater and a range of pine trees will also work as
Christmas trees. Others preffer a fake Christmas tree. The hight of the
Christmas tree depends on your prefference and how high your ceeling is.
My Christmas tree is a very small fake tree because I live in a small
place where I don't know where to stick a real tree without major
tweeking with the tree itself. I preffer a very tall Christmas tree with
full branches all the way around. I grew up with a six-foot-tall fake
Christmas tree in my living room. I am not an expert in how to put
together a fake Christmas tree mainly because my dad was the one who
always put it up. I do know that it is color-coded. You might have to
lable the part where the color is so that you can code it correctly. As
for a real Christmas tree, I have always gotten it at a Christmas tree
farm. I know people who has gone up into our mountains and gotten their
own Christmas trees. I have not done that yet. Once you get the
Christmas tree, you can either put it in its stand at the farm, in the
mountains or at home. I have often put it in its stand after I got the
Christmas tree at its final destanation. Once the tree is in the stand,
you can then put it where you want it to go. A real tree does need to be
watered like any house plant. Once it is at its final location, then you
may start the decorating! 

Lights: 
I preffer L.E.D. Christmas lights because they are bright, don't get hot
and don't use up a lot of electricity. I also like to unplug the lights
when I am not home or when I am sleeping because I don't want my tree to
catch on fire due to a shortige. I usually wind the Christmas lights up
the tree in a spiral. I preffer multi-colored lights but a single color
or two colors are also fine. On a Nolbalfur tree, I find that the lights
wind up the branches in their own rows almost as though you were fitting
a jixall puzzel together. 

Christmas tree topper: 
I preffer a star but an angel is fine. Some also use birds as well. You
hook the topper to one of the light sockets. If it doesn't light up, you
just stick it on top of the Christmas tree. 

Bolbs: 
You pick your bolb colors. I preffer many different colors. Most people
preffer one or two colors. The way to do it as a blind person is to
stick two bolbs that are the same color in a diaginal angle causing them
to be in different rows from each other. A hand's with or a hand's
length will do. You want to spread out the color all over the tree so
two bolbs with the same color too close to each other is not the way to
go. You may alternate each bolb color whether it's five or only two as
you work yourself around the Christmas tree. If you are totally blind
and don't have an eyeball nearby that works to help you, putting labels
on each bolb of somekind will help you in a big way. Make sure that
there are no bare patches as you go. If you find a bare patch, put some
of your bolbs there in the same way as you did before. Make sure as you
go that the bolb isn't too heavy for the branch that you are trying to
stick it on. A good way to gage it is how it bends the branch. If it
can't stay on the branch or if it bends the branch a lot, then you might
want to concider moving that decoration to a nearby branch. 

Other ordaments: 
You may pick a number of other ordaments for your Christmas tree. I am
not picky here. I like divercity. The same general rules apply with
these decorations. Again, make sure that the branch can hold each
ordament. 
Real candycanes: 
I preffer many different kinds of candycanes on my Christmas tree. Some
people don't put candycanes on their Christmas tree and others might
only preffer one or two different flavors of candycane. The same rules
apply for real candycanes as the rest of the ordaments. You might want
to stick strings and ribens to label them so that you don't accedently
get too many candycanes of one flavor too close to each other. 

The rest: 
I don't care whether my Christmas tree has tensel, garland, strings of
popcorn, a decoration under the tree or without either of them. You get
to play the most and still have your Christmas tree excepted by your
sited family and friends. Just make sure that you wind up your garland
and strings of popcorn like the lights that were done on the Christmas
tree earlier. Tensel gets to be hung like small peaces of string. 

Oregon and Washington is where a lot of Christmas trees grow and get
sent from. We send different kinds of pine trees, fur trees, spruce
trees, seater trees and so on. We probably get our trees cheaper than
other parts of the U.S. because of the location of the Christmas trees. 

I hope that my ideas have helped you! Please feel free to pass around
your ideas on how you would decorate your Christmas tree. If you have
any questions, please feel free to ask me. 
Kendra Schaber 

  _____  

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