In my house, we have always had a live Christmas tree. Tall, piney, sometimes lopsided and wobbly, I can never remember not having a live tree.

The year my hubby and I celebrated our “first married” Christmas, we were in Seattle. He was on tour, I came out to visit for a couple of weeks, and we got a tiny, Charlie Brown-type tree. That year we also put on two special ornaments that we got from the shops in the area, plus lights and tinsel and tartan bows. Neither one of us wanted to deal with breakable ornaments, so we went soft.

Ever since then, though, wherever we go through out the year, we look for an ornament to put on our tree. Now when we decorate, we can remember our trips – Seattle, Vancouver, Paris, London, Amsterdam…even the LA County Museum of Art has provided us with an interesting ornament.

In my Demon series, the Caine men remember their childhood tree filled with angel ornaments that their late, beloved mother had collected. Every one was special; every one had a story, but most of those Angel stories have been forgotten. Or have they? I’m working on a Christmas Novella for the Caine men and the Angels their mother left behind.

What kind of Holiday Tree traditions do you carry on, year after year? If you’re a writer, do you have holiday traditions for your main characters, whether you have a holiday story or not?