Today’s post is extra special because it has so much more meaning to me than just decorating my own home. I was so flattered when ChristmasTreeMarket.com gave me the opportunity to decorate a Christmas tree and donate it to a local charity of my choice. As part of their Christmas in the Community campaign, they sent me this beautiful 7.5 foot Asheville Slim Pine to give away. (Seriously, this tree is beautiful.. It looks so real!!)
As part of the campaign, I personally got to select which charitable organization I thought was worthy. Originally I had hoped to donate it to our local Veteran’s center, but due to logistical issues it didn’t work out.
Fortunately for me (and before I really started to panic!) at that time I was closely working with the people at COTS and I realized they had an urgent need for a tree at the Mary Isaak Center. This building is the heart and soul of their homeless transition program and provides housing for homeless children and their families as well as emergency shelter and transitional programs for homeless adults without children.
Because this is ‘home’ for so many children, I loved the idea that this tree could bring a little bit of Christmas to them. My family has been so blessed that the thought of my children not having a Christmas tree is just so completely foreign. If by installing this tree at a homeless shelter, I can give another mother the chance to see their children’s smiles reflected in the glow of the sparkling Christmas tree, the work of setting it up will all be worth it.
The tree is scheduled to be installed at the Mary Isaak Center this weekend, and I’ll share the story next week. It may seem like I am waiting to the last minute, but Christmas can be an emotionally charged time for many people, especially those who are homeless, so the shelter asked the tree only be up for the week surrounding Christmas. Of course I didn’t want to wait to share it with you, so for now, here is my ‘dry run’ of the tree, set up in my dining room. At least now I am sure I will have everything I need this weekend. (It turns out there are more than 300 ornaments on the tree and I ended up running short on ornament hooks.. so I’m glad I did it!)
Besides the ornaments (which all came from the dollar store) the tree also features some silver and gold floral picks I got on sale and some silver and gold ribbon. And that is it. 
You may remember a couple weeks ago I talked about what I wanted to do and even shared a few inspiration photos and I think I totally got the look I was going for:
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It is really true that it is just as fun to give as it is to receive and working on this tree probably brings me as much joy as it does the people I’m giving it to.
