(Albert is currently perched on top of a gold paper-wrapped salsa jar at the moment... if anyone knows where I can find a mini stand for him that would be much appreciated!)

On 2004-11-28 15:46, ikitnrev wrote:
Here is a great photo book that came out this year .... "Season's Gleamings - the Art of the Aluminum Christmas Tree" - a copy will be definitely placed under my own aluminum tree.

http://www.shimonlindemann.com/pages/books.htm

I had the pleasure of seeing authors Shimon and Lindemann's collection of 40 aluminum trees in their store-front showroom in Wisconsin on Christmas Eve about 7 years ago. The next time I saw them was in 2000 in Columbus, for the closing of the Kahiki restaurant .... so it is great to see the aluminum tree thread here on Tiki Central.

Vern

I just watched a segment about the book on Good Morning (Sunday)and it was really interesting. The tinsil of the tree was actualy invented in WW2 and they would dump it out of planes to ward off / reflect the radar from the Nazis. I might go buy the book.

She's a beauty tikifish. I've all but abandoned my search for the elusive aluminum tree. I spotted the one at a downtown antique store I liked but they wanted $525.00 for it! And another $45.00 for the color wheel. Maybe I'll continue my search in the "off season".

On 2004-12-19 05:33, tikifish wrote:
... I was wrong, and they were just nice little decorations, see? He pulls one branch out of the sleeve and shows me. Im dying as he tries to jam it back in the sleeve backwards. Finally he goes off and get someone else, who tells me OK, 5 bucks for the whole box, probably just to get rid of me, the crazy woman who thinks a box that says 'Aluminum Christmas Tree' might actually be a tree.

Tikifish - while Sabu's thrift store & garage sale stories are the most profitable, tikifish's are consistantly the most hysterical. There should be a tikifish comic book detailing all your adventures for us...

tikifish, I believe I saw a small stand and the place I bought my tree. I am going that way in a couple of days, I could stop in and buy it for you if you'd like. This place also sells brand new aluminum trees and color wheels!

Our lives are not in the lap of the gods, but in the lap of our cooks.

[ Edited by: Dimethios on 2004-12-19 14:57 ]

That would be great Dimethios! The trunk is about one inch in diameter, so if you think that would be the right size, please get it if it is not too expensive (under 5 dollars). I will pay you for it plus shipping. Thanks! Wheee!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=33849&item=2293551506&rd=1

I'm not the seller or a bidder, but what a COOL tree!

Happy Holidays.........

My sister gave us this cool ufo ornament a few years ago......one of our favorites.....

Here is a picture of my aluminum tree - a 4 foot tall one, that I picked up for $1 in a thriftstore. I always display it next to the faded, outdoor plastic Santa.

and what is an aluminum Xmas tree without an abominable snowman placing the star on top?

A wide angle view: I have lots of other neat ornaments, which I hang on my bamboo birdcage since the tree is a bit small (no real birds are inside the birdcage)

I posted a few other pictures of the tiki figure on the far left in the 'Tiki and Elves' topic in the main forum.

Vern

I know I'm very early this year, but I just thought I'd give a heads up.

Urban Outfitters has their Tinsel Trees in stock in pink, green, blue, white and silver. They come in 3'($24) and 6'($48) versions, and if I remember correctly, they tend to sell out.

I'm always on the lookout for a vintage one, but I might get a little fake one for the time being.

On 2005-10-20 13:10, Tikiwahine wrote:
Urban Outfitters has their Tinsel Trees in stock in pink, green, blue, white and silver. They come in 3'($24) and 6'($48) versions, and if I remember correctly, they tend to sell out.

I went to the website and checked out the holiday trees. I found this there too, a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. As funny as this is, it still irks(sp?) me that a cartoon that is all about bagging on the commercialism of Christmas is somehow marketable.

Good Grief!

Totally ironic Dawn, good call.

I saw that and think I can make one myself at home. Go to Michaels, get branch, a couple pieces of wood, and find an ornament in your basement. Big hairy deal.

Charlie Brown trees have a special place in my heart.

My family always had the sparse trees at Christmas. So much so that friends ALWAYS bugged me about it. The three branch tree. 'Shani and her three branch tree.'

Well, it always embarrassed me, even though I was usually in charge of picking it at the lot. We seemed to prefer the less pruned, more natural variety. You know, so you can lie underneath and look up through the branches at all the pretty ornaments and lights. You haven't experienced Christmas until you've done that. At least I haven't.

Now that I have my own home I get to pick out a 7'-9' jobbie, and still get teased a little sometimes.

'Well, I see Shani's progressed to a total of five branches this year! Congratulations!'

Bah.

Can I just say, I love my aluminum tree!
Was found in my Grandmother's attic after her passing and it has been used every year since. Looks great covered in PEZ, was used one year sticking out of the mouth of a big, striped snake (a'la Nightmare Before Christmas' tree eating present).

Just waiting on getting one of those rotating colored lights for the aluminum tree on sale. Dang, those things are expensive!

We usually have the vintage tree up and in another room a more "normal" tree. We just make sure they can't see each other and get jealous...
Most of the time we procrastinate so long in buying a tree that we buy the scraggliest tree we can find, just so it has a purpose in life. It's sad to see un-bought trees dumped in a dumpster the day after Christmas.

John, you just reminded me of something.

About 6 years ago I went to visit a friend of mine. She and her brother were sharing a place at the time and they'd brought a tree home a couple of weeks before Christmas.

This was quite a pathetic one. It was very full, but was missing about three quarters of it's needles. They'd found it behind a grocery store beside a dumpster, and decided to resurrect it in their living room. There were needles everywhere, and we couldn't help but laugh when attempting to decorate the thing. At least it found a home in time for Christmas.

I love your snake-eating tree idea, I'd love to see a picture of that!

-Tw

Just waiting on getting one of those rotating colored lights for the aluminum tree on sale. Dang, those things are expensive!

It's time to bump this thread!

We have our tree up, so you can go to http://www.geocities.com/strathkinnessjb/retroxmas.htm to see it in all its glory. Thank you, Dogbytes, for the disk for the color wheel!

--SBiM

What I want is a fiber optic tree combined with an aluminum tree. Any of you great shoppers seen that done?

Electricity and aluminum do not mix well.

--SBiM

I didn't know how to light mine, so I just put a martini lamp under it...

and then put a few tikis on it.

On 2005-12-12 08:22, WenikiTiki wrote:
What I want is a fiber optic tree combined with an aluminum tree. Any of you great shoppers seen that done?

If it's what you're thinking about, I've got one... Here's one with the fiber optics lit...

The only problem is, the base gets pretty hot so you can't use a tree skirt. Well, I really like the tree skirt I've got, so I usually just put some little lights on the tree, I've got them strung in a piece of garland....

I got the tree at Stat's Floral Supply in Los Alamitos a few years ago. I haven't seen them since. I think it was on sale or clearance....

On 2004-11-28 04:20, laney wrote:

I also have a few color wheels. But, I like the new one better than my vintage ones. It is more quiet and probably safer. I got mine from my Mom but she said she got it from one of those tacky catalogs.
Found it! Here you go, from Harriet Carter
http://www.harrietcarter.com/Detail.cfm?prod=1074&UDC=Y&CFID=1361317&CFTOKEN=37143516

OK I quoted myself...but again stop looking for vintage color wheels and get a new one. They are much quieter, safer, and produce the same effect! Trust me I have both.
Not sure if that old link still works but I know they still carry them at Harriet Carter.

Oh and Target used to carry fiberoptic silver trees. I bought a few on sale 2 years ago. They are small tabletop ones but look really cool! Gave a few away as gifts and kept a couple. They also had these table top aluminum like trees in tubes. I got a bunch of those on sale too...very vintage looking but I don't think they sold too well....more for me!

Happy decorating! Laney/eel

just to be clear, there is a difference between aluminum trees and shiny silvery trees. Aluminum are made with, well, aluminum. Most of the modern ones are made out of some polymer - and those are indeed safe with lights and fiber optics. But you don't want to put lights on a real aluminum tree.

--SBiM

Laney is right. We got our color wheel from Harriet Carter (there must be another Aluminum tree discussion, I thought I posted about that before). Anyways the other tree that is out there is a tinsel tree. I like them but not as much as I like the aluminum ones. But it sure does beat my beer can tree I had when I was baching it.
We also have a white tree in the den. I think we have 5 trees with, i'm sure, more to come. Here is our little tinsel tree with tiki ornaments and our aluminum one (they look 100% better at night):

BTW Wal-mart has a metal drink shaker and metal cocktail glass ornaments for about $2 each. I mention that b/c the tiki tree has them, you just can't see them in the pic.

..my grandparents had an awesome one...about 8 ft tall, gold, and it came with the four piece mirror platform rotating base that played music!! plus, 2 giant orb floor floodlights with gold bulbs....it was too cool. We enjoyed it all through our childhood, then, when I moved to the city, I "inherited" it, since no one else in my family wanted anything to do with such a "tacky" thing. I decked it out one year with a pink lawn flamingo that lit up on top in lew of a star, and flamingo string lites strung around it...on the base I placed my collection of 50's style large diecast car replicas....it was like a 1957 auto showroom!! lot's of fun and good memories.....after how many years it was starting to show it's age...so i traded it to a local antique dealer for an awesome witco piece that hung in my old tiki room......