Santa Tree Toppers

In our family it's a big deal when the tree topper gets put on the Christmas tree. Most of us have a new one every year. It's an honor to put it on and that honor changes each year. I know our first year in our home Matt and I put it on together. Sort of a show of unity that this old, beat-up, rambling fixer-upper farmhouse wouldn't get the best of us. When someone gets engaged, we welcome the engagee into the family, by letting them do it. Although some family newbees don't consider it an honor to climb up on a tall ladder and perch over the limbs of an Xmas tree to put on a "silly" decoration - as one family-member-to-be called it. Well one wedding and four kids later, she's come around!

I always anguish (perhaps that's too strong a word) over whether we have a riot of colors on our Christmas tree or whether we go with a sophisticated palate of white and gold or white and silver. It changes from year to year. I've also started to include small tabletop Xmas trees in different rooms to showcase ornament collections. So it's not all or nothing for me.

White Xmas tree decorations remind me of a quiet winter night where all you can hear is the snow cracking. In northern Maine, where I live, this is most of the winter. While a colorful Christmas tree with lots of red ornaments is filled with energy, a Christmas tree done in all white lights and gold or silver can have a calming effect on the room. I have two playful black cats - Busy Body and Chaos - who live up to their names and they definitely prefer the colorful Xmas tree.

I usually shop for lots of Santa stuff on ebay, because live at least 30 miles from the nearest large shopping centers. You don't find much of a selection when you get there either. There might be a dozen different tree toppers. That means if everyone in my little town, shops in the same shopping center, which is a distinct possibility, my tree will end up looking just like there's. The last time I looked on ebay there were hundreds of Santa tree toppers. That doesn't include the thousands of angel tree toppers either. In addition to the selection, I love it when I see more than one ebay seller selling the same item. That way I can monitor them and decide on a strategy to get the lowest price.

If you love collecting vintage Santa decorations or actually decorating with them, you won't find a better selection anywhere than the one you see on ebay. If you love shopping antique stores, I bet you'll be surprised to notice how many of them are actually selling their inventory on ebay. I love the fact that I can browse hundreds, if not thousands, of items in the category that I'm interested in. I can't do that by shopping the few antique stores or thrift shops that are located within an hour or two of my very rural home.

Shopping on ebay is quite easy and lots of fun. If you've never done it, you might be surprised at how much you can find out about each ebay seller. Each one has a Positive Feedback ranking. You can also see comments from previous buyers, so you can see how they were treated. Ebay has made it easy to find their best sellers by creating the Top Rated Seller label. When you see a seller with this honor, it means that they've sold a bunch of stuff on ebay, while meeting ebay's stringent customer service guidelines. The ebay sellers I know, work very hard to keep their reputation spotless, by give incredible service.