"Age of the geek, Baby"

Hi Everyone,

I'm seeing fewer and fewer Christmas trees on top of cars these days.  I bet most people have them up and decorated by now.   Have you seen some of the themed Christmas trees in the shops and stores? Some with only red and white.  Some just glittery gold.  I especially like the coastal themed ones. 😉

We have two trees.  One upstairs which has all our family favorite ornaments from the children's childhood, and even some from when Eric and I were kids.

The tree downstairs is our themed tree, but we never planned it that way.

Eric is a big Star Trek fan.  I gave him his first Star Trek ornament (Hallmark Keepsake) in 1993.  

What I didn't know back then was that there were limited supplies and they were only available the year they were released.  (Hence the whole "keepsake" idea.  I get it now.)
My dad got the first one in 1991.  It was novel and Eric thought it was great.  I tucked that idea away thinking I'd look at the after Christmas sales to buy one for Eric.

That's when I learned that they don't go on sale and they aren't for sale any longer either.
The next year my dad got the next one.  It was a shuttle craft that had Spock's voice,  "Shuttle Craft to Enterprise..."

When I went to buy one for Eric, I discovered that they were expensive and it was out of our slim budget.  But again, when we gathered for Christmas Day with family and Eric saw the new one, he loved it. (and probably secretly wished for one too.)

1997 U.S.S. Defiant

Christmas of 1993, I was determined and bought the USS Enterprise D - styled after The Next Generation.
Eric was tickled that he now had one too.  Every year since then, I have purchased the Star Trek Keepsake ornament.

1994 Klingon Bird of Prey

There are actually two Keepsake lines - - the ships or the characters.

1998 U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701-E

We have only the ships.  Here are a few photos of some of them.

1999 U.S.S. Rio Grande

2007 Future U.S.S. Enterprise

1995 Romulan Warbird

2002 U.S.S. Delta Flyer

2008 U.S.S. Reliant

2004 Vulcan Command Ship

2000 Borg Cube

2001 Deep Space 9 Space Station

2006 U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701 (celebrating the 40th anniversary of the original series tv show.)

So you see, with 23 Star Trek ship ornaments, we had no choice but to give them their own tree!

A couple of years ago, I went to Goodwill and found an artificial tree that was covered in the older style small lights, which is what many of the ornaments plug into.  That's half the fun of the ornaments because most of them have a sound, or song, or a character speaking when you push the button.  (but not if you can't plug them in because the plug of the ornament doesn't fit the newer style light receptacle, but Hallmark got smart and now just makes them to run on a battery.)

So this Star Trek themed tree graces our downstairs family room.  

Like I said, "Age of the geek, Baby.  Age of the geek!"

Do you like themed trees?  Do you have one? 

- Carol