Regina Lynch-Hudson’s Christmas tree strongly reflects her long-nurtured interest in genealogy.
Each ruby red bauble holds a photograph of one of her ancestors.
She calls it her “AncesTree.”
“If someone else has it, I don’t want it,” said Lynch-Hudson, a Roswell-based publicist and home decor writer who came up with the idea in 2007 to take photographs that she had painstakingly collected over the years and place them in ornaments.
Afterall, Atlantans trick out and personalize their rides, why not Christmas trees?
People use trinkets and ornaments they’ve collected through travels, expensive hand-blown glass ornaments made in Europe or those handed down from other family members. For the less creative sorts there are still the old standbys like candy canes and plain gold, red and green ornaments and lights.
But some holiday lovers like Lynch-Hudson make Santa proud.
She first spied the frame-styled ornaments in a fine furniture and antique shop in Roswell, but thought they were too expensive. She went back several times hoping the price would go down. Then one day the shop’s owner said he was going out of business and offered her the lot at a discounted price.
She had to tweak each photo to fit each ornament - there are more than 75 in all - and the tree takes about six hours to decorate. Ancestors on the tree include her materal great-great grandfather George Washington Richard Henry Lee Payne, who died in 1927 and worked as a blacksmith on the Biltmore Estate. She traced her relatives back to the 1700s and they include Elias Lynch, her maternal great-great-great grandfather who was born in 1775 and major landowner in North Carolina.
Lynch-Hudson recently added two photographs of her 75-year-old father, who died earlier this month in North Carolina.
“Christmas is supposed to be about family and cherishing memories,” she said. “The process of putting up the tree feels very spiritual and magical to me.”
Interior designer Michel Boyd thinks such initiative takes a little of the ho-hum out of the holiday.
“Christmas has become so commercialized that this is our chance to make it personal again and specific to the special needs of the tree owner,” said Boyd, of Smith Boyd Interiors in Atlanta.
Boyd has says he typically decorates about 20 trees each holiday season, so by the time he thinks about his own Christmas decorations, he’s “treed out.”
For clients, though, Boyd has used family photos as ornaments and feathers and textiles as trees skirts. He tries to make sure the tree blends in with the interior “so it’s not sticking out like a sore thumb.”
Boyd has one client who is obsessed with all things Chanel.
So much so that the client has a tree with Chanel boxes underneath, small Chanel No. 5 perfume bottles as ornaments and pearls (a hallmark of designer Coco Chanel) strung throughout its branches.
Other metro Atlantans show their likes in different ways.
Kelly Mattingly, a dance instructor, and her husband are University of Georgia graduates and huge fans. Both graduated in 1992. So when it came to decorating one of their seven trees, UGA played a prominent role.
They put up a UGA-themed tree and that topped with a bundle or red and black ribbons. Once people saw she had a Georgia tree, the red and black and UGA ornaments didn’t stop, including a baton in honor of her time as a majorette . Her tree topper is a bundle of red and black ribbons and she hung a birdhouse from the tree in the shape of a bulldog’s head.
Their three children also have themes decorations. They include an Angry Birds tree, a patriotic tree and one hung with baseballs with a glove underneath.
Lana Tolbert, who lives in Duluth and owns a children’s clothing consignment shop and boutique, successfully turned Christmas on its ear with a pre-lit, upside down tree.
And there’s no elfin magic involved.
The tree, which is available through some retailers and online, has drawn its share of double takes, said Tolbert. “Everybody thinks I took a tree and turned it upside down.”
The only challenge was finding a creative way to decorate the top of the tree, which is decorated with burgundy and gold ornaments and feathers, since most tree toppers are designed for the tip of a tree.
“I’m always thinking of different things,” said Tolbert, the mother of two children ages 2 and 10. The tree might have Santa scratching his head, but it’s good news for her two young children.
“It’s funny because at the bottom it has plenty of room for presents.”
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