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Festive holiday homes is this family's tradition

Treetime Christmas Creations in Lake Barrington is a magical, fantasy Christmas showroom that changes each year in an effort to keep people coming back to see what has been done differently, said Laurie and Joe Kane, the seasonal business's owners.

"We would like Treetime to become people's yearly Christmas destination. We want to be everything Christmas for them," Laurie Kane said. "So we serve coffee, hot chocolate and cookies. We have a big-screen television so the men can watch sports. We are a 'Toys for Tots' donation location and we have an annual Breakfast with Santa. We also have local high school choirs carol here. We want to become a family tradition."

The business, 22102 N. Pepper Road, also offers decorating hints, supplies Christmas lovers with high-quality holiday décor and inspires customers with its fun, interesting and groundbreaking displays.

"We even taught a decorating class here and hope to expand in the future," Kane said. "Our aim is to share our holiday vision with our customers, not just sell them an artificial tree."

Treetime is open each year from Labor Day through the second or third week of January. They sell trees through their website, as well as through the store.

"It seems that every year the decorations in local homes only get more and more elaborate," she said. "Homeowners want to see little touches of Christmas throughout their homes."

So, they are creating themed trees of all sizes and shapes in many rooms of their house. There are slim trees in the corners, potted trees near the front door and even small potted trees along the banisters on the staircase. Gone are the days when there was only one tree per house, covered with an eclectic mix of ornaments.

Homeowners are also trying to make Christmas better fit the color schemes and atmospheres of each home, according to Laurie. For instance, burgundy is often seen today, accented by browns and mustards.

"Combinations of silver and gold are popular, too, and people are mixing in neutrals in new ways to create trees with distinct personalities," she added. "For instance, they are adding pops of glitter to their natural pine cones and other items for a really cool look."

"People are in awe of glitter, even with the natural look ornaments," Kane said.

And everything doesn't have to match anymore. Eclectic is in.

"Because many Baby Boomers are trying to recreate their youths, flocked trees, multicolored lights and silvery tinsel are all coming back," said Kane.

Flocked trees now come in many different sizes and types of flocking from a very cool frost-kissed flocking which shows just a hint of white to the heavier applications of white and, according to Kane, the flocking has been vastly improved so that it actually stays on the tree and doesn't make a mess of your house.

Many people who like eclectic trees filled with ornaments collected in their travels or made by their children are now choosing one cohesive element to tie the tree together. Many are using six to 18-inch floral picks of roses or poinsettias, flocked branches with frosted berries and bells or even pine cones that are tucked strategically into the branches of the trees to add pops of color and give a uniform look to the tree and then they are surrounding them with their traditional ornaments," Kane said.

Mantles, hearths and doorways are other focal points for holiday decorating.

"The pine garland is the heart of every mantle," explained Kane, "and most of them are lit. Then we usually weave a soft cascade of ribbon through it and accent the garland with picks of something to coordinate with the rest of the room like berries or fruit or packages or whatever. We often also put potted trees on the floor on either side of the hearth and a large wreath above the mantle."

Doorways, particularly exterior doorways, are also often festooned with pine garlands and wreaths. New bendable velvet glitter bows which light up (if you have a handy place to plug them in) are also becoming increasingly popular as accents on these greens.

• Treetime Christmas Creations can be reached at (847) 527-8880 or visit www.treetime.com.

  Owners Joe and Laurie Kane in their Treetime Christmas Creations store in Lake Barrington. Mark Welsh/mwelsh@dailyherald.com
  Margie Smyth, manager at Treetime Christmas Creations, gets a Christmas tree perfectly displayed in the store. Mark Welsh/mwelsh@dailyherald.com
  Treetime Christmas Creations in Lake Barrington has thousands of ways to decorate your home. Mark Welsh/mwelsh@dailyherald.com
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