William asked this morning what percentage of families with Christmas trees topped them with stars as opposed to other things, and that was not a question I could answer. I wasn’t even sure what the main things ARE. Stars, angels…what else? We started by doing an image search for “Christmas tree toppers” so we could get the main categories for the poll. We found a lot of stars and angels, and some Santas and some bows. There were also “spikes” and “floofs,” samples below:
Spike (amazon.com)
Floof (followpics.net)
Floof (pinterest.com)
Floof (southernhospitalityblog.com)
You could perhaps argue that that first floof is actually a bow—but I would say that a bow with multiple other non-bow elements is a floof, unless the bow predominates to the point that the other items are clearly bow accessories. For example, if you have a large bow with a few jingle bells hanging off of it, that is a bow and not a floof. But if you have a bow combined with feathers, elves, bells, flowers, fruit, and branches, then what you have there, my friend, is a floof.
I have noticed over the years that we are a group that enjoys precision, and so we have a little trouble with polls. “I couldn’t vote because mine is a mouse dressed as an angel, but that’s not really an angel” and so on. We will all have to do our best to think in generalized categories, and then put our precise definitions in the comments section if we so choose. If your angel is decorated with a bow, you have an angel. If your angel is a mouse or an elf dressed as an angel, it is an angel. If your bow is made of starry fabric and has a tiny angel figurine decorating the center, it is a bow.
But even doing our best, there will be many people who have to choose “other,” and I hope you will say in the comments what “other” is. [I am also trying a poll option that MIGHT let you select “other” and then type what your other is so other people could also vote for it—I’ll try it and then report back and/or delete it.] [It APPEARS to be working, but I’m doing a little more testing to make sure it’ll let others vote for the added option. If you use it, make your added option as general as possible: “flowers” rather than “bouquet of mixed red carnations and white daisies,” for example. If an added option is too specific, or if it should be under another category (“mouse dressed as angel”), I’ll change it.] [Okay, that did not work. Plain “Other” will have to suffice.]
If you have more than one tree, answer what you have on your main tree, or what you would use if you only had one tree.
[yop_poll id=”5″]
That first floof looks like real hair??????
Also, I love this: “I don’t have a tree, but I feel sad if I don’t get to vote”!!!!!!!
We have a star. I sent D to the store to get a tree topper because ours broke and said I didn’t care what kind but just “nothing tacky.” He came home with a star that lights up neon green and blue. It cracked me up that he thought THAT wasn’t tacky. We still have it. ;)
That floof has a weave.
I am including my Other response here: A Santa hat! It was a placeholder topper until I could find an angel I like, has now become a huge hit.
I would also like to add that I am quite pleased with your very diplomatic assessment of what constitutes exceptions. I picture an eager kindergartner waving their hand and saying “Oooh! Ooh! But MINE is a-” and then you just hold up your hand and say “STOP. Angel. Next.”
There are times when I wish there was a “like” button for comments and this is one of those times. A weave. HA!
I chose “nothing”, because that is what I have, but I would love to find (find the time to make) a nice, big, simple star. So far I’ve been too lazy or otherwise preoccupied – and this year we are still settling from a cross-atlantic move, so no tree at our house.
We have a star, so that’s what I voted. But I wanted to add that my parents recently switched from their angel (which was old and falling apart) to a cowboy hat – a fuzzy red-with-white-trim Santa-style cowboy hat. It’s very festive and fun and makes me think about ditching our boring old star!
We didn’t have a star yet last year so we used a floppy straw beach hat I had for a while, and then a “This cap stops at all bars” hat my husband had. Hats are hilarious toppers!
I have 2 trees – one has a star & the other an angel, but I voted star because it’s my preference.
We do not have a tree topper at all, because we are still slowly acquiring enough ornaments to fill a tree and I haven’t even thought of the TOP yet. Maybe another year or two. I don’t think I had a topper growing up, either, though, so I’m not breaking from tree-topper tradition. My cousin just got a giant light up probably also singing Elvis star in the mail and I am jealous and I think I shall probably order one, too, next year.
I do not know you at all except that we both comment to Swistle, but since replacing my beautiful star with a beautiful light up star, my other star is quite neglected. Would you care for a gold wire and opalescent white shell star? It is very pretty, and I had it when I was starting out and would love to move it on to another home in need of a topper.
We have a spike, but sadly our ceilings are too short. Something I didn’t really think about last year when I got it on clearance.
Bluebird!
I voted star, because that’s what I like to have, but really this year it’s not a proper tree-topper, just a (boring/barely noticeable) star shaped regular decoration. And the last few years it’s been nothing, because in the few years I’ve been gathering my own decorations, I have yet to make/buy an actual topper.
Stuffed reindeer wearing ice skates. I don’t even know how we ended up with it, but one year I put it on the tree as a joke because we didn’t have a star and somehow it became our tree topper.
I had a non-light up star that I thought was beautiful in daylight because it was beautiful, but I hated that I couldn’t see it. I just bought a light up star from Lowe’s and I’m immensely happy with it. We went two weeks without a topper and every day (several times a day) Henry (age 3) asked where our star was, so I couldn’t very well replace it with anything BUT a star. I love it though.
Is someone’s very tall Auntie standing behind that first floof? Creeepy.
I had to say that I have been giggling over this comment at random moments for the past two days. Someone’s very tall Auntie! Oh dear, that’s so funny. Probably dressed in her Christmas best!
I had never heard of a floof until this post! We do nothing, out of tradition. But this is the first year we have a real tree, which, to this point, remains undecorated, so perhaps we will see it topperless and find it wanting.
We have a cross on top of ours, but it is falling apart and will probably only make it a year or two more before we have to replace it with something else.
We have a star (metal, non-light up) on our tree. Growing up my parents’ had an angel topper on their tree. My church’s big Christmas tree has a large bow on top of it.
“We are a group that enjoys precision” HAHAHAH! Very diplomatic, Swistle!
This made me laugh, too!
We have a mitten. The first year we had a tree we were broke grad students and cut it down in Erik’s parents backyard and couldn’t afford any ornaments. I lost the other mitten and we stuck the lone one on top of the tree. And now I’ll never get rid of it.
I (perhaps foolishly) let my daughters (aged 11 and 9) decorate the tree this year as I am totally not at all in the festive spirit. As a result, the decorations look as though they’ve been thrown on at random (which they pretty much have, to be honest). When I was growing up in England, my mother always put a fairy on the top, but I’ve never found one here in France that seemed suitable, so I voted “other” – this year my younger daughter put a white-teddy-bear-on-a-pinecone thing on the top. It looks kind of ridiculous, but the girls seem happy enough with it. Besides, they live mainly with their father so they’re rarely here anyway. As I said, no festive spirit here. Bah, humbug.
Giant butterfly! It’s sparkly….
US TOO! Is yours green and from Target?
I request a picture of the butterfly tree topper! That should definitely be part of this post! :)
This makes me want to find a new tree topper. A sparkly butterfly, a blue bird, a fairy! So many choices!
Our “floof” is a circular spray of peacock feathers, since our tiny tree is peacock themed. Our traditional tree usually has a star or angel. My mom’s house has a spike or an angel, depending on the year.
I went with Santa because ours is a stuffed penguin in a Santa suit, though it’s on top of our tree because of its penguin-ness, not its Santa suit (the suit was an afterthought to make him look more Christmas-y) We started doing this years ago, and we’ve never bothered to find something else.
We always had an angel when I was growing up, and it surprised me a bit to see that star is so popular.
We have the Abominable Snowman from the claymation Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer movie. It’s always nice how in the movie, he finds his purpose – putting the star on the Christmas tree, so we decided that he was an appropriate topper!
We have a spike, and the ONLY reason we do, is because we are using my late mother in law’s tree and it’s a vintage 1950’s aluminum tree. The way the center (it looks like a broom handle) ends up at the top works the best with a spike. I did go through multiple angels, stars, etc. before I settled on the spike.
The tree is neat, but every year I curse it, and now that we have a 3 year old and a 6-month old…it’s a job in itself to keep them away from the tree. It hurts!
We have a Star, and have since we got married, but I grew up with an Angel and therefore feel a little like I’m cheating. I just never liked the way a cone-shaped angel looked like the tree was wearing a hat.
At our previous house, we had an angel. However, we moved 13 1/2 years ago and the angel would not fit between the ceiling and the top of the tree so we’ve been topless ever since. I got used to it and like it that way now, but it annoys my husband and daughter. I love reading the comments because I think we should try something unique this year, like a mitten or perhaps something else festive-but-not-usually-a-tree-topper thing.
We have a star. Just a straightforward high quality plastic ‘glass’ with ‘gold’ wire trim star. Had it for years.
It’s actually too heavy to be supported by any fake or real tree we have ever owned, so what we really have for a topper is a big heavy star and a half a dozen wooden chopsticks painted green that are used as ‘hidden’ support to keep the star upright.
Nope, don’t have anything on top of the tree. Don’t even have a tree. No decorations, nothing. Bah humbug! (I’m spending Christmas Day at Joshua Tree National Park……bliss)>
We have an angel I bought for $3.95 at Michael’s 20 years ago when we first got married. I grew up with a super fancy English heirloom angel, so I always feel both frugal and… I don’t know… traditional, also?
I voted angel because we have a tacky, ugly figuring of a very “serene” looking angelic woman in a big slowly gown that everyone hates. I’m not sure why we’re still using it.
*Flowy not slowy
We have a 9ft tree and have never found a topper worthy of it…but, I’m digging the Santa hat idea, I may have to try that out!
We change ours up (Spire, baseball hat, snowflake, bow), but most of the time it’s a pretty snowflake.
We have a slightly weird angel despite being completely non-religious. My three daughter claims the angel appears to be “falling to her deff”. So that is Christmassy!
SNORT.
We are still starting out (and this stage will probably last for the first 10-15 years of our marriage) so I voted “nothing”. But if I budgeted properly, I would be topping my tree with a beautiful sculpted wire star, possibly with a bulb or two in the interior so I don’t lose the thing in the gloom of night.
I chose ‘angel’ even though I would describe it as a fairy. Is that a UK thing, a fairy on top of the Christmas tree?
We have a star, although now that I know they exist I kind of desperately want a floof.
I want to clarify (for the sake of data collection) that not only do I have a star, but I have very strong opinions about said star. I will accept no substitutes on my tree. I’ve lived with roommates where this tree topper issue was a hard-fought battle. Luckily my husband agrees (doesn’t want to argue) with me about the star. White vs colored lights, however… Whole ‘nother ball game. I’d like to see people’s opinions on THAT issue! (For the record, white on the tree, colored bulbs outside but only if they are the large old fashioned kind.)
That would be another great poll. Colored! Tree and outside!
When we bought our current tree, we wanted a pre-lit, but could only find all-white lights. My husband bought a bunch of replacement bulbs and we spent two days switching all the white lights to colors. We’ve been ridiculously pleased with ourselves over it the last four years.
I always used a Santa hat, which I thought was A) very creative and awesome, and B) unique to me. As it turns out, it’s neither! But we don’t use it any more. I always loved it but the kids wanted a star so I bought one on clearance one year. But I hated that one. Then I found a vintage (looking) red and gold many-pointed star at a garage sale and I like that better, but I still think it’s not as good as my trusty Santa hat.
We don’t have one. I told my husband we needed to get one. He told me to find a geodesic dome. Yeah, still no tree topper around here.
I normally have an angel – who I nestle a GNOME in her arms (for a bit of a ha ha), but this year we’re doing a huge ‘outdoor’ tree (it’s on our front lawn) – so I got a metal star, as it’s waterproof.
I voted that ours changes. For a few years it’s been a bow but this year I put up a bear dressed as an angel but whose wings I took off so non-angel bear as a place holder until I ordered what I really want which is a Sheldon Cooper doll with a Santa hat but I have so far forgotten to do that.
We have…five Xmas trees of varying sizes in our house this year. I voted but only once. Three of our trees have stars. One has a spike. One has nothing right now because it lives in my two-year old’s room and he’s knocked it over approximately eleventy million times already. :)
So I voted ‘spike’, as that’s what we’ll have where I spend Christmas. My roommates’ tree has a star on it, and my tree (when I had one) had a little glittery JOY ornament I set up top because I was broke and it was $1.
I think I grew up with an angel the few years we had a tree, and the spike we’ll have at Christmas is meant to replace St Nicholas, who is very missing. (There were a couple of topperless years in between.)
I would like to see a poll on what people would have if they could have anything. I think I would still choose a spike—the vintage ones are so pretty.
How timely. This is our first year not traveling for Christmas so we have our first tree and needed to buy a topper. We had two votes for star, one vote for angel and one undecided. I think we’re getting an angel holding a star.
We have a stuffed Homer Simpson. Not exactly a sophisticated tree.
Ours is a Tinkerbell topper that we got at Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party about a decade ago. She’s dressed as Santa.
We have a rather sad looking sock dog called Henry wearing a tutu on the top of our tree. It’s our first Christmas in our house so I imagine he will either be replaced next year or become a loved family tradition. I really must re fasten his head though, I’ll headless sock dog wouldn’t be nearly so Christmassy!
I voted for myself (angel), but to round out: My mom tops with an old world santa with flowing robes, and my sister uses a star. And those are all the Christmas trees I know for sure.
HOW IS IT THAT FLOOF HAS NO VOTES?
We put a jaunty Santa hat on top of our tree every year. I like it because I feel it reflects our feelings about the holiday. ;)
On a side note, the tree at the library has a Cat in the Hat style hat as it’s topper.
We have a bird. My parents have always had a partridge, right now we have a dove in my house but I’m on the look out for the perfect bird.
I voted angel, but it’s an ornament not an actual topper. I have yet to find a topper that I like and the coconut angel ornament is the only thing we had in the house that would work on top of the tree. If the tree were a bit better situated with its branches I probably wouldn’t have put anything on top again this year.
I chose spike because that’s what my parents have always had on their proper tree, because I don’t have a big one yet. But my mini has a silvery butterfly as top, because my sister gave that to me :)
Ours is an angel holding “candles” – which is part of the “how we met” story. When the original one died a few years ago, I searched and searched until I found one that was almost an exact replica – so she’s the one on the tree now; but I still have the original one packed away.
My “other” is a small stuffed dog and a small stuffed rat, which represent the household pets! We love our animals!
We have a glittery snowflake.
i have a homemade one–this year it is a tie dyed paper glued onto a mason jar, with a tie tyed paper snowflake attached to the front. i stick it on top of the tree over the lights.
I answered “hat” but I want you to know it is a Sorting Hat. :-)
Our first Christmas together we didn’t have a star, and we didn’t want an angel because we celebrate a secular Christmas, if there is such a thing. He had surprised me with a Sorting Hat a couple of months prior, so we put that on until we could get a top hat for it. But then it was so funny and we liked it so much that now it’s a Tradition.
Not sure whether this Tradition will survive us having kids. I don’t want to confuse the holiday for them too much.
I said other because we have a spike, we got it as a gift for I think our wedding – it’s Waterford crystal, I got it from my uncle who loves Waterford crystal – and it’s beautiful, BUT LORD it’s heavy! I tried 800 ways to make it work this year but I can’t risk it getting broken by my lunatic children who are just undressing my damned tree every day of my life. So we have the lamest, most ridiculous little star, it’s like 3 x 3 inches or something, I don’t know where it came from. I have high hopes, as ever, for next year but they will probably be thwarted.
We have a moving Mickey Mouse that belonged to my grandmother. It was a whole lot cooler when it wasn’t in MY house and my kid didn’t seem to think it needs to be on 24/7. That fine lightly grrrring motor will put me over the edge…
Dammit! I posted a comment earlier, and now it’s gone! Makes me wonder just how many of my comments just “disappear!” like that.
We have an angel – because she was a part of our “how we met story.” She died a few years ago, and I went crazy trying to find a replacement. I was successful…eventually. But I still have our “original” angel.
I still see your original comment posted.
We have a penguin!
A new one for the “other” category: a tomte!
I chose bow, because that is what we currently have and what we’ve had for maybe three of the last five years. But I also could have chosen “changes from year to year”, because we’ve also had a pinecone/ribbon/spray thing (maybe it’s a floof? not sure) for a few of those years.
What I would like to have chosen is star, since that’s what we had on the tree growing up and what I always assumed I’d have. But I have yet to find a star tree topper that I like and can justify spending money on.
I marked “other.” We put a sock monkey on top of ours. He was not designed for that purpose–we just kind of perch him up at the top.
When I was a kid, we used to alternate star and angel each year.
At least, that was what I thought, until one year I said we had to do star because we did angel last year – but apparently there was no star! I still think it’s a nice tradition, even if eight-year-old me completely made it up.
We always had a “spike” that my dad put on with great ceremony — though we call it a SPIRE, not a spike — and happily, my boyfriend agrees, so we have a far less majestic spire on top of our little mini tree. We were talking about making something out of Legos for next year, though. :D
We call ours a spire too, but the four year old has given me 3 heart attacks already this year pointing at the tree and talking about the “great big spider on top.” So we may have to start calling it a spike now.
I voted other because we have a spike-ball made of silver wooden sticks. I think of it as a star burst, so maybe I should have voted star, but it isn’t star shaped.
We have a vintage spike in a box that I love the look of, but on our tree I can’t stoChristmas they weinking of a WW1 Prussian helmet, so starburst it is. I grew up with an angel. My in-laws have a cardboard star covered with alluminum foil. They made it the first Christmas they were married and have used it for 34 Christmases since.
i completely forgot about the spike we had on our tree when i was a kid. it was made of glass, and i now vaguely remember breaking it. now this horrible christmas memory is flooding back. gah!!
Homemade tinfoil star WITH Victorian angel picture on it.
Ok… so my husband and I are crazy christmas nuts. We start listening to Christmas music the monday after labour day and we have our tree up mid-October (but don’t decorate until Remembrance day) and we also have multiple trees. Seriously, it’s both of us, so it’s not even my fault! hehee…
Main TREE: I have two bows that are tied onto the top of our tree. And I would like to clarify… my bows are nice… not a floof or something like looks like balled up hair! hehe… the two bows are made out of the same ribbon that I wrap around my tree. This is my nice tree, no one touch, no one decorate but me. (I’m a little anal about this, but my tree looks very nice. Done in red and gold)
Upstairs TREE: I have a red glittery star that I believe I paid ~$5 and it looks fabulous. This is our fun tree that I let the kids decorate with all sorts of fun ornaments.
Miniature TREES: In the kids rooms they each have a mini 3 ft tree that all have coloured stars as well (pink, green, etc).
MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!
Other = snowflake
This year I made a large bow with drapey ends hanging down. The past few years, we’ve forgotten to put the topper on until we were done decorating, and it was just too complicated to try to put it up. We have an angel topper, but it feels to petite for our tree. We hve a metal star topper, but it never seems to work due to being too heavy.
We haven’t had a tree for years (5?10?) because we don’t have the space. Our kids are moved out, but still, too much stuff anymore for a tree. A couple years we put a few ornaments (but no topper) on a standing fan, and stuck our gifts under that.
I answered “star,” though, because when we *did* have a tree, we had a cloth star I’d made when we were first married. Yellow wale-less corduroy with red and blue sparkly ric-rac on it. I also made a bunch of stuffed yellow star ornaments from the same material. For a long time, all our ornaments were hand-made. My mom always makes stuff for the church fair, so we’d always get whatever she was making/selling that year. Part of the reason I wanted hand-made ornaments was that they seemed to be sturdier. We’ve always had either pets or small children (sometimes both), who would treat anything on the lower branches as their toys.
I would dearly love to have a tree again. My spouse is not so sentimental and sees it as just more work. All the Christmas decorations (and wrapping paper — sigh!) are in the crawl space, which is hard for me to get in and out of, because I’m short. He’s not tall, but taller than I so he is in charge of getting things in and out of the crawl space.
Funny, I can no longer remember what we had on our tree growing up — but in my defense, I’ve been married 34 years, so that’s reaching back quite a ways. I’ll have to ask my mom (I’m thinking Angel). I remember them buying a big set of shiny ornaments (the kind that break easily) that included a spike/spire, but they already had a topper, so didn’t use it.
Usually a spike – I have several – old and new. But this year I’m using a weird disco ball my mother once made out of a styrofoam ball and some gold beads and a bit of gold Mylar. It suited the tree better than a spike.
We have Yoda holding a light up light saber. We got it as a gift. My husband is a nerd.
I forgot this: our realtor was at our house for the final inspection. We were not (yay). Today the realtor showed me a picture he took at our house: Yoda on top of the tree. He’s also a nerd.
We didn’t have a tree topper until this year. I let my daughter pick it out, and she picked the sparkliest star Target offered. My husband wanted a snowflake. My parents have a white bird on top of theirs that my dad calls the “Bird of Peace.” There’s probably a story behind it, but growing up I just thought that was a normal tree topper.
We have a Jack Skellington topper from Nightmare Before Christmas. He hugs it.
I seem to remember a white and gold dressed angel with lights where her hands would be when I was growing up. I cannot remember how we possibly plugged it in! For the last umpteen years, I’ve had a huge low-tech star. I glued on foil and then overlaid that with clear, iridescent butterscotch-colored wrapping plastic. It glimmers nicely in low or high light, but I have to tie it on with a twist tie! It works for us.
We have a Yoda (with green lightsaber that lights up) Tree topper. My husband is a huge star wars nerd and he loves the Yoda!
This would be so cool as an open Pinterest board, where ur blog readers could post a pic of their topper! Idk how much work that is, tho…
Also, I LOVE the idea of a homemade topper! If I start next week, I might get it done for next Christmas… (Generic star right now, no one loves it).
Growing up we had an angel that my mother made for the top of the tree.
Now we have a wooden bird I bought in Germany that goes on top.