O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...

[jaunthie]

Why do I put up a Christmas Tree every year? Particularly this year, when a) most of the family will be out of town and b) it is a trouble magnet for felines?

It's a good question. Part of it is undoubtedly tied up in my own happy memories of assembling the Christmas Tree when I was a child. It was a full-blown family ritual; Dad would stay home from work, Mom would organize us all and enlist our help in carrying boxes out from under the stairs and into the living room, we'd put the Ritual Christmas Music (TM) on the tape player, Mom and Dad would agree on where to put the tree stand and put together the base, and then we would all start dividing up the branches and carefully put them in place, one level at a time...

What? You didn't put together your tree every year? Ah. Well, we did. We had a fake tree that lived in boxes under the stairs, and every year we put that tree together. And it was a blast. My sister had allergy problems as a child, so no real tree for us growing up, but honestly, we loved the put-the-tree-together ritual just as much as we loved decorating it. It was great family fun.

I don't have a fake tree these days. Every year, fisherbear and I go out to the local tree farm stand and support our local economy by buying a real tree. It's never very big, and this year it's really small. It was technically a "table top" tree, although I think you'd have to have a room with very tall ceilings to get away with putting this baby on top of it. I'm guessing it's at least four feet tall. But it was in the table top pile, and we wanted a small tree this year, and it was perfect (and cheap), so we brought it home. It isn't big enough for the full set of lights or ornaments, but it is certainly big enough to need the longest single strand of tree lights I have. I didn't get out all the colored glass balls, just the "special" ornaments that mean something to us, and they cover the tree pretty well. There are a few empty-ish spots, but nothing too glaring.

And I suppose that's one of the big reasons why I like putting up a tree each year, even though it's a lot of hassle and we don't really have any big celebrations planned. So many of our ornaments are memories, reminders of a special occasion or a friend's ornament-making party or a gift from a loved one. I'd miss having them out, miss seeing them. So it's worth the trouble.

Plus I'm just a sucker for glittery things, lights, and the smell of evergreen. Nothing wrong with that. :-)

Comments

[sunkrux.livejournal.com]

I've had my wee, teeny, tiny Christmas tree (a true table top tree) up for about a week now. It's sitting on top of my TV (that's how wee, teeny, tiny it is). I like putting up a tree too. :D

[tangerinpenguin.livejournal.com]

There will be a tree back at my parents. We've gone back and forth between artificial and live over time, but it must be, and it must be thoroughly ornamented. I've yet to set up one of my own, in part because it's really a shared thing, and in part because I always head back to my folks for Christmas so I'd be leaving it for a week or so around the key dates anyway (my long-established plan is Christmas out east with the family, then back to my place for New Year's and any local festivities)