So, is your tree up yet?
We don’t have ours up yet, but will probably get it up this weekend.
J didn’t want to get one because of the mess, but he’s being overruled. I love having a Christmas tree. When I was little, I’d turn on the tree lights and just lay under it and stare at it for hours. Our tree was always decorated with a random, eclectic assortment of ornaments, accumulated through my and my brother’s childhood. Some of my favorites were ones that I had made over the years in school — little crosstitch stockings or wreaths. We had several strings of colored lights — different sized-bulbs, some flashing, some not.
My mother always insisted on tinsel. I’m not a big fan of the tinsel, though. I also liked these snowflakes made out of straw or thin pieces of bamboo that we received as a gift one year. My mother began collecting glass spindles to be used as ornaments. They are quite beautiful.
Some years, we would go out in the country to a Christmas tree farm and tromp through the fields, looking for that tree that was meant just for us.
Since his parents divorced when he was little, I think J’s Christmas memories are mostly of deciding who he had to spend the holiday with and shuttling back and forth between his mom and his dad’s families, neither totally his own.
So, we made a deal. I told him that we were having a tree without question this year and that I could either go out and get some cheap-ass artificial tree now OR we could get a live tree again this year and I could shop the sales for a decent artificial one for future years if you continues to be averse to live ones. He opted for this scenario. Yay!
The first year we were here, we got our tree at the Moravian Church around the corner. Looking for a better deal, we got a small tree last year out of the lot at the grocery store. This year, I think we will go to a lot that is being run by a local non-profit organization. (I’m on a mission to make choices that “give back” first to the local community — some of the stuff we do at church, etc. benefits those in need internationally, but we have people with tremendous need right here, too.)
Anyway, I’m hoping to start putting other decorations up this week — I plugged in our Moravian star tonight and set it up on the timer to stay on for a couple of hours every night. Can’t wait to wrap our banisters with garland and lights. And my mom gave Daniel a Christmas bear that glows with fiber-optic lights which change color. Tacky, no doubt, but the babes love it, so we do too.
And hanging the stockings on the mantle. We need to add another one for Mr. A, as it is his 1st Christmas. (He only missed it last year by four days.)
So, tell us about your tree. Or tell us what your favorite decoration or thing to decorate is.
Our townhomes are nestled in a pretty nice neighborhood, and we’ve already got quite a competitive light show happening out there! Myself, I refuse to put a thing up until December. I hate to have the joy of my own decorations, at least, fade by the time Christmas (or am I only allowed to say Xmas?
) arrives.
I’m putting up lighted garlands on the garage this weekend. Not sure about the tree, though… probably not.
I ordered my Radko tabletop village at the beginning of November… and it hasn’t even shipped yet. I’m not happy.
Comment by Jennie — November 29, 2005 @ 4:53 pm
I think fake trees are pretty, and the ones that come with lights already on them are so tempting, but there’s just something about a real tree.
Danny doesn’t want a real tree because of the mess, but it’s not debatable.
We’ll probably get a real tree this weekend, though it’ll be a small one so that we can put it up on a small table to keep it out of Kal’s reach a little.
We have a nice outdoor fireplace, so we’ll probably avoid tinsel so that we can burn the branches later this winter and maybe even make s’mores.
Comment by mel — November 29, 2005 @ 9:38 pm
Oh, yeah, fake here. I’m such a sap - I can’t bring myself to kill a tree every year. The thought of cutting it down literally makes me a little weepy inside. Which is kind of stupid, I know, when considering my paper towel addiction
Comment by Jennie — November 29, 2005 @ 11:26 pm