"Oh Christmas Tree"

Our family (well, at least the Big Guy, my daughter, and me) are staunch traditionalists when it comes to Christmas.   Green tree, white lights, every ornament we own, 3 different garlands in gold and red.  Our tree has essentially looked the same every year since 1967 with just minor tweaks (mostly the tree got bigger!)   If I remember correctly we only had a "real" tree once in all that time.  We decided on artificial mainly because of safety concerns (my mom passed her concern on to me!)  But I just didn't want to deal with tree needles embedding themselves in our carpet, never to be seen again until March or April when they would suddenly reappear, poking themselves into the foot of any hapless family member who might like to walk around barefoot when Spring and Summer arrive!! 

We have gone through several trees over the years.  They generally are not known for their longevity!  Evidently the life span of an artificial tree tops out at about 10 years (if you have been very careful!).  At that point they look pretty bedraggled and small little accidents over the years have left some limbs broken, the stand somehow won't hold the tree straight anymore, and all those needles that were supposed to stay on the tree still end up in the carpet waiting to sabotage us in the Spring just like a real tree.

We bought our most recent tree about six years ago or so, I think.  This one was a major step up for us.  The lights were already attached to the tree.  In our family the worst part of Christmas was always the same....Mikey putting on the lights!  Awful process!!  There is a recording that came out a few years ago that reminds me of our former misery with lights so well. The guy who sings about putting up the lights, is spot on!  Of course, I can't remember the actual name of the song or who recorded it, but it is a parody of The 12 Days of Christmas .  It is very funny!  But I digress....

Getting the pre-lit tree has made Christmas a gazillion times better.  For us the shape is the most important thing.  With all the different types of fir trees there are, that gives tree makers a lot of options of what tree to imitate....Douglas fir, Nobel fir, Frasier Fir, Austrian Pine, Blue Spruce, and the others.  But the tree that we like the best is whatever one is constructed in such a way that the boughs and needles sort of sag downward in a graceful fashion.  Just like you might see in a snow covered tree in the forest.  Obviously that is not the actual name of the tree.  No one would name anything  "The Boughs-and-Needles-Sort-of-Sag-Downward-Gracefully-Just-Like-a-Snow-Covered-Tree-in-the-Forest Tree" for obvious reasons!  (What that means is I don't know the name of that kind of fir!)

Well, our current tree is beginning to show its age.  It loses needles and pieces of the boughs, one of the light sections won't light, and we have all but run out of room for all the ornaments we have.  So I imagine we will need to buy another tree in a year or two. 

However, I have been inspired to do something a bit different this year.  I'm going to take our very old tabletop size Christmas tree that we bought decades ago and could never bring ourselves to discard and if I can convince the Big Guy, I am going to spray paint it white and move all of our white, cream, ivory, and gold ornaments over to that tree which will fit very nicely on the round wood antique table we inherited from my mom's cousin which currently lives in our Family Room. That will also help solve the overcrowding ornaments on the main tree!   (Surprise Mikey!  What do you think of my latest brainstorm, Bunky??)

If he says yes, (not necessarily a given), and if  all goes the way it should, and the way I want it to, we will end up with a second tree that looks a lot like the one below  that made me want one too!  Isn't it delightful?

http://ashtreecottage.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-in-moms-solarium.html?showComment=1323417120373#c4491435746232471206

Thanks to Susan (and Bentley) at Ash Tree Cottage, "Christmas in Mom's Solarium." Go visit her blog, she has a few more photos!

I think it would look great!  Don't you?  Then every year we could sing, "Oh, Christmas Tree-s!"