I was inspired by Kathryn's post today to talk about Christmas trees, and my family's trees in particular.
Pine vs. Plastic
I am a big fan of the all-natural pine. I grew up out in the country and in my mind there was just no excuse not to go cut a real tree. One of my favorite trees was the year my Dad went out to cut a pine from a hillside. Yep, you guessed it, we ended up with a crooked tree! The poor thing had grown at an angle in order to make it on that steep hill. It made us laugh through the whole holiday season. The smell of a pine tree in the house was the true sign of Christmas. Of course, I never had to be the one doing the chopping or vacuuming up the needles as they fell. I think my only Christmas tree chores were to water it sometimes and to turn the lights off at night. So the real tree was fairly low-stress for me.
When I was in my teens, Mom decided that the real tree was too much work. And, doubtless, my brother and I were no help. Plus I think this was around the time we started going on major trips over the holidays, and she didn't want to worry about a real tree as a mess and a fire hazard in the house. So she bought one of those plastic trees that I think are just awful - the kind you build branch by branch by sticking them into the main pole that smells nothing like a tree trunk. I thought the plastic tree was just depressing, and it had none of the charm of a real one. But, I guess my Mom had enough of charm and didn't want to create lots of underappreciated work for herself. I have a feeling that's one of those things that I'll understand when I'm a mom.
Decoration: Different Strokes
I have actually participated in heated debates about the "proper" way to decorate a Christmas tree. Of course, there is no proper way, but I'm a colored lights girl for sure! Yes, I appreciate the beauty and simplicity of the all-white lights tree, but that's just not the way I like it. Lights should be bright, and blinking, and even bubbling! Yep, my family had those great late-70's, early-80's bubble lights. They were the coolest. Stringing the lights was always Dad's job, and some years he managed to get the outside lights on too. We had these 3 giant snowball bushes that surrounded our front porch, and they looked great with the colored lights on them. Of course, if we had already had a blizzard by Christmas, then the lights didn't make it out that year.
We were not an icicles family. With six dogs, you just don't want that much loose plastic floating around the house. We did use garland sometimes, but it's not my favorite. I don't really need shiny metallic plastic on my tree to make me happy.
We decorated the tree with the whole gamut of ornaments. Everything from the shiny traditional ball ornaments to the spray-painted spools of thread with glitter and macaroni that we madein kindergarten. Hmmm, I can't remember any particular favorite. There were some Snoopy ornaments that were great, and there were engraved gold ones that were for "baby's first Christmas," one for me and one for my brother.
Worst Christmas Tree Story
Christmas 1997 marked the first time I brought Cleo, trusty cat, home for the holidays. That was "kitty's first Christmas" and it was nearly her last. As my friends know, Cleo and my mother have NEVER gotten along. I think my Mom hasn't forgiven her for not being a dog. Or a kid. Perish the thought.
Anyway, we had spent a lot of time on the phone planning for cat-proofing the hosue before I got home. The house I grew up in was a big old farmhouse and there wre no doors separating the rooms on the 1st floor - they were all these open archways. We had a formal dining room and a formal living room - where the tree was every year - and the way we'd kept the dogs out of the nice rooms was to put up some of those kiddie-proof gates and a big sheet of plexiglas. That worked for the dogs, but of course a cat can jump over those things. Oops.
So, I swear, in the first hour that we're there.... Cleo met and already annoyed the last of our Scotties, Abigail. Now Abby was the queen of the house and my Mom's absolute favorite, probably more so than my dad or either of us kids. So it's getting off on a bad foot to start, with Mom telling me to keep Cleo away from Abby. Right, easier said than done. Then trusty cat wanders off and *just* when I start thinking "huh, I wonder where she is" I hear this CRASH! from the living room. Yep, Cleo had gotten in there and CLIMBED RIGHT UP THE TREE until the whole thing just fell over. Yeah, good way to make an impression, cat. Luckily, it was in the plastic tree era, so all was not lost. I just had to spend an hour putting the whole thing back together and redecorating.
Christmas 2005
This year will be a little different, and I'm kinda bummed about it. Mom and Dad moved to Indiana in 2002 and re-adopted the real pine strategy, which made me happy. The last few years we've had some really nice trees. But this December is crazy for them, since they're moving into a new house on 12/29. They've already packed up almost everything and will be sending a first truck of stuff over before I even get there. So, of course, Mom has way too much on her plate to worry about a real tree this year. So she went out and bought a little table-top fake tree. :-( Yes, I appreciate her effort in trying to still make moving week Christmas-y, but I think it's gonna be very Charlie Brown. Stay tuned, I'll be sure to post pictures.
So what about you? Any strong ideas on Christmas tree do's and don't's? Any favorite memories?
6 comments:
The one modern invitation I can't stand is those light "nets" that people just throw over outdoor trees (and sometimes indoors!) and call it a day. Where is the effort? Where is the artful arrangement, like winding the first part of the strand around the trunk, all the way up, so that the tree appears lit from within, then weaving in and out around the outer branches??? Weak!
Oooh, I've never seen one of those nets but it totally sounds like cheating! I think our outdoor light strands weren't really long enough for us to use very often in the NY house. I seem to recall we had them even at the Minnesota house, when I was 4 and under, and that had a much smaller yard so we had shorter strings of lights. But a net? Please, you're better off not trying.
Last week I picked up a 'decorate your own live christmas tree kit' (or something like that) from targét. Barely one foot tall, barely $9, looks like a miniature well-packed christmas tree, and it came with a bunch of ornaments and garland.
The best part is that the star at the top of the tree droops over one way cause its too heavy for the poor tiny tree. Oh, and it looks like a cat toy, so I kind of have it hidden up and far away from the kitties, but still it does have front window priviledges.
Aaah, childhood memories. We always made a big deal out of decorating the tree-baking cookies and popcorn, but what a mess!!!Ok, deal with it then, but what about taking the tree down and putting away all of the stuff? Kids had evapoarted by then and hubby was at work(or in the barn). The expensive artifical tree was because we spent a month (including Xmas) in Australia. The tree actually stayed up all year long, in our hot tub/porch room, so there. My dislike of Cleo's behavior predates the tree episode, something about walking on kitchen counters is NOT endearing. Every Xmas is different and it should be-how else are you going to be able to remember the season. If everyone were alike and a copycat what is the point; family memories are most fun when unexpected things happen; it is just that the unexpected seemed to be the norm for this group of four. Happy holidays, the mobile Mathews
Of course I prefer a real tree, problem with city living, they are expensive! But I think we're doing it this year! And MUST have tinsel/icicles! MUST MUST MUST. Garland was not allowed in our house when I was growing up. But grandma used it on the fake tree she had, guess there were allergies?
My favorite ornaments were the ones my grandmother made..>I don't think I have any now though? Maybe I do...they were the glass colored balls and grandma would crochet with thread, little 'nets' for the balls, they were beautiful. She made dozens every year. I know I had 6 at one point, but some devil I used to live with stole them from me!!!!
Colored Lights, no blinking, fading is ok, blinking cause me to freak out!
THE NETS are awful!
Nets: suck - they're for lazy people.
Fake versus real: since my family spent enough Christmases of my youth in countries where Christmas was just another day, the fake ones served us well. Then we had cats that vomited pine needles all over the house. So fake has its advantages.
Tinsel: big pain in the butt to clean up - but if you apply enough of it and have a fake tree, you really only have to use it every other year...
Ornaments: anything with a story is great, or something that *looks* like it might have one. Or else those huge colored glass balls that look like they came from the 1950s.
Lights: I prefer colors, but I appreciate the elegance of the white lights, like you said, Stef.
Ah, Christmas...
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