Christmas Decorating
How I love to have a nice sparkly Christmas tree set up in the sunroom!
How I hate to put the damned thing up each year!
When I was a kid, my mom would only allow one type of Christmas tree in the house: a balsam fir. It was the type of tree her family had every year when she was little, and nothing else would do. One year, when I was 9 or 10, we waited a tad too long to purchase the tree, and the local lot was out of balsams. My dad, being a practical sort, figure it would be okay for us to have a scotch pine just this once. Oh no. Mom made him return the tree (not sure how he managed that--I've never attempted a Christmas tree return myself), and he ended up driving all the way to Staunton (before the Interstate) to hunt out an honest-to-god balsam. And, like my mom, it's my favorite type of Christmas tree.
Unlike my mom in days of yore, however, I don't insist on it or nothing.
In fact, about five years ago Jeff and I made the tough decision to buy a fake tree. Our condo is an old, long unit with a 30-foot-long hall between the living room and the dining room, and condo rules and regs say that you have to bring Christmas trees in the back door. The best place for the tree, however, is in the very front of the unit, in the sunroom. I'm not sure how many feet it is from the center of the sunroom to the hall, or how many feet lie between the place where the hallway enters the dining room to the back door (the kitchen intervenes), but we're talking more than 50 feet between the point at which a "live" tree enters the unit and the spot where it is finally set up. And then there's the trip out, once the holidays have ended. Let's just say we got tired of having the soles of our feet impaled by evergreen needles in July--after at least half a year of regular vacuuming on the hall runner.
So we bought the fake tree on sale about a week before Christmas, way back then. We didn't get one of the prelit trees, because I like to use the C7 bulbs for vintage appeal. And we didn't get one of those ones you just take out of the box and shake and voila! You've got yourself a tree ready for the trimming! Those weren't on sale. Nope. We bought a nice and, I think you will agree, very natural-looking tree... but it was in pieces. You have to put up the "trunk" and then insert color-coded "branches" of graduated lengths into the "trunk" to build the tree. I also put the lights on each tier as I assemble, so putting the tree up takes the better part of an evening--and then trimming it takes another.
But I have to say: all the time and backaches and shoulder aches and weird rashes and teeny paper cuts are worth it in the long run--we have a tree up! Yea!
So... check out some of the pretty ornaments and junk:
The little plastic canary is from my childhood--and my guess is that it goes way, way, way back to around the time my parents were married, right after WW2. The lantern to the left is not from my stash of family ornaments--I bought it at an antique store out around Touhy and Harlem--but it is exactly the same as some of the ornaments that graced my childhood tree. And I just love the comets and stars and planets Christmas ball--I always pick those up when I find them in junk and antique shops.
We call this ornament "Tycho Brahe," even though it is really Humpty Dumpty. I bought this my first Christmas in Chicago, as a present for Jeff. I thought he would appreciate its weirdness--on the side you can see, it's all nice and happy, but on the OTHER side, it has another face all scrunched up and pissed off. Unfortunately, the ornament only remained intact for that one Christmas. As we (well, as I) was taking ornaments off the tree, it slipped out of my grip and fell. The nose on the pissed-off Humpty broke off, leaving a gaping hole. Hence, the name. Although we have not yet gotten around to fashioning a golden (or silver or copper, depending on whom you consult) nose for the poor guy.
This is Jeff's ornament, a nod to his devotion to Bob and the Church of the Subgenius.
And this picture just makes me happy. The silly but cool Christmas cat and the way-old-fashioned metallic yet plastic red cage ornament. I don't think you can really see it, but a camel reclines inside the cage!
Of course, you realize that the hell of taking down the tree will comprise its own post as well, right?
How I hate to put the damned thing up each year!
When I was a kid, my mom would only allow one type of Christmas tree in the house: a balsam fir. It was the type of tree her family had every year when she was little, and nothing else would do. One year, when I was 9 or 10, we waited a tad too long to purchase the tree, and the local lot was out of balsams. My dad, being a practical sort, figure it would be okay for us to have a scotch pine just this once. Oh no. Mom made him return the tree (not sure how he managed that--I've never attempted a Christmas tree return myself), and he ended up driving all the way to Staunton (before the Interstate) to hunt out an honest-to-god balsam. And, like my mom, it's my favorite type of Christmas tree.
Unlike my mom in days of yore, however, I don't insist on it or nothing.
In fact, about five years ago Jeff and I made the tough decision to buy a fake tree. Our condo is an old, long unit with a 30-foot-long hall between the living room and the dining room, and condo rules and regs say that you have to bring Christmas trees in the back door. The best place for the tree, however, is in the very front of the unit, in the sunroom. I'm not sure how many feet it is from the center of the sunroom to the hall, or how many feet lie between the place where the hallway enters the dining room to the back door (the kitchen intervenes), but we're talking more than 50 feet between the point at which a "live" tree enters the unit and the spot where it is finally set up. And then there's the trip out, once the holidays have ended. Let's just say we got tired of having the soles of our feet impaled by evergreen needles in July--after at least half a year of regular vacuuming on the hall runner.
So we bought the fake tree on sale about a week before Christmas, way back then. We didn't get one of the prelit trees, because I like to use the C7 bulbs for vintage appeal. And we didn't get one of those ones you just take out of the box and shake and voila! You've got yourself a tree ready for the trimming! Those weren't on sale. Nope. We bought a nice and, I think you will agree, very natural-looking tree... but it was in pieces. You have to put up the "trunk" and then insert color-coded "branches" of graduated lengths into the "trunk" to build the tree. I also put the lights on each tier as I assemble, so putting the tree up takes the better part of an evening--and then trimming it takes another.
But I have to say: all the time and backaches and shoulder aches and weird rashes and teeny paper cuts are worth it in the long run--we have a tree up! Yea!
So... check out some of the pretty ornaments and junk:
The little plastic canary is from my childhood--and my guess is that it goes way, way, way back to around the time my parents were married, right after WW2. The lantern to the left is not from my stash of family ornaments--I bought it at an antique store out around Touhy and Harlem--but it is exactly the same as some of the ornaments that graced my childhood tree. And I just love the comets and stars and planets Christmas ball--I always pick those up when I find them in junk and antique shops. We call this ornament "Tycho Brahe," even though it is really Humpty Dumpty. I bought this my first Christmas in Chicago, as a present for Jeff. I thought he would appreciate its weirdness--on the side you can see, it's all nice and happy, but on the OTHER side, it has another face all scrunched up and pissed off. Unfortunately, the ornament only remained intact for that one Christmas. As we (well, as I) was taking ornaments off the tree, it slipped out of my grip and fell. The nose on the pissed-off Humpty broke off, leaving a gaping hole. Hence, the name. Although we have not yet gotten around to fashioning a golden (or silver or copper, depending on whom you consult) nose for the poor guy. This is Jeff's ornament, a nod to his devotion to Bob and the Church of the Subgenius. And this picture just makes me happy. The silly but cool Christmas cat and the way-old-fashioned metallic yet plastic red cage ornament. I don't think you can really see it, but a camel reclines inside the cage!Of course, you realize that the hell of taking down the tree will comprise its own post as well, right?
posted by Cathy VanPatten at 8:02 PM
1 Comments:
Oh, the breakage! The first year we had Christmas in the condo, I dropped the glass ballerina ornament I'd had since my very first Christmas, and she smashed into a million pieces. I was distraught! I have not been able to find a similar one, even on ebay (although I bought a dancer a few years ago at Marshall Fields--now late lamented and called Macy's--feh!, but the two are not comparable). If I ever do find one anywhere, though, I'll pay whatever the seller asks!
Merry Christmas to you and your folks!
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