They're setting up a Christmas tree lot a few blocks from my house. I passed it on the way to work this morning and immediately thought - "Oh, a Christmas tree! I should get one this year!" Except that I haven't had a Christmas tree since I left home 15 years ago. Such a shame.
While everyone else was getting a jump on their Christmas shopping the day after Thanksgiving, I was always dragging my mother around town in our VW Van hunting for the perfect tree: fresh enough to give off that intoxicating pine scent through the New Year, full enough to make a statement, but not so full that I can't wrap lights around each individual branch.
Yes, each branch must be wrapped individually. White lights only. I'm very particular . . .which is why I was pretty much the only decorator of the tree in our house. I'd wrap lights and place decorations while Mom scurried around putting out all the other decorations - the nativity scenes and wreaths and nutcrackers.
Decorating for Christmas was always my favorite part of the season and every night before bed, I'd turn out the room lights and sit in the glow of the tree thinking happy holiday thoughts.
When did I turn into the Scrooge of Christmas decor? Now I can't be bothered with the expense of the decorations; the hassle of storing them the rest of the year; the possibility that the tree will catch fire and burn the apartment building down while I'm out. After all, I'm never home enough to really enjoy a tree, so there doesn't seem to be a point. I settled for a poinsettia and a stocking on the mantle last year.
This morning - for a few delirious minutes - I thought I'd turn over a new leaf and buy a tree from the lot down the street. Then I remembered that not even my mom has a tree anymore. She just strings a multi-colored strand on an old ficus and calls it merry. We've both been bitten by the same Scrooge bug.
Or maybe it wasn't so much the decorating we enjoyed as the decorating together.
1 comment:
Exactly!
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