Our tree this year
Warren and I do not own an artificial tree. We don't go to tree farms in the area and cut our own. Instead, we go to a nearby nursery or other business that sells pre-cut trees, which is exactly what we did last Sunday.
This year's tree is tall and skinny and scrawny. My dear friend David, on seeing a photo of it, immediately called it a Charlie Brown tree, invoking "A Charlie Brown Christmas," which first aired in 1965 when we were growing up. It was dropping needles even as we were setting it up in the tree stand.
Once it was upright, we brought up the containers of lights and bulbs we store in the basement year round. But as we started on the lights, Warren and I looked at each other.
"We have more lights than tree."
Sure did. So we put some of our strings of lights on the tree and put the rest aside.
Once the lights were on, we looked at the tree and then looked at each other again.
"This tree isn't going to hold a lot of ornaments."
Sure wasn't.
"What if we just put on 'our' ornaments?"
When Warren and I celebrated our very first Christmas together, we bought an ornament just for "us" to mark our new start. For the next few Christmases, we would buy one ornament that was special just to us. As time went on, we started to buy ornaments from our travels and experiences: Montana, Oregon, Mayo, Colorado. Other "ornaments" marked our years together: a price tag off of a outdoor sculpture we bought in 2020 as we climbed out of the pandemic, eclipse glasses (of course) for 2024. We keep them in a separate container, so we knew where they were. By the time we put "our" ornaments on the tree, it was full. Warren put on two small beaded garlands dating back to Ben's early years, and the tree was done.
Almost all of the rest of the holiday things—ornaments, family heirloom items, wreaths, bulbs, and so on—went back in the basement.
On Wednesday, we were at Kroger to get my dad a few items and Warren saw that the outdoor wreaths were marked down to $5.00. So one of those came home to hang on our outdoor wall.
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| And the wreath. See the bells? |
1. We bought the tree on December 15. That is the earliest we have brought home a tree in years. All the previous years, Warren's job as Executive Director of the Symphony, along with his playing percussion and timpani, kept the month full. December is still full for him as a timpanist, but there is no Symphony to carry.
2. The tree was originally priced at $64.99 at TSC. It was marked down to $19.99 as the store looked to sell off its remaining cut tree. So basically that was a 70% discount.
3. The wreath was originally $19.99. so at $5.00, that was a 75% discount. It has two metal bells as ornaments, which will go into Warren's percussion holdings, so that basically was a bonus.
Our Christmas decorating this year raised for later discussion whether we have too much holiday stuff ranging from bulbs to lights to garlands.
When is enough enough? When is too much too much? These are questions we will likely kick around in 2025 when Warren and I put away the ornaments and lights.
There is a Zen saying that "enough is a feast." I wrote about it years ago and I still have mixed feelings about it. I suspect some of my feelings arise from my continuing to volunteer in settings where for many, "enough" is out of reach.
But in our home this year, we have more than enough. On the tree and in our hearts. And it indeed is a feast.
3 comments:
I'll stay with the feast. (WH)
Of course you will, dear one.
A lovely post, and one I can relate to. We also picked up our tree on the 15th, and got a smaller one than usual this year, 4' at best, but the 6' ones were at or around $100. Yikes! We did want to support the NC tree farmers, many of whom were hard hit by Hurricane Helene, but weren't prepared to pay quite that. It's in an old crock on a table, and will serve us well. We've just gotten lights on it tonight, just two strings, and plan to only use our favorite ornaments. I love you got the bonus bells!
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