I am, and have always been, a big believer in the cut-your-own xmas trees. The experience of stepping through a dusting of snow, with a cold saw in your gloved hands, scoping for a tree that fits your personal style and then the teamwork involved in taking that sucker down. But it wouldn’t make any sense for WoDM and I to get a live tree. We don’t have room for a big one, so cut-your-own isn’t a particularly good deal for us (there’s usually one standard price for a type of tree, rather than prices based on differing heights). It’s not like I have children I want to teach how to saw or share the experiences I remember of going out for trees with my dad, sometimes my mom, sometimes my cousins and aunts and uncles.
But, a tree is sort of the center of my xmas. I love trees. I love tree lights. I love making and hanging ornaments and I love the way different colored lights look reflecting off white walls and windows in a dark room. It makes me feel warm and happy. When I was younger, the first lights I used to turn on when I woke up were the tree lights. My mother could generally bribe me to clean the house, my room, whatever with the promise of a tree or christmas lights until the time I… well, honestly, until last year.
It’s not that I hate fake trees, either. We had fake trees when I was little, too, and my mom has a fake tree now. They don’t look that bad, they still serve the function of a christmas tree for me (minus the experience of cutting one). And they make more sense if you have a small space. But I have a hard time justifying a tree taking up space in my closet year-round so I can bring it out once a year for an entirely impractical purpose. I want to be utilitarian about it, but it’s hard for me. Trees, along with cooking and wrapping presents – those are my traditions. If I had to guess, I’d say xmas is among my favorite holidays for those traditions. Because those traditions remind me of being young, of being with all of my family – a lot of them I rarely see, a few of them I will never see again. Because I will actively make time for those activities, to participate in those activities with my family, with my friends.
It is a little bit strange to feel like a little insular family with just Michael and Inari and still want all the big family traditions. I will probably still invest in a fake tree, but it makes me frustrated that it will be sitting in my closet all year. Maybe I’ll put it out on our balcony year-round.
Anyway, I’ll give in and get a fake tree because it makes sense, but I’d really rather have a live one – even though that seems incredibly wasteful to me. There’s not really an easy way around it. Unless I picked a tree in the woods to call my xmas tree and went to visit it every day.
*sigh*
K.
The contents of this blog entry may not reflect the views of the Webmaster of Doom, Michael.
One Comment
actually, they often do charge less for the smaller ones at cut-your-own! we did that at the old townhouse where we didn’t have much room — though it was pretty close to Christmas when we did buy it, and you know how they drop the prices then…
There is something to say for the blend of your family traditions and Michael’s family traditions — it’s fun, actually, figuring out what is most important to you to continue and what is most important to him to continue, and blending them.
In my little N+me+dogs+cat family, it makes me smile because N and I both think of Christmas as when we were kids and we like to decorate with our little kid stuff. A lot of our friends/family decorate with the prim & proper ‘matchy matchy’ set stuff. That’s just not what we think of at Christmas — we think of colorful homemade ornaments and fun lights and stuff. I LOVE that.
I prefer real trees and probably will never get a fake one. But you could get a fake tree and just have it up year-round — and decorate it for all of the seasons / holidays? hehe.
Ah well! good luck with the tree thing. What does Michael think? (wondering if he will comment too).
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