Tuesday 21 November 2023

Decorating the tree

 

Decorating the tree

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

It is almost time, I feel, to decorate the Christmas tree. We used to have a real tree every year. Then I bought a smallish one with the intention of putting it in the garden to grow after its indoor stint and bringing it into the house every year thereafter. It grew lopsided and didn’t look at all right, with some lovely green needles and some less than lovely brown ones.

I love the smell of real trees but find the needles quite sharp and irritating, making tree decoration more of a challenge than it should be. They drop all over the floor and secrete themselves in strange places to reappear months later. So, I abandoned real trees a few years ago and eventually found a very pleasing artificial one that looks quite like the real thing.

Tree decoration is like a Damocles’ sword – it’s a task that hangs over my head, creating anxiety. How silly! Actually, the anxiety is caused by my uncertainty about where the tree went after the previous Christmas. It always used to go in one of the lofts and if I had been particularly organised after Twelfth Night, the decorations would be nearby. For some reason, or none, that habit died and storage became a moveable feast.

Having located the tree, I turn my attention to the lights. Before putting them away I wind the lengths of little lamps round rolled-up paper, to avoid them tangling. It doesn’t always work. Inevitably, after untangling them and having the annual argument about why I didn’t store them more carefully, to which my reply should be, ‘Do it yourself then!’ we have the festive ‘Testing Of The Lights’. This is another trial of patience and language control. Naturally, some of the lights don’t work and the replacement bulbs we have don’t fit because they are remnants from long-lost sets.

At last, everything is in place and the careful placing of ornaments can begin. Unfortunately, some of the hangers have parted company with their partners and must be repaired or replaced.

I used to leave the dressing of the tree until just before Christmas Eve, but when Susannah and Frankie came to live with us when Frankie was 16 months old, I changed my routine. This was largely because Frankie’s birthday is December 1st (the same as my late brother) and I wanted to make it more special for him.

They lived with us for five and a half years and it felt very strange, but perfectly right, when they moved into their own home.

It will be interesting to see Gilbert’s reaction to the tree. I suspect he will take pleasure in removing ornaments and taking them to his bed(s). I used to hang chocolate decorations on the tree until one year I discovered the wrappers were empty. One of the dogs had carefully sucked all the chocolate out. That was the prerogative of the children until they grew too old to indulge in such pursuits. We don’t have any glass ornaments, either. Although they’re very pretty, they break easily and are dangerous for small children and pets.

It’s all a very long way from my childhood when the tree was festooned with glass baubles and real lighted candles in clip-on holders. Simpler times, simpler pleasures, but somehow the magic remains even in these less innocent times.

 

 

32 comments:

  1. My tree and all the ornaments are in a big trunk in the shed/garage. I no longer put them up but can't bring myself to give them all away. I remember the one year I decided to put up real candy canes amongst the ornaments and woke up one summer morning to find the tree and the canes crawling with ants.

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    1. Ugh! What a shudder that provoked! Tree decorations evoke memories, don't they?

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  2. I really don't understand how lights can tangle themselves up like that when they are just sitting in storage, but they do. Maybe they aren't really sitting idle . . . I wonder what they might be doing :)

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    1. It is done by a fairy related to the one that removes one sock from the laundry at least once a month. Read Pratchett's The Hogfather for a full explanation on that.

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    2. It's like the hangers that reproduce and mingle . . .

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  3. I look forward to tree decorating, usual around the 10th December as that was my mother’s birthday and a date we always went by. Still a traditional tree here, I don’t find the needles drop anymore. Probably the trees are treated with glue or something. Over a good few years of teaching I was gifted some lovely decoration from the children so lots of memories. The tree is well and truly secured because of the cats and precious glass ornaments at the top, bounceable ones at the bottom. Happy decorating. B x

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    1. Real trees are incredibly expensive here, so that's another reason to desist.

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  4. Oh, yes! Roll on Christmas Tree Day. I have no pets so my decorations are safe. Well - safer, anyway! xx

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    1. Yours is going up at the weekend, isn't it? Exciting!

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  5. No being Christian, I have never seen a Christmas tree in my own home or any other family member or friend's home. Therefore dad's lodge group invited every member's children in December so that they could enjoy the glass baubles, stars, candles, tinsel, lollipops etc etc. I didn't know anything about the religious symbolism of the tree and its decorations, but I understood its beauty. And still do.

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    1. My son-in-law's family calls it the Hannukah Bush.

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  6. I have had my tree for years, the baubles are mainly glass, so I'm really careful dressing the tree. My cats aren't bothered with the tree, the two grandchildren have so far been good. December is the earliest date for the tree to come out, I do love a room lit by just the tree lights.

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    1. Tree lights make a room look so cosy and welcoming.

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  7. I like that the dogs sucked out the chocolate rather than ripping them off the tree. One of our dogs opened a Christmas present under the tree, and ate the box of chocolates, including most of the foil wrappings.

    Maybe you too can employ professional Christmas light untanglers as we can.

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    1. I wonder what 'professional Christmas light untanglers' do the rest of the year?

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  8. Oh yes, the joys of putting up the tree, haha. My daughter has got her tree up already, mine will go up at the beginning of December.

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    1. It gets earlier and earlier and I've noticed that outside Christmas decorations are being left longer and longer. I don't know whether it's a reaction to the miseries of dark nights and Covid restrictions.

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  9. We have Thanksgiving on Thursday. It is early on the calendar this year. I never put my tree up until Dec. first. I like to enjoy what is left of Autumn and the bright orange, yellow and crimson colors of it. Then onto an artificial tree and red and green colors. I use colored lights as I think white lights are no different than year round lamps. I wish my tree would turn out like the photo at the top of your blog, lol. I hope Gilbert enjoys the tree without incident.

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    1. My tree never looks as lovely as I imagine it's going to look and gets rearranged frequently. I love the lights, though, and ours are coloured, too.

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  10. We got our real tree too late one year and what was left was too big, so I put it up in the front garden and decorsted it with Oranges and Apples and bird seed blocks. At least the wildlife enjoyed it, 🙄

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    1. I think that's a lovely idea. Real trees are so expensive and big business in this area.

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  11. I love tree decorating time but OH and I have very different ideas so it can become stressful which rather goes against the spirit of the season! I love the idea above of decorating a real tree outdoors with bird feeders etc...........our lab is moulting so much at the moment that if we put the tree up soon we'll have plenty of fake 'snow' to use 😩
    Alison in Wales x

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  12. A Saluki - beautiful. I knew someone once who bred them. Your Nativity scene sounds lovely.

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  13. That's interesting, Alison. I'm picking up drifts of fur several times a day. I expect a certain amount from two cats and two Labradors, but this is unusual.

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    1. Very interesting...... huge lumps are coming out of Jas's coat!
      Alison x

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  14. We now just have a small "pull up" tree, with the decorations already attached. So lazy and not really particularly festive but we don't get many visitors anyway!

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  15. I like 'instant' - neat and effective.

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  16. I'm not ready to put up the tree yet, but have already been thinking about it. It's become a tricky thing ever since Bess came into our lives. Last year, she climbed into the tree on several occasions, dislodging whole (fake) branches and getting the lights into a tangle! Oh yes, and removing ornaments too! We can't have glass ornaments either, which is a shame, as we have some really nice family heirlooms! xxx

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    1. I can't remember our cats climbing the Christmas trees, but I'm sure the Burmese must have done. Our present cats do play with the ornaments, though.

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  17. I am sure your tree will be beautiful. Some years ago I gave up having a tree. It is a lot of work. Sigh. And as long as other people have trees, I am just fine with not having one. Smiles.

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  18. It will be what it will be :-)

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