Earlier in the Christmas season, I was listening to several people talk about how they cut their own Christmas tree, and always buy a fresh tree, and that the smell in your house is so much better. I even talked to someone who grew her own greens in her backyard so she could cut fresh holly and greens at Christmas time. I was a little envious. We have a large fake tree. It is a very nice tree, and cost over $200 at Lowe's, and I thought George was very generous to shell out that kind of money for a Christmas tree, so that we could have a nice full tall one, but it doesn't smell like pine. Even with the little drops of pine fragrance that I bought for it, it still doesn't smell really good.
Today I am un-decorating the tree, and, frankly, I am very grateful that we have a "fake" tree. There are a multitude of reasons for my gratitude, including the fact that I don't get scratched with pine needles and get red welts on my hands, the needles aren't falling all over the floor and getting caught in the floorboards and window sills, and the tree makes it easy to take the decorations off. This year I had a kitty proof tree, and almost all the decorations were unbreakable. I hung them with ribbons, and had a soft yarn and felt garland that was easy on the hands, and came off the tree like a dream. There's something to be said for a kitty-proof tree. The ornaments are indestructible and harmless to animals...and to me.
I can remember years when the tree turned brittle and the branches drooped. My pretty Christmas balls dropped off the tree and smashed, and when bits of the dried up tree would get caught in the hooks as you tried to take them off. Trying to get a dry falling-apart tree out the front door of the house was a crisis. I am not envious of that experience. I also don't miss feeling bad about that poor dead tree in front of the house, when it had been so fresh and beautiful in the forest just a month or so before.
This year, I am also grateful that I can un-decorate any time I want, and there is no emergency to get the tree out before it cracks apart. Yes, it doesn't smell as good a fresh tree, and the experience of getting the fake tree out of storage is not nearly as festive as going out to a snowy field to cut your own tree, but next year I'm going to look at the process all the way through to the end...and celebrate the good points.
Have a great day.
