Saturday, December 15, 2012

Countdown to Christmas


Happy Saturday friends! Our countdown continues and the tree is up! When I was little, we always had real trees. The kind that smelled up your house and left dried pine needles in the shag carpet! When I reached high school, my mom bought real trees--ones that came in pots and didn't look like the traditional cone shaped tree. Once Christmas season was over, she'd take it somewhere to get planted. She was green *way* before it was fashionable. :)

These days, we put up a fake tree. One that gets assembled in layers. Our current tree already has the lights wound through it so it can be somewhat of a puzzle to get set up.

Most of the time we set it up in front of the window even though it blocks the view of the TV from one end of the sofa. One year we put it in the kitchen since we had no table in there. (That had to have been last year or the year before...)

Now, we don't have a specific date to put it up, just whenever I have the time and feel like it. And can coax the kids into helping me. Growing up, it was always Dec. 15ish--to coincide with payday--since we had to buy the real one each year.

 The bottom of the tree in place.

 DH helping to connect the lights.

And the whole thing, sans ornaments. It's a big sucker, leaving barely enough room for the topper.


And as I promised Friday, another of my favorite Christmas songs...Hark the Herald Angels Sing.


What about you? Real tree or fake? A specific date or just whenever?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Looks great! Growing up, we always had a fake tree since my younger brother is allergic to the real ones. Now (thanks to my cats) I have a small fake tree that I can put on a table, out of reach of determined paws.

Char Newcomb said...

Gorgeous tree, Jen! I always loved the smell of a fresh pine - we always had the real thing when I was a kid. Once I had my own place I had the darnedest (spl?) luck with them. I don't know how many toppled over or were crooked. For many years after I moved to KS, we traveled back to FL for the holidays, so I only had a small fake tree. I graduated to a larger fake tree recently. It's pre-lighted too, sitting here without ornaments. I managed to get the stockings hung today. Maybe the tree decorating can begin tomorrow.