The Christmas Tree Saga !
We put our tree up a while ago, and I remember well telling Emery last year that I thought this tree was on its last legs. We purchased it about 9 years ago. The floor was covered with fake pine needles from setting it up and that reminded me just how old the tree was. Then yesterday while I was preparing to put some decorations on the tree, there was a strange creaking sound, then the tree began to rock back and forth a bit, next thing I knew it was crashing into the window ! The stand had crumbled to pieces. I wanted to cry. Last night Emery took me Christmas tree shopping. Things change a lot in 9 years price wise. We were not prepared for the prices of the artificial trees, so headed off to the real tree lot hoping to fare a bit better. Well the ones we liked were $50. Emery reasoned in three years we would have the price of an artificial tree. Better investment to buy fake considering we had the last one 9 years. Off we went with a renewed sense of the cost of these plastic trees. There was a few that were o.k. looking but not that "ohhhh that's the one" kinda feeling. We had money saved for Christmas that we had not used so...I made that look....the one that says, "but I really like that one" and ended up with a pretty tree. Not any crazy priced one mind you, but one we could live with and yet still looked nice. We went for many years with no tree at all due to religious conviction which makes it harder and easier to justify buying a tree that cost over $100.
Easier, because you can tell yourself, "well we deserve a nice tree after all those years without one" and then on the flip side, there is the little voice saying, " you could have bought food for some poor family with that money" or I simply remember why we didn't have a tree all those years and feel a bit confused as to what I honestly do believe and what I just simply want to have.
My children still feel a bit cheated about all those Christmases spent without a tree, even though everyone they knew didn't have one either.
At any rate, the tree is up, decorated with simple ornaments.
We don't light the candles on the tree normally, but I did light one for the picture. Lib, the heart looks so pretty !
Comments
We have always done a tree, but don't do Santa. I've often wondered if my children felt badly about that. It broke my heart when two years ago my then 7 year old daughter asked me why we didn't like Santa. All those years, she thought that he was real, but that we didn't want him to come to our home.
Your tree is so pretty!!
I say get a large piece of construction paper and cut out a Christmas tree and tape it to the wall...LOL.
We have a 6 foot artificial white tree that I bought at the Dollar General in 2001 when we first married. It's still in great condition! Got it for $20!
Of course now that I see more trees that are bigger and pre lit, me and my pride is like "I want one of those...." LOL. DH said after Christmas when everything is 50% off, if I still wanted a 7.5 foot pre lit tree I can get it because it would be like $45 or less with the discount.
Maybe I can give the white tree to my mom...either that or just have it in our bedroom next year...who knows...