New Years day (for me) has always been the day for taking down the tree – I am usually sad about seeing the holidays come to an end. This season we put our tree up quite early. Jenna insisted we put it up the day after Thanksgiving. I don’t think I’ve ever decorated quite that early before.
It was a nice day. The tree was in the shed. Hauling it out would be no problem as there wasn’t any snow build up in the way of the doors or in the path I would trudge. I was grateful for Jenna’s enthusiasm and brought in all the decorations for her to choose what and where they would go.
The first artificial tree I remember was in a box. I don’t actually remember it on display. It was one of those very old silver ones that came with a color wheel – folks could plug in the wheel of four colors and the tree would appear to magically change colors as the wheel turned. A thing of the past. Quite lame by today’s standards.
I remember going to the tree lot when I was a kid. My brother and I always wanted a flocked tree. Flocked trees were cool. And you could actually buy them pre flocked or pay extra to have it done. It was rare that we had a green tree – but I do remember having them.
We would get home from the tree lot and it seemed like dad ALWAYS had to make an adjustment – cutting down its size to either fit it into the stand or trimming the top in order to get the star on top. It would never be even, and we always had 15 - 20 books around the stand so that it wouldn’t topple over.
I don’t remember ever having an artificial tree when dad was alive. I remember sap and pine needles and watering the tree – trying to prevent it from drying out and rarely succeeding. I remember pricking myself when attaching or trying to remove ornaments and I remember finding pine needles buried in the carpet long after the tree was taken down (apparently we had quite a pathetic vacuum cleaner)
Mom and I decided to try the artificial tree. They looked pretty real. No books, no pine needles – but no fresh pine smell either. But would you believe – mom and I are Ethel and Lucy when we attempt any project. We ended up using books – and though we didn’t notice at first, the tree would fray a bit when we were decorating and undecorating. We still had pine needles on the carpet! On the plus side there was no sap or dry sticker. The synthetic seemed to vacuum up much more easily.
My husband and I have had artificial trees. Our first was actually a display tree for a winter scene. Talk about your pathetic Charlie Brown types! Our most current tree came with lights. Now some people enjoy adding their own strands of lights. I personally enjoy the convenience of not having to. It’s a plus not to have to untangle and fiddle with strands of lights.
When hanging ornaments, there are no pine needles to pick up. No more stabbing ourselves with pine needles. We can hang ornaments with ease – and can actually make the branches work to our benefit – for example if the ornament is fragile, we can twist the branch to secure the ornament in place. Try that with a real tree!
My husband is great at putting things together. No more books! And we haven’t had any false needles end up on the floor either.
Okay, it has to be stored year after year- and dug out of storage. But sometimes there’s a convenience that goes with it. This year, for example, we decorated early (in my opinion) and didn’t have to wait for Christmas tree lots or spending money on fresh trees or transporting the tree home (which can actually be a bigger hassle than storage – depending on the vehicle used)
So there you have it. Artificial trees last longer and overall are way easier to maintain. That’s my opinion.
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