The First Blog of Christmas Is All About My Tree

This year is a real turning point for me, for the first time in at least seven years I purchased my own fake Christmas tree. To say I have been hesitant is putting it mildly, I have been fighting everyone in my family tooth and nail on this for years. Yes they come up with all the good logic of “you don’t need to water it.” and “Fake tree’s are so easy and less messy.” or “Its not going to become an instant bonfire by New Years if you drag your feet on the carpet!” You know all the silly things people come up with to talk you into a plastic tree replica. But it wasn’t really any of that nonsense that motivated me to finally take the plunge this year. When it came down to the day I usually get my tree it all boiled down to one determining factor. The weather, yes I said weather, it’s been so stinkin’ cold out that I couldn’t imagine cutting my own tree this year or even grabbing a pre-cut off a lot. I have never been a big fan of Minnesota weather but as I’ve gotten older I swear it’s gettin’ colder!

I went to my local hang out (Walmart) and picked out a seven and a half foot Colorado blue cellulose, what a beauty, with it’s shiny green needles and pliable metal branches I gotta say it’s a real charmer. I got it home and put together with a little help and a lot of humor from my son and then I started putting the lights on. This year I decided to mix in four hundred of the new LED lights with my usual 700 white lights I use and when I got it all lit up I gotta say it was something! The combination of my usual bright lights with the shiny plastic reflecting it was blinding. I was very concerned I had purchased a tree reminiscent of the metal cartoon ones from Charlie Brown Christmas.

I am still not sold on the artificial tree, a lot of ornaments and ribbons later I still think it’s awfully shiny, I keep hoping the extreme dust problem in this house might start to work to my advantage and help dull the thing. And it doesn’t smell like a tree, my son thinks I should pour Pine sol on it but then it will just smell like gin. So we will see what becomes of this mimic in the years to come as for this year it beats freezin’ my finger tips off and trying to figure out how to get a tree home in my convertible.