November 30, 2009

Faking It.

Tivo.


In one of the very first compromises made in the ongoing saga of Kelli And Manoj Live Happily Ever After, we agreed to invest the money in a fake Christmas tree.  This was a difficult one for me  - after all, my father could have very well served as the real-life stand-in for Clark Griswold.  I spent many Christmases as a kid, trekking through our 40 acre plot in search of the perfect Christmas tree.  And finding needles embedded in your carpet as late as March is just quintessentially American, no?  Admittedly, a fake Christmas tree completely lacks all that is special about a live one.  Needles in your feet or not.

Little, snowy house.

Still.  I suspect the kids will not care.  They are napping and have no idea that while they were in school, I dutifully cleared the tree lurking in the basement of all spiders and whatnot, then dragged the thing up the stairs, adjusted the smushed-up branches and set it up in our living room.  When they wake up, we will begin digging through ornaments of all sizes and shapes.  Some are breathtakingly beautiful and shimmer in the light.  Others are ugly and cheap.  But they all mean something to me - every year, I buy a new ornament or two and when I am traveling, I limit my souvenir shopping to just a single ornament to remember my trip.  Many of these ornaments hark back to my Single Girl Days, when I yearned of having my own little family with whom to share the holidays.

Christmas in the trailer park.

And now, I have that sweet, little family of which I always dreamed.  Oh sure, my husband could have been the love child of the Grinch and Scrooge, but I have hope in our children that they will grow to love these tacky, kitschy ornaments as much as I do.

The Hungry, Little Caterpillar

Our fire-friendly, plastic tree may be nothing spectacular, but it is ours.

10 comments:

Amanda said...

Our first Christmas together, we treked through a field, got a perfect tree, and put our three ornaments and 17 strands of lights on it (we were just together, and someone had given us lights, thus the imbalance). Two hours later after the tree came in, the chiggers came out. We scratched for two hours and spent all of our extra money on Raid. The second year we were together, we went to Wal-Mart and bought a tree.....We make a big deal about "fluffing" it to the kids.

Cagey (Kelli Oliver George) said...

Amanda,
UGH! I would rather deal with a squirrel than chiggers! :-)

meno said...

"love child of the Grinch and Scrooge"

You made me laugh!

Kelly said...

We broke down and bought a fake tree last year. I always had a live tree growing up. I've found that a yankee candle can almost replace the scent of my childhood.

We have all kinds of ornaments too. Some from my college tree, a new house one, my childhood ornaments, and Hudson's favorites, a steam roller and the batman ornament I bought him today.

My grandmother and great grandmother's ornaments are on the very top, to save them from little hands.

Bethany said...

We have a fake tree. My husband always had a real one but the first year we were married it aggravated my allergies way too much.

Where did you get the Hungry Caterpillar ornament? I love it!

Olivia said...

We have a fake tree, too. As a child, I think we had live ones in the early years, until my parents decided it was more frugal to buy a fake one. I think the decision to go fake came the year we couldn't afford a tree of any kind so we decorated a big house plant. I loved that "tree".

Anyway, they bought a fake one during the after christmas clearance so we could always have a tree in the future.

flybunny said...

We have the live vs fake tree "discussion" every year and every year I win and we get a real one although this year I am closer to being convinced to buying a fake one only because they seem to be cheaper this year but I am still really torn.

We have tons of ornaments but the one thing I do is get my girls an ornament every year - when they were little I picked them out but now I let them so that by the time they are on their own they will have a start. They love it every year when we take them out and talk about when we bought them etc.

j.sterling said...

i fyou're on flickr, you have to add these to my FAVORITE XMAS ORNAMENT group!!!! lol
http://www.flickr.com/groups/558310@N25/

D. Jain said...

I'm a purist--I have to have a real tree (and a Fraser fir at that). I love decorating for Christmas! I have mostly vintage ornaments, many of them from my grandmother, and I use a mix of the big colored lights and little colored lights. Bring on the kitsch!

I like the closeups of your tree and ornaments! You should do one shot of the whole tree though, with the lights dimmed in the room, so we can get the full effect!

CPA Mom said...

We have an artificial with lights already on it. So easy. Yankee candles do work for the scent like Kelly said. I use a candle warmer.

I get a new ornament every year for the family and each kid picks one too (for the little tree in their rooms). My mom did this for us and gave them all to us when we moved out. I can't even hang up all my ornaments we have so many.