Oh Christmas Tree...

Driving down our street this morning I noticed many neighbors had put out their now used Christmas trees for the town pick up schedule.  At first I thought "hmmm seems kind of soon."  We would usually keep ours up 'til the last call for the DPW's swing through town.  There were  many  here and there at the end of driveways.   It didn't look like everyone on the block put their's out.   I suppose some people are squeezing out of Christmas as much as we always tried to.  The trees that were out were about six or seven feet (seems the norm around here), some were taller.  All looked  sufficiently fat and full to have been beautiful in their glory.  

And suddenly it occurred to me -- Oh my God!   This year our own Christmas tree, would, for the first time in the last twenty years, NOT be in keeping with everyone on the block!   This year we got (and we swore for years we would NEVER do it) -- A TABLE TREE!!!  Not only did we get a table tree but we got it maybe two days before Christmas.  A table tree!  Well at least it was real one but still -- a table tree ?  Isn't there something kind of sad about that?  A Charlie Brown tree is at least endearing.  That had meaning.  I can just hear Linus talk about the true spirit of Christmas. Our tree this year makes a different statement:  convenience!  And when did convenience become a part of our Christmas?

I remember the first real tree I put up by myself when my daughter was so young (after my first husband and I split up).  I was determined to have a real Christmas tree and to choose it, drive it home and put it up.  Yes!  The independent, self-sufficient woman!  It took me four hours once I got all four and a half feet of it up the stairs.  I couldn't get it IN the stand much less "straight" AND secured  in the stand after oh so many attempts.  I tried everything: a chair against it so it could at least lean and be straight - that didn't work.  I propped a book or two under one leg of the stand but of course the water would spill out and it was still kind of precarious (not good especially when one has a cat).  The base had so many holes in it from my twisting the bolts here and then there and then this way and then that I was sure it would dry up in a day.  

After literally four hours I was completely drenched in perspiration.  I had enough sticky resin all over my hands that almost everything stuck to them like Velcro.  Our cat ran and hid somewhere probably because of my incessant cursing and the green "creature" rattling and railing.   But, finally it was up and it was straight.  I had tied three separate pieces of rope to the stem to key parts of our bookshelves so gravity didn't have a chance!  Now THAT had nothing to do with convenience!  

Each year thereafter I (with help) or we (my second husband and I) went through the ritual of choosing the right tree and getting it into the house without breaking anything.  Invariably it was too tall because we wanted a grand tree so we would take it out and saw some inches off of it and bring it back in again.   My  husband and I would alternate between being splayed out on the floor twisting those ridiculous screws or standing up holding this huge heavy tree hoping our arms wouldn't tire out and let it lean.  And then we'd take turns stepping back to assess if indeed it was standing tall and straight and secure.  Oh, yes there  was one year the cat managed to knock it down --- all seven fully lit and decorated feet of it.  None of anything we did during those years had anything to do with convenience!

So, now that all our kids are adults, two married, and all establishing their own celebration we alas succumbed to convenience.  Actually we were secretly but surprisingly pleased.  It was and will all be so easy for so many reasons not the least of which is getting it out of the house.  Then my husband and I laughed as we realized how this itty bitty skinny, barely three foot tall Christmas tree would look at the end of our driveway.  Maybe we could just throw it in the woods behind the house so no one could see it?

But I declare here we will NEVER  have a FAKE tree that you just pull out of the box, pre lit or worse, pre decorated!  

          "Time goes, you say?  Ah no!  Alas, Time stays, we go."  ~ Henry Austin Dobson.  

To be perfectly honest I haven't a clue who Henry Austin Dobson is but I love this quote.  And it is truer as time does go by isn't it?  I'm off to look him up now and figure out how best to dispose of our table tree.