Busy day today shopping, but mostly for things like groceries that we might run out of while the stores are closed in two days. We haven’t gotten our tree yet, but it’s gotten to the point where it’s almost not right if we get it before Christmas Eve (you won’t believe the deals when you show up at the lot then…)
We had proper trees when the sister and I were children, of course, but once I ended up all adult and employed with vacation days to be spent sparingly, I suddenly was only arriving at the parental home a few days beforehand. The parents decorate, but don’t bother with a tree without prompting. So the first year when this happened, the sister and I consulted and decided we’d get a mini!tree. You know, one that’s about two to tree feet high, that’s really just the top lopped off a real tree.
Stores don’t tend to make stands for organic mini!trees, and those for artificial trees are generally pretty firmly attached. So the mini!tree goes in our regular tree stand, on an endtable, with the drop cloth we used to put under the full size one to catch needles draped tablecloth-like over the wood to avoid scratches. The effect is a little like a kindergartner arriving for his first play and standing proudly in front of the microphone, on a box, in his father’s loafers.
All in all, it makes for a nice effect once you turn off the lights, since with one string of lights and half a dozen of the best ornaments (the sister and I decide. Embarrassing elementary school art projects? Sorry, no space left!) it looks nicely festive.
I sometimes ponder our mini!tree, though. What happened to the rest of the tree once its top two feet were removed? Was it sold, now it was more pleasingly shaped? It is still growing somewhere to fill out branches now it’s the correct height for a living room ceiling? Or was it so scraggly that only the top could be saved, and it gave its life to a woodchipper so our mini!tree and maybe some garlands and wreaths could live?
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