"Designer" Christmas Tree
The continuation of our talk about the challenges and restrictions in our own homes, as it pertains to decorating for Christmas, is here with Heather's story:
It all began in the late 90's; I found this beautiful antiqued Santa ornament. I had to have it, and as it was the late 90's; it was in shades of burgundy, green, and gold. At the time I bought this Santa, I was a student and did not have a tree, but there was hope for one on the horizon. I added to the Santa with many perfectly matching ornaments and garlands, but still no tree. In 2000, I got married, bought a house, and finally we bought a tree. All of the long collected, perfectly matching ornaments came out of storage and went on to the tree with sparking white lights, I was so excited, it was really pretty, and utterly boring. All of these painstakingly picked ornaments were completely lost on the tree with their muted colours, a bit disappointing to say the least being a designer. So over the next few years I stepped outside of my comfort zone a bit and started to diversify. A bit of red or green, and more sparkly ornaments, and the tree really began to come into its own. I started to invest in beautiful "one-of's" instead of a pack of 12 to give my tree more character and interest, which did the trick. I had the perfect designer's tree!
Then we started a family, and everything changed, especially the tree. The first year's change wasn't so dramatic, a few kind-of tacky "first baby" ornaments came our way, and I didn't want to be rude so they went up near the back. They were relatively unnoticed, so the harmony of my perfectly matched tree was maintained.
The next year my daughter was mobile, and shockingly destructive. She loved the tree, and needed to disassemble it at every opportunity. I swore I would not be the mother who left the bottom of the tree empty so I bought some less attractive "bomb-proof" decorations that went on the bottom. Okay, so they didn't really match, but I still had a tree right? Well, the next few years led to more chaos because my youngest was born right around the time my eldest understood not to take everything off the tree, so the rough and tough ornaments not only remained, they multiplied. Toys started to appear on the lower branches; I took them off at first, but eventually gave up. My daughter turned 4 and begged me to buy coloured lights instead of the white, so I did, and suddenly my Christmas decorating became more about their joy than my perfect designer scheme. By the time my eldest daughter turned 5 I had not only given-up, I had embraced the change: No more stuffy ornaments, nothing too precious, all can be touched (gently), and just about anything goes. Bright colours are in, dull colours are out. All of the home-made treasures made by my children are hung up with joy and pride. As a young designer this would have been unthinkable - I would have set up a second tree before hanging a dixie cup on mine!
So this year we set up the tree, my kids literally attacked the ornaments with excitement, and my youngest hung all of the decorations in a one foot square area. All stuffed animals, all together.
I have learned over the years that I can gently rearrange a few of these once the kids are in bed, but not too many. Every decoration they put on the tree they seem to remember its placement, and I hear about it if it has moved. So, none of the photos in this newsletter have been "staged."
I can get away with moving some by proclaiming a few rules:
- One decoration per branch. Breach of this rule gives me free-reign to move all other decorations.
- Any breakable or overly sentimental ornaments can be hung by me at the top of the tree and are off-limits.
- Excluding Disney items, or anything stuffed, once it is placed on the tree, it stays on the tree.
- And, if I really can't look at it I silently and sneakily move it towards the back.
This is how we have reached our compromise. But alas things change, and so did I. What will be interesting now is to see what the future holds for my little tree; will I ever have the perfect "designer" tree again? Hard to say, but right now I can say I have the perfect tree for us.
We wish you all a very happy holiday season! Until 2011...
Heather and Melinda
