Oh, Christmas Tree
Christmas tree, oh, Christmas tree! Christmas trees everywhere.
Two weeks ago, I decorated the Christmas tree in our office at work. It's a big, fluffy tree and festive in a kind of rustic way, with lots of holly berries, icicles, and sparkly snowflakes. Pretty.
I promptly went home that day and drug out our Christmas tree, effectively becoming one of those people - those holiday schizophrenics who decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving is over. If it's at all redeeming, I didn't start playing Christmas music until yesterday. (FYI, She & Him add a great, bluesy twist to the classics. I highly recommend listening.)
So, for the last two weeks, I've been using spare moments (and more than a few moments borrowed from homework and other less desirable activities) to decorate our tree and fully introduce our apartment to Christmas. Our decoration standards have been 1) inexpensive, 2) handmade, homemade, and 3) colorful. I knew I wanted to expand our Christmas color horizon beyond red and green to include plum purple and mustard yellow, so making our own ornaments has been half desire, half necessity.
So far, we have purple and green bulbs (made by putting paint in clear ones), felt stars and "snowballs" (easy peasy), and sparkly snowball ornaments because every tree needs some bling (I still can't believe this one worked with just string, glue, balloons, and glitter). I also finger-knitted some garland from red and yellow yarn in my stash and used scrap fabrics to make our tree skirt. Drew's mom made the fun, wooden nativity scene that's currently standing in for presents.
On Saturday, about a million more Christmas trees entered our lives. We spent the morning volunteering at the Festival of Trees, an annual fundraiser for Primary Children's Medical Center. Drew has volunteered at this event a few times in the past and signed us both up for a shift this year. Let's be honest, I had been merely okay with and not exactly enthusiastic about this early Saturday morning gig. My bad. It turned out to be rather enjoyable; not the hours of standing, acting like a bouncer for an ornate collection of Christmas trees part, but the participating in something bigger than ourselves that does a lot of good for a lot of little people that need it part. We even sold one of the last remaining available trees during our shift, raising $350 for the kiddos. In college and high school, volunteering was a staple in my life; I'm not sure when I got too busy or too selfish to willingly spend time doing things for others every once in a while. It's definitely an appropriate time of year to introduce some service back into our lives, and I'm really glad Drew took the initiative to do it.
Two weeks ago, I decorated the Christmas tree in our office at work. It's a big, fluffy tree and festive in a kind of rustic way, with lots of holly berries, icicles, and sparkly snowflakes. Pretty.
I promptly went home that day and drug out our Christmas tree, effectively becoming one of those people - those holiday schizophrenics who decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving is over. If it's at all redeeming, I didn't start playing Christmas music until yesterday. (FYI, She & Him add a great, bluesy twist to the classics. I highly recommend listening.)
So, for the last two weeks, I've been using spare moments (and more than a few moments borrowed from homework and other less desirable activities) to decorate our tree and fully introduce our apartment to Christmas. Our decoration standards have been 1) inexpensive, 2) handmade, homemade, and 3) colorful. I knew I wanted to expand our Christmas color horizon beyond red and green to include plum purple and mustard yellow, so making our own ornaments has been half desire, half necessity.
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| I realize our angel is about three times as big as necessary, but she's beautiful; someday we'll have a bigger tree for her to sit on. |
On Saturday, about a million more Christmas trees entered our lives. We spent the morning volunteering at the Festival of Trees, an annual fundraiser for Primary Children's Medical Center. Drew has volunteered at this event a few times in the past and signed us both up for a shift this year. Let's be honest, I had been merely okay with and not exactly enthusiastic about this early Saturday morning gig. My bad. It turned out to be rather enjoyable; not the hours of standing, acting like a bouncer for an ornate collection of Christmas trees part, but the participating in something bigger than ourselves that does a lot of good for a lot of little people that need it part. We even sold one of the last remaining available trees during our shift, raising $350 for the kiddos. In college and high school, volunteering was a staple in my life; I'm not sure when I got too busy or too selfish to willingly spend time doing things for others every once in a while. It's definitely an appropriate time of year to introduce some service back into our lives, and I'm really glad Drew took the initiative to do it.
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| Look at all of those Christmas trees! and at that snarl... That's what Drew got after kicking me out of bed bright and early on a Saturday morning, transporting me to Sandy, and making me guard trees from little hands without nutritional reinforcements for 4 hours. |
However odd, I'm thankful for the tradition of bringing a tree inside and decorating it. It's strange how much warmth and brightness those little twinkly lights and sparkly ornaments add to a room.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree / Much pleasure dost thou bring me! / For ev’ry year the Christmas tree, / Brings to us all both joy and glee. / O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, / Much pleasure dost thou bring me!
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