This year, with the kids all moved out I realised I could actually have one of those beautiful balanced Christmas trees. I could leave the glitter coated egg carton blobs in the box and fill my tree with lovely things.
( All these photos are from my good friend Morgan's shop - The Crafty Squirrel)
Which is all good in theory. The reality is, I haven't even bought a tree yet and feel fairly disinclined to go to town and buy a tree and erect the tree and decorate the tree and keep the cats off the tree and stop the dog drinking the water of the tree and then vacuum up fifty five bajillion pine needles from the tree, then dispose off the tree.
but at the same time I love the smell of real Christmas trees and it would feel extremely weird to have no tree at all......
Anyway while I have been farting about thinking of trees I have made you guys a little present. I should be taking photos right now but instead I am here discussing the tree again. ( Mr Ric Rac has stopped listening). If you want to, pop up there and sign up to the newsletter and tomorrow when its all done, I'll send you a little bit of cute-but-useless.
If you think this is bad wait until I start on evening up the childrens gift piles.
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Hey Jodes. I'm a Bah Humbug type. I see Christmas as being for the littlies. Luckily, I've got granddaughters. We do a Kris Kringle with our kids, so they only have to buy a gift for one sibling/parent/sibling's signficant other, and can indulge their nieces to their hearts content. I think they like this, as one of my son's married a girl who comes from a very large extended family and they do Christmas on a grand scale. I think she starts saving and collecting gifts from about the Boxing Day sales.
ReplyDeleteOur tree here is a synthetic one that does not require decoration. It has optic fibre filaments and is "decorated" with plastic stars and snowflakes with fibre optics in them. It is not very tall and the cats couldn't care less. We have done the real tree thing. The cats appreciate the litter box that the tree sits in, as well as all the toys stuck in the tree for them to pull off and bat around the loungeroom. It gets old very quickly, and you are right about the pine needles. If you really need the smell of pine, without the pong of cat wee and poo, might I suggest getting some essential oil? I have Huon Pine here somewhere and it smells lovely. You could put some in the oil burner of an evening and there's no needles to get stuck in the vacuum cleaner!
Anyway, have a good one! :)
My Siamese cat loved a real tree, the Persian cat loved tinsel. Only did that one year. Stupid cat. So, we have two new kitties and have only done the tree thing once in the past few years. No kids, so we just skip it. Sad isn't it.
ReplyDeleteNo tree for us this year, no space for one! I have my son back, My nephew and a friend of my son with us, that is 6 adults and 2 cats in a 3 bedroomed house, (my son is in the caravan in the back garden, broke up with his girlfriend) his friend has taken his room, Too tall for the caravan. He was renting but the owner has sold the house and his mum has moved to NSW. My nephew for a few weeks on a blow up mattress in the sewing room. he is in between jobs. but that is the least of it! I also have all their furniture too! it looks like a warehouse, tables and chairs on top of tables and chairs, you get the picture! No room for a tree.
ReplyDeletethingmas free zone.
ReplyDeleteI did sign up, cos I was sure I had already and then realised I'd never seen one....
relative to the size of your post, it's not up there, it's down there, over there, on the right.
PedantsRwe.
We had a real tree some years ago for the first time, a big branch from one of the pine trees on our block in Tassie. Rosy and I decorated it (beautifully, of course) then Pete came home and promptly came out in hives - so it was back to the old artificial tree. I've never heard of anyone else being allergic to pine trees - I still think he should have put up with the discomfort!
ReplyDeleteJust to put our husband at ease that he isn't the only one, I can't touch pine trees without getting a rash. And the smell gives me migraines so we go artificial all the way.
DeleteIf you need a real tree, buy one in a pot, there are a number of potted plants that look like pine but are actually native Australian, and then you can decorate them and leave them on your front porch - forever!! No vacuuming, no allergies, no fuss and the animals will be less likely to use it as one of their conveniences.
My family room is an explosion of ornaments all over the floor with a partially decorated tree. Have you considered indoor fencing around your tree? :o) Thankfully Abby doesn't bother anything. The dining room table is stacked with gifts to pack and mail. Baking has started but will it ever end? The cards are mail and one complaint so far from a relative that this year is is NO family photo or newsy letter! By the way...I have a blue and green snail tape measure...of course they will be props for a project.
ReplyDeleteOh and apparently I can't type properly before my first cup of tea but I'm sure you get the gist of it all.
ReplyDeleteGo and get the tree...you know you want to...but then again, mine is super easy and Mr W said it was the most sensible decision I'd made all month! Evidently it's inoffensive!
ReplyDeleteMy husband and kids have asthma and are sensitive to live Christmas trees sooo we have an artificial which I have yet to put up. I'm gonna get on that though, the grandkids are chiding me for not having a tree yet.... Otherwise we are Christmasing as usual.
ReplyDeleteWe always have a real tree - you just can't beat them - and none of our numerous dogs or cats have ever bothered much. We stand the cut trunk in a sort of clamp holder and there is only just room to put in a bit of water now and again - certainly not big enough for cats to pee and poo in. We buy the 'low drop' pine needle type, keep it outside for a few days in some water, bring it in and let it settle overnight and then decorate the hell out of it with ornaments we have been collecting for years. We have wooden floors so a couple of vacuuming sessions soon see off any fallen needles and, anyway, it is soooo worth it in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteMy mother use to collect a dead tree branch (well pick it out and make Dad get it in the house) and decorate that...but it was the 1980's! Perhaps the cats could climb it rather then do nasty things?
ReplyDeleteI like fake trees, always have, always will......but have had to let go of being in control of decorating the tree, but be the sucker that cleans up afterwards! DH tells me that in his later years his grandfather just use to leave the tree up all year around, decorated!!!! I think that is a great idea, so long as your tree is fake!
I dislike beautifully co-ordinated Christmas trees, because in my chaotic life it is never going to happen. I love the chaotic, non minimalist, margarine lid with glitter decoration made it kindy, and decorations with lots of meaning. The tree is real, not fake and will take at least an hour of home engineering just to get it up so that it won't fall over when cats swipe at it. P.S. the comments are very educational - where do you get these "Low Drop" Christmas Trees??? Marry Christmas Jodie
ReplyDelete