Cultured Views

I always look forward to the start of December because that’s when we put up the Xmas tree; usually though we don’t actually get it out of the box until a week before Xmas Day itself due to one reason or another but the intention is always there.

This year though I accomplished this marvellous feat on November 30th and I am proud of myself.

I wonder though how many other women would agree with me in that the simple act of putting up the tree is not as uncomplicated or cheery an occasion as it sounds to be…

For several years we had the usual type of tree with boxes of assorted decorations; fairy lights that somehow always get tangled and broken sometime between late January (thats the time I usually get around to taking the tree down…) and the next December – reams of fraying tinsel, brightly coloured balls which are chipped and splintered, angels missing their wings…

Each year I would buy new deco’s and each year they’d last a distance of days because the kids always preferred to play with them rather than leave them on the tree – and who ever is crazy enough to hang candy canes on the tree and expect them to stay there…?

Putting up the tree always started out really well – the kids would get all excited, then gradually overly excited to the extent that a happy, cosy family event would end up as world war three. They all want to get it out of the box, they all want to do the tinsel, they all want to put the fairy on top. One breaks a bauble and cuts himself, another decides to tie the tinsel around the baby…and the fairy lights refuse to work.

Three years ago I decided enough was enough and bought one of those pre-decorated optic fibre trees. Now, I know that does not sound very Christmassy or traditional – but if I was to have a tree at all it had to come as a finished job. All we do now is get it out of the box and plug it in – it changes colour prettily every three seconds and, even better, it has decorations pre-glued on. No mess, no fuss.

So there it will sit – until around Easter when someone will say…“Why is the Xmas tree still up…?” and then it is Mum’s job to take it down and pack it away. Funny how no-one ever wants to help do that…

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