Twice Decked Halls

Last week, I finally relented and decided to put up Christmas decorations. I had been on the fence for some time, debating whether I really wanted to spend the time decorating and then undecorating. First, we are going to be gone at Christmas at my parents house.* Second, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go through the hassle of keeping my one year old away from the tree/stockings/candles/presents/etc., even for a week.

But the mood of the season got to me. I love Christmas decorations, particularly the traditional Scandinavian decorations that are common in my family. I lovingly unwrapped the straw goats (Julbock), Lucia candles, embroidered Advent calendars, and various sizes of tomten. I put up the artificial tree and dug through the boxes for the tree lights. They were nowhere to be found. So I unwrapped a few more items and dug in a few more boxes. AHA! One string of lights. That didn’t work. Dammit!!

After digging through all of my Christmas boxes and not finding any working lights and then searching all of the boxes in the basement that could possibly have Christmas stuff in them, I didn’t find a single string of working Christmas lights. Then came the little voice in the back of my head:

Ms. PH - remember? You threw away your Christmas lights last year. Remember? You thought it was time for new lights? Remember? You thought you would get new lights during the sales in January? Remember? No, there was nothing wrong with your old lights, you just wanted new ones. Remember?

Groan. It’s all coming back to me now. The grand plan - buy new Christmas lights during post-Christmas sales because the old ones were . . . boring? Dim? Wrong? I have no idea why I rejected the Christmas lights last year - I had had them for about 10 years and they seemed to be working just fine. What is clear is that I completely forgot to buy new lights during the post-holiday sales.

So, stuck at home with a baby and no way to get new lights, surrounded by a immense pile of Christmas ornaments that need to be put on the tree or put away before the baby wakes up, I decided to put the ornaments on the tree without lights. I mean, how bad could it be? It would still look festive in the day time, right?

Wrong. As it turns out, Christmas trees just look dead without lights on them. I missed that Christmas glow. I missed the tradition of lying under the tree looking up at the lights. I missed the sparkle of lights bouncing off of ornaments. But, at least I had put the decorations out and the house looked somewhat festive for Christmas. I could handle it for a week, right?

Wrong. I couldn’t handle it. Sure, my son was thrilled with the tree even without the lights. But I broke down and bought new lights two days later. But here was another dilemma. To properly place Christmas lights, the tree needs to be bare. It is virtually impossible to put lights on the tree while there are ornaments and bead-garland already on the tree.

So, obsessive-compulsive Ms. PH took all of the ornaments and garland off of the tree (last count of my ornaments placed the number at almost 200) and put on the new lights. Then obsessive-compulsive Ms. PH put all of the ornaments and garland back on the tree.

One thing is for sure - I am taking a lot of pictures of that damn tree this year. And nobody better touch any of the ornaments!! Maybe I should do what my grandmother used to do - take the whole decorated tree (lights, ornaments, and garland) up to the attic and store it there until next year. But where’s the fun in that??

*Dear potential robbers: Don’t even think about it. I have a big dog who hates intruders and a security alarm. And the cat isn’t that nice either.