When Shall The Fun Commence?

Some busy days ahead in this household, I can see 'em coming 'round the bend now!

The living room got a good going over tonight, with some much needed cleaning here and there, which is always nice. But in addition to that, tonight furniture got moved, re-arranged, toys picked up and hidden to remain out of sight (out of mind of a certain 3-year-old too) for the next few weeks and you know by now what this means, don't you?

The tree is coming! The tree is coming!

Yep, time to set up the lovely little old Christmas tree!

Mandy and Kate got what boxes they could handle out of the attic late this afternoon and when Bill got home, it was his job then to drag down the rest of the paraphenalia, including of course, the tree, so that the inside of the olde homestead will take on a pretty, seasonal look.

Since Mandy has to work Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., but has Monday off, it looks like Monday, November 27th, will be the designated decoration day here.

Hip, hip, hooray! Pretty soon too, it will be Christmas Day!

And, after Christmas Day, that is when the fun will really commence as the family will have to determine then when the tree and all the trimmings and stuff will be taken down. Since it is such fun to put it up, make it look all lovely with the favorite ornaments and such. Put down the tree skirt and watch as packages will begin to appear under the tree - all such things give happy feelings, a nice glow to everyone and the spirit of Christmas begins to descend. But, after the big day has come and gone, why then is it such a depressing chore to defrock the tree?

This will be a point that will come up several times before the tree comes down and is all "folded" up (well, sort of) to be placed back in the attic with the boxes of ornaments and stashed away for another year. "Why do I have to be the one to take it down, put it away?" is the question that will be bantied about here, over and over again. You can bet money on that one!

Now enter Mom's theory of how this issue should be handled.

Why not do as I did after the holiday season of 1996 and just leave the tree up all year?

Are you crazy, is what most everyone reading this will be saying to that suggestion but trust me, it worked fine and dandy for me.

I didn't plan it that way though. It's just that over the Christmas holiday season of 1996-97, I was working two jobs, totally usually anywhere from 60 to 80, even 90 hours a week. I was lucky I had found enough time free for Mandy and I to put the tree up and get it trimmed. And, after the holiday season ended, my workload seemed to increase and finding time to take the tree down, put all that stuff back up in the attic, just never seemed to materialize.

Before I knew it, the end of January had become the end of March. Then, April and Easter rolled around and the tree still was in place. Carrie, my older daughter, offered Mandy $20 to defrock the tree and Mandy turned her down. And, I decided then if the kid wasn't going to do it for $20, then I sure as hell wasn't going to do it for free!

Month after month in 1997 came and went and still the tree remained, safely ensconced in the corner area of the living room. My grandson, Alex, then only 3 years old knew this wasn't exactly "normal" and whispered on one visit here in early August that year to his mother, "Why does Grammy Jeni have a Christmas tree?" Carrie's response to him was a simple, "Don't ask!"

By this time, pure stubbornness on my part had definitely set in and I figured since it had been up this long, still looked fine (how could an artifical tree change anyway?), might as well leave it up now for the duration.

And that's exactly what I did! When the holiday season rolled around again, I was all set, all ready for it and was probably the first person on my street to be able to say "I have my tree up and all trimmed!" And, only those who didn't know it had been up all year would marvel at my ability to be so organized and have something like that done so early in the Christmas Season.

Plus, I decided then too that since the spirit of Christmas is what is really important and the tree is supposed to be a reminder to us of that, then leaving it up year-round kept that spirit alive deep inside me too and that was a good thing.

So that's my theory about Christmas trees and trimming and untrimming them. Leave 'em up all year to enjoy and remember the reason for the season in the doing!

As I've said on many other occasions too - that's my story and I'm sticking to it!