- The sight of lights twinkling. (Warm white of course.)
- The sounds of Christmas Carols. (Hark the Herald Angels on repeat.)
- The taste of Williams and Sonoma Peppermint bark. (What do they put in there that makes it soooo good?)
- The feel of glitter - everywhere . . . (what? there is more glitter on my face, but I wiped it away already, now it's on my shirt - oh wait I don't necessarily love that one as much.)
- The smell of a freshly cut Christmas. (For me that is a beautiful Douglas Fir.)
Growing up we always had an artificial tree - my mom hated vacuuming needles. So I determined at a very young age, that I would always have a real tree when I grew up, and the biggest tree I could find. (Fit being a factor you will see has unfortunately never been high on my priority list.) I have kept this promise to young me every year except for the time I spent in Miami. I gave myself a pass there because South Florida is not really conducive to Douglas Firs or any evergreen. The only trees that do well there give rise to coconuts not cones.
My first Christmas in my new house I skipped a tree. (If it had not been for Christmas Elf Kris, I would have also skipped any decorations that year.) I had only been in my house for a month and still had more boxes than furniture. Therefore, last year I was excited to go on a tree search. The Friday after Thanksgiving, I forced my family to Home Depot where we proceed to purchase the largest tree we could find. I have 20 foot ceilings in my living room - I felt there was nothing to hold me back. It took four of us to bring the tree into the house, an 8 ft ladder for me to decorate it, and I never was able to reach the pinnacle for a topper. I had to completely rearrange my living room to accommodate the tree's breadth, and Coco (to my great dismay) enjoyed nothing more than playing on the tree skirt watching needles rain down on top of her.
All of this I could handle because I had a huge gorgeous tree with the most amazing smell. But then Christmas was over, and the tree needed to go. Now it was just me and dad and a HUGE dead Douglas Fir. The tree eventually made it to the curb for pick up, but it was neither easy nor pretty. I decided then and there that I needed to switch to artificial. I told my dad who laughed and said he would believe it when he saw it. Where dad, here it is. . .
It even comes with a remote control which allows me to not only turn off and on the lights, but to pick white, colored or both. I purposely picked a slender version so that I would not have to rearrange my furniture completely, and capped myself at 11 feet so that I could decorate it without having to rent a crane. The only thing missing is the smell. And I must say that I do miss the smell.
I have a lovely "Christmas Tree" Aspen Bay candle which does smell nice, but it is just not quite the same. So the question I have is does a faux tree mean that there will be faux gifts underneath it?
Go get cut branches and you will still have the smells you enjoy.
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