126. Christmas (2) The Tree

Every year I have to throw a tantrum to get my real tree. They have all the arguments: it is a pain to buy and carry to the house, difficult to get rid of afterwards, you have to sweep the needles everyday and it definitely is not ecological ...

This year I am as ready as ever to fight for my real tree. I have always won, even when we lived abroad and we had to pay a fortune for one that was imported from a lot of miles away. 

As it turns out this year I do not even have to put up a fight. The minute I mention the word 'tree', my husband is good to go and drives us to the tree place on the square ... We do not argue about the size, nor the width, not even about the height! The lady is very helpful and, just like me, takes this tree business very seriously.

'It has to match your home.' She says brightly. 'Each home is different, and so is every tree. It's all about getting the tree that fits the home.'

I couldn't agree more.

We load the tree in the back of the car and once home, an other traditional conversation takes place: 

'Do you know where the stand is?'

'Yes, of course.' I answer. 'With the Christmas stuff, in the attic.'

I sound confident but, truly, as every year, I don't have a clue. I never take the stuff back up to the attic, they do! So why ask me? Every year we have a mad search for the tree stand. I remember the year when we kept looking and wondering where on earth it was. By the time we located the wretched item it was July!

Believe it or not, 2020, they bring down the boxes of decoration and the stand. No fights. No panic. No drama. No arguing about who put it away and where. 

So now here I am with the real tree, the proper stand but nowhere for the tree to go!

During lockdown I set up shop (think WFH) in a corner of the lounge so I could still be mama in charge and see and hear everything that was going on in my full house and work at the same time. Christmas seemed light years away and so the WFH desk was set up right there in the Christmas tree spot!

So here I am moving bits of furniture around so my real tree can fit in and stand proud and tall in its specially designed stand. 

And then I am so pleased with myself that I leave it at that. Why not have just a bare tree this year? Set up a new trend that would tick all the boxes: ecological, low whatever impact, gluten-free and whatnot. But as the days go by I am stating to get hidden messages: I am looking for a pair of scissors: there it is, in the tree. Can't find my keys: here there are in the tree. The last packet or baking powder? Sitting pretty on the top branches. I get it. They want the tree decorated! Everyone in my family knows that I decorate the tree on my own. And they know that if they help I will not be happy with the way they will place the items on it and they know that as soon as they will have their backs turned, I will rearrange everything. When they were small kids I found it surprising that they would notice.

'Mummy! Did you move my purple star with all the nice glitter?'

'Mummy? Where is the Santa I made with cotton wool?' 

'Mummy, the teacher said this snowman was to go at the top of the tree.'

Then there would be the crib and the baby Jesus. I remember coming home with the set and thinking it must have been the only one in the shop with no Jesus in it and I picked it up!! The kids were really upset and kept going on about it.

'Daddy! We have got no baby Jesus for Christmas!'

'Don't worry. Jesus will be here on Christmas morning.' My husband told them ignoring all the waving and miming I did behind their backs and thinking that, as a really really clever mum I had taken it out of the box so it could be a surprise on the day. 

So in the end, not wanting to go to the shop to complain about the missing Jesus (was it missing on purpose? Broken? Stolen? ) there I was on Christmas eve placing a PlayMobil baby on a bed of yellow cardboard strips (straw) and using my craftswoman's skills to place a tiny strip of real nappy to hide the bright green plastic underpants. 

This year there would be no last minute rush, this year everything would go smoothly because hey this was Christmas 2020!