Putting up the Christmas tree

I put up my Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. I have for as long as I can remember, then I take it down the day after Christmas.

This year, my son and I were excited about decorating the tree together. I dragged up the box and all the trimmings from the basement- a major pain in the backside...- and set about the process of sorting through the branches by size. See, I have a fake tree--the same one I've had for 14 years. One thing I can tell you is that fake trees do not last a life time.

Last year my tree started to show signs of tree Leprosy (I'm not sure if that's a real thing or not but branches started falling off when I'd touch them) I decided I could get one more year out of this tree. Well, this is definitely the LAST year I use this tree. I had at least one branch fall off every piece I touched- it's looking pretty sad.

So I spent an hour fluffing out limbs and branches, chaffing my hands almost raw. I ended up sneezing and my nose running like a sieve for hours after, but I'm happy to do it year after year. It's a labor of love. When I finished putting the tree together, I started in on the lights. This is the worst part of the holiday season as far as I'm concerned. I spend hours untangling the strands of lights ( I subscribe to the "thousand points of light" theory when it comes to the Christmas tree) and stringing them up on the tree, weaving in and out of every single branch of the tree. There is literally a thousand little white lights on my tree. It looks beautiful, all ready for my son to jump off the couch and actually help put all the ornaments in one small section of the tree (his idea, not mine....I'm a little too OCD to be happy with the ornaments not evenly distributed over the tree....I will be quietly redistributing over the next couple of days)

So....tree is lit.....ready for ornaments.....just need to slide the tree over a couple inches to where it belongs for the next month.....CRASH!!!! The stand broke....tree fell over....no hope of fixing the stand. --this is where we insert LOTS of almost swears...almost because my son was in the room-- I picked up the tree...propped it up and the boy and I went to the store for a tree stand.

By the time we arrived home I needed my son to make sure the tree stayed upright as I lifted the tree out of the broken stand and into the new stand. It was my miracle that I was actually got the tree into the new stand. My son and I decorated the tree. It looks pretty good for being squashed flat (a couple of times, but whose counting). I doubt I could make the tree last another year even if I really wanted to now.

It certainly was an experience....not one I ever want to repeat....but an experience none the less. When do you put up your tree? If you have one that is.