Christmas Tree, O (Artificial) Christmas Tree

My parents were never exactly cutting edge when it came to keeping up with the latest crazes on the market, but they were practically the first in line to buy an artificial Christmas tree.

I was seven the year my parents bought the tree that would adorn our living room every year thereafter. This tree was truly spectacular in its tackiness. It was pure white, it rotated, and had a built in music box that would play your choice of “Jingle Bells” or “Silent Night.” It came with its own rotating color wheel and all-red bulbs and a red art deco star. They couldn’t have been happier with this tree- no fuss, no muss, and no yearly expense!

In a year or two, I decided that this tree was an embarrassment to all that was good and pure and Christmas. I begged my parents to buy a real Christmas tree again. Never ones to indulge an overly emotional child, they wouldn’t hear of it. Real Christmas trees are messy and expensive, they explained. They shed their pine needles all over the place, and then you just had to figure out how to get rid of the darn thing. But real trees are also green, I protested, and this tree was white. The artificial trees only came in white or silver, my parents said. Snow was white, my mother pointed out helpfully. She advised me to just pretend the tree was covered in snow.

The first time I had a real Christmas tree again was when I was a freshman in college. One day my friend Andy walked into my dorm room with a perfect and very real little Christmas tree, about 2 ft. high, in his hand. He went out and cut it down for me just because he knew how much it would mean to me to have a real tree. I was thrilled with the tree and grateful to have a friend like Andy. I lovingly decorated the tree with homemade paper chains and snowflakes, and even took it home with me for Christmas break, where it shared a space in the living room with my parent’s beloved white tree.

As an adult, I finally had that real Christmas tree I always wanted. Decorating the tree was an important part of our holiday celebration. These trees were everything that my childhood tree was not. They were as big as the room would allow, chosen carefully, and very, very real. I made all kinds of ornaments for the tree – stuffed, painted, needlepoint- and bought unique single ornaments. I called it my hodgepodge tree. Nothing matched, but it was beautiful.

There was only one problem with these trees. They were real. They were messy. The pine needles shed everywhere. We pricked our fingers as we hung ornaments, and the branches couldn't always hold the heavier ornaments. You had to water the thing and the water would drip and sometimes leave a mark on the carpet. It was a significant expense added to all the other additional expenses of the season. Getting rid of it was always a hassle. In turns out that my parents were, as so often was the case, right after all.

So it seems that I had wanted an artificial tree all along- just a green one that looked like a real tree, and with all my wonderful mix of ornaments. But my family was as attached to their real, green trees as my parents had been to their white artificial one. So I was stuck with a real tree each year.

After my divorce, all of my holiday traditions were up in the air, ready to be redefined. When I remarried, it became even more complicated. My Jewish husband obviously doesn’t celebrate Christmas, but I still very much wanted a Christmas tree in my house. After the shock of the idea wore off, my husband agreed to let me have a tree. However, he had absolutely no-preconceived notion about what a tree should be or how it should be decorated. It was entirely up to me.

I can’t even convey my excitement the day that we went to Pool City to choose our tree. Now I have the perfect, beautiful green artificial tree of my dreams. My son still prefers a real tree but comes over ever year to help decorate, and we use the same ornaments that once adorned the real tree of his childhood. And my husband still can’t believe that he has a Christmas tree in the house.