"Oh Christmas Tree"

I don't know about you but I have a thing about the perfect Christmas tree. I realize that it is impossible to get that right but in my head there exists the perfect tree.

When our children were at home we always had real trees and they always looked like Charlie Browns Christmas Trees. One year I had to lengthen the string on the ornaments so that they could hang far enough down to hid the missing branches. Once we even had to turn the tree so that the back wouldn't show because there really wasn't much tree there. We did manage to put a few ornaments on that back side so that it gave the illusion from the front that there was a full tree. Anyway, there I'm off topic, this is about buying the right tree. The decorating will probably be a later blog cause that in and of itself is quite a feat.

We have been having an artificial tree for quite a few years. It happened the year we left our Christmas tree buying til the last possible moment and all the choice we had was from about 4 trees in our price range. They were really sticks with a few branches and the weather had been so warm that year that most of the pine needles had fallen off. In fact, they we ready to start taking on the brownish hue that happens after they've been in your house for a couple of weeks and managed to dry out a few times. WELL, that is when my dear hubby broke down and bought us this beautiful expensive artificial tree. The artificial trees had been bought out as well, no options of anything cheaper. What we don't do for Christmas. But Christmas isn't Christmas without a tree.

We have enjoyed our fake tree for many years now and this year I felt that it was time to move on to something new. There were two reasons for this decision; the light issue and the fact that when I fluff the branches they are falling off. You guessed it, we were moving into the Charlie Brown nightmare again.

I decided to replace both the upstairs and the downstairs trees. In my hunt I came across one in a store and I ordered one off the catalogue site. Well, here's the skinny on what I found. You should only buy the ones that you can see so that you know what you are getting.

Tree #1: Looked pretty good but I could still see the center pole. Has 450 colored lights threaded in and costs under $100.00. This is very good news for my basement.
Tree #2: Looks more real with the needles but I can see the centre pole. It has 550 color lights threaded through but there are holes everywhere. This tree may be brighter than tree #1 but it is 3 times the cost.

As you can imagine, tree #2 is back in its box and will shortly be on it way back home to the warehouse, where ever that may be.

On a side note, I can imagine that our neighbours must really wonder about us. I didn't pull the blinds closed because the trees were set up and back against the window. There we were with our two trees, lights a blazing, in our living room and our neighbours probably thinking "over kill".

Anyway, I'm on my way to see if there is another tree that is a little fuller, artificial, lighted with color lights, and at least 1/2 the price of tree #2.

Wish me luck! If you have not found your perfect tree yet, here's to your hunt. Cheers!

By the way if you are successful in finding the perfect tree please let me know how you did it. And if you find yourself in the same dilemma that I'm in, it would be comforting to know that you are out there, experiencing the pressure of getting Christmas just right.

"Oh Christmas Tree...Oh Christmas Tree...la la la la la la la la."