Is your Christmas tree real or artificial and when do you put it up? Our Christmas tree is real and we put it up the weekend before Christmas. This year Wahid and Nathan will go get it on the 18th of December. They will both come through the front door and place it in the stand. There it will sit over night and get use to the temperature in the house. Just before we decorate it on the Saturday with Josephine and Domenic of course, Wahid will lie on the ground turning it over and over and I will say ‘It is too much to the right, too much to the left, too bald, too full, etc.’ We will all be there and I can play it out for you. Wahid will put the lights on and I will say ‘At least try to hide the wires better than that.’ Angelique will make us tea and sit and watch. Nadalene will help decorate. Nathan will watch and throw the odd thing on the tree. We will all stare at Josephine and Domenic with the tree lights reflecting the stars in their eyes and be transported to a place where all is right with the world.
Do you know why Christmas is celebrated around the world? No I don’t really know at all. I imagine because it is the season of goodwill and peace. Or at least that is what we want it to be. But why it would be celebrated around the world, I don’t know. Obviously we are not celebrating for the religious aspect, but maybe because all of us no matter what the religion hope for peace and so what we are celebrating is the idea of peace.
Do you see your relatives at Christmas? Yes I see relatives during Christmas, usually the same relatives I see all of the time. I am hoping that I dream of Sheldon and my Dad this Christmas season and can hold on to them again.
Did it snow last year at Christmas? Last year we had lots of snow at Christmas. We had the most gorgeous snow last year; fluffy white marshmallow snow. There is just a little bit of snow on the ground now which is the shits because it makes it very slippery. If there was more snow our feet would have something to grip on to.
Do you try to be better during the Christmas season? I do try to be better. I try to keep any anger away. I try to live in the moment the most at Christmas. I try to cherish all of the moments and can’t help but wonder if it will be my last.
http://circlingmyhead.blogspot.com/2008/12/b-l-d-no-4.html
34 comments:
Hi Renne,
I put up a real X-mas tree and we usually put it up Sunday after Thanksgiving...but this year...busy,,,busy...we haven't. I am going to follow your tradition and put it up a week before X-mas...I like the idea.
I do not know around the world, but in Nicaragua we celebrate the Nativity.
Yes, my brother always come for X-mas.
No snow here in Miami :(
No I sm always the same complainer...and every New Years Eve I say Im am going to change... any tips? on how to make it work...
Oh honey, none of knows if we will get another day or another year, or another Chritmas. Anything can happen. I hope you get the most beautiful tree ever. Love and a zillion kisses. xoxo
I have a tall, skinny little artificial Christmas tree but I decorate it the best I can so that it beams!
Your tree decorating story is wonderful and I can imagine being right there watching you all♥
I love the peace and kindness the holiday brings and really wish the magic could last all through the year!
God bless you Renee.
Love, Darla
Artificial tree...I live in a DESERT! Goes up the weekend before Thanksgiving so I can have a fully decorated tree at the dinner, just like in the movies. I always loved seeing that as a child. **kisskiss** **kisskiss** Deb
(extra kisses for the Holidays)
I have an artificial tree. I usually put it up over the Thanksgiving holiday. My theme the last few years has been Rudolph. Photos to follow soon on my blog.
Have a blessed Christmas season!
I'm going to put up a lighted elephant and some pink lights in the yard. Not sure about the tree-Puppies and Birds who like shiny things makes me think it might be a bad idea this year.
I used to tie my tree to the ceiling when the cat was more active (she passed away this year) but that won't stop Mr. Bird. I did put some sprays in my Big Ass Flower arrangement and he's eyed them, but so far has avoided temptation.
I have a open screen thing by a window-I may just hang some ornaments on it and I bought a couple to hang by Oliver's cage so he can hit them if he likes. He has me very well trained.
I love your questions and the answers. I can "see" your family doing this.
The tree is important to us...we go to a tree farm to choose and cut it ourselves. We love that process, though it is different now, without Katie. The tree sits outdoors for a day or so, with its trunk in a bucket of water, drinking as much as it likes. Then it comes inside and blesses the house for weeks. We do this when time allows...this year, we have invited a family with two young boys to join us. They live in the city and haven't done this before.
Decorating is a group thing, with music playing in the background. Gregg and David LOVE the lights. Ornaments are mixed, and most have special meaning. Some are very crazy-looking, and I really love those.
I love you, Renee. You are a treasure. XOXO
"I do try to be better.
I try to keep any anger away.
I try to live in the moment the most at Christmas.
I try to cherish all of the moments and can’t help but wonder if it will be my last."
Amen to that, dear friend. I feel the same way. It's a magical season. I love the connection to the Solstice, too.
Even more hugs,
xoxoxo
Angela
Hi hon....Love you ..you know I do... hmm let's see..
I prefer a real one but if I ahve to choose between a gift for the kids and a live tree the fake one goes up..It will be a fake one this year! But that is ok..going up this weekend - whoot!
So many places celebrate..maybe just the magic that makes us all stop and be present for a little bit..love that!!
My kids will be here all except Julia..wish she coupld. Wish my sisters and their families could..but maybe next year.
Whoot maybe..I hope for lots of snow..last year was heavenly and beautiful..lots of snow!
I guess I am trying to be less stressed and enjoy the month..so much more fun to be that way..present.
Renee..I want you to be here next year too hon..I do! I am happy to have you here now though! Huge hugs! Love you, Sarah
Renee, I loved how you asked the question and proceeded to answer it. So I will try too, cause I like these play along situations very much.
We go into the mountains (1.5 hours away) and search for three trees. One is for us, the other for my mom and dad, and the third is for the care home I run. We usually do this two weeks before Christmas.
I believe that the meaning is peace and hope. But I am not sure, yet I like those two very much, and it is what I wish for the world. We celebrate Advent rather than Christmas. It's more focused on the changes occurring during the season, and the real meaning of what it the holidays are.
Last year we had a huge snowstorm. As always, all of us five kids with our kids and our parents were together in our parents home, and we were stuck there for three days. But it was THE BEST three days ever!! I will never forget how wonderful it was, nor will anyone else.
I try to be good all the time. Of course I have my moments where I just lock myself in the bathroom and cry my eyes and heart out for all the injustices out there, but when it comes to my dealing with other hearts and souls that are in pain, I allow the goodness in me to rejoice in what it can offer.
Sorry I wrote such a long comment, Renee. I am thinking of you and pray and hope that you know how much you touch even the lives of those you've never physically met.
I need the smell of a real tree in my house. It's part of the 'whole package.'
I think about my own mortality a lot these days too.
We need to stop that right now!
My wings are fine. I mentioned it in the card you'll be getting ;)
Your question made me think you already got it.
That's how connected we are.
xoxo
Lolo
Nice post, Renee, certainly plenty of food for thought and responses.
I miss the snow, the smell of a real tree, but mostly family and yet, somehow, I still enjoy Christmas, because I focus on what it represents and not what it actually is.
God bless you,
Doris
1. Tiny little fake tree that my cats can't destroy with miniature balls. Tee-Hee. It goes up sometime this month, maybe later this week.
2. I know why Christmas is celebrated around the world. I only wish buying 'things' would be banned and it was all about God's love, giving to the needy and world peace.
3. God willing, I'll be seeing my precious grandchildren Mary Mace and Warner this year who I haven't seen in over a year. We're flying to Tennessee and staying a week. My Mary Mace turns 6 years old on December 24 and I can't wait to get my hands on her and Warner who is 2 1/2 years old.
4. Check this out, Renee: it's supposed to SNOW HERE tonight in Louisiana!!! It NEVER, EVER snows here at all. I pray it does so I can experience the white stuff and take a few pictures. LOL!
5. I'm just me at Christmas.
Wishing you many, many more Christmas's. xoxoxoxoxox
Used to be real until a year when aphids were comfortably spending the winter inside one until we brought it home and they woke up and infested the entire house (just think how many aphids can live inside a 14 foot tree)and killed my entire collection of orchids that were inside for the winter, sigh. Then another one broke in half for who knows what reason and took with it some of my most precious antique ornaments.
So, we searched and searched until we found one we like and the best comment came from a guest last Christmas -in her defense we had enough "real" greens that the house smelled divine with the paper whites to boot- "There is nothing like a real tree to get you in the mood and yours is just the ticket". I didn't have the heart to say a single word, not even thank you as that would have required I tell her it was a faux tree.
We celebrate the advent of the season. Not the religious meaning but the spiritual one. The tree to us has the same meaning as it had to the Druids. Bring some light into the darkness and be at peace with all others. Normally we have a host of people around, but this year we decided we want to be by ourselves.
Every year since I had breast cancer I wondered too if that year would be my last Christmas and then I thought, what difference does it make? I had so many happy Christmases to remember that those are the ones that are truly important.
I love you and the fact that you bring me often to spaces I have left behind. No tree this year. Just a good fire in the fireplace, some special meal if we feel like eating, and be together with the puppies and the chatelaine of the house, Colette. We got already two magnificent wreaths to hang up front and that is our tip of the hat to the season.
Hope for snow to take the babies out to play and for us to rejoice in the silence of the season of Light. May each and everyone here be happy and healthy this year,and may Peace be the real present to our troubled world. Love to you as always.
I always love getting my tree-we have a real one. This year I have done something different and got two small trees and will have one either side of the step to the kitchen. I like the description of your family tree traditions. I don't know why it is celebrated so widely-it has virtually lost any religious significance I suppose but it is a lovely festival-you need all those lights in the middle of dark winter time(though that does not explain the southern hemisphere!) Two children in my class today made me smile-one looked at the tree we were putting up and said 'Christmas in here'-he is Hindu. The other one was a Somali girl who is Muslim. She kept waving at the large picture of Santa hanging fromn the ceiling and saying 'Hello Christmas'. I love going into work early before anyone else, in the dark, and just putting the tree lights on-it is like my secret Christmas habit that nobody knows about!
xx
we have 4 indoor cats, and we keep saying that we're going to put a tree up for them; i think this may be the year! :) so, a real one. we try to see family, which means we spend a lot of time on the road, which is why we usually don't get a tree...no snow, which is good for the driving :)
thanks for sharing your christmas stories. you guys sound like a great family...
ms. flor larios art: my favorite christmas was the one my husband and i spent in miami!! because you are the only ones with good weather this season :)
Hi, Renee. My answer is in my current post.
I do like your honesty, and your voice. And the image of him on the floor moving and adjusting - just like at our house.
I've been remiss the past few years and haven't done much with Christmas decorations. As a forensic nurse for both the adult and child sexual abuse agencies, I've take the lion's share of the call over the holidays since my three sons are adults. I figured they wouldn't mind if I did nothing more than try to put together a nice meal ( if the beeper didn't go off which it often did ). My youngest, Jeremy ( now 25 ) told me the other day, he missed all the special decorations I had so, this weekend, while he is in San Diego seeing a former college roommate off to the Air Force, I'm getting a tree and hauling out all the decorations...and our house will be resplendent like it did in my boy's younger days. Since budget cuts forced the loss of my job of 21 years in Feb, I retired so I have no excuse!!
I have been really depressed since then but I am trying to be more cheerful this holiday season. I know others have experienced this sort of thing so I'm not alone!
Most of my Xmas decorations are still in a storage unit 200 miles away but I do have one of my aluminum trees plus the color wheel out in the garage so that is what I will put up this year. I love the smell of a real tree. Your post is beautiful and all any of us has is this moment right now.
xoxo
Great post. In answer to your questions ...
We have a real tree and no.1 son goes with dad to choose it. It gets put up and trimmed into a manageable shape then the kids and dad dress it up. Each year, I buy a special Christmas ornament for each of my sons so that when they leave home they will take with them a collection of decorations.
We put up our tree the weekend before Christmas because I like to at least acknowledge my birthday.
It never snows with us because we are so close to the Cheshire plains.
We do celebrate for religeous reasons, my sons understand why we celebrate Christ's mass. It is a Christian occasion and should not be acknowledged as anything other than that.
We do celebrate with our family but the day itself is for us, my husband, me and my boys.
Dearest Renee, I love hearing about your Christmas traditions. Here are a few of mine:
We get a real tree the weekend after Thanksgiving, we make sugar cookies and eat them while we decorate.
I think Christmas is celebrated around the world because it is a time of mutual connection and a time to express our love and goodwill to each other. I think what people want most is to connect to others and this is the perfect opportunity to do so.
I see my in-laws and my sister and brother in-law for Christmas. We are all very close.
Since I live in California, we don't get any snow. It has been pretty frosty in the mornings though.
I do try to get better during the holidays. I mostly focus on enjoying each individual moment. Because I have depression, it's easy to just focus on the negative so this is the perfect time for me to practice enjoying the little things.
xox, Catherine
Real, put up the first day in December the kids and I can get to the tree farm to cut one. I usually see relstived sometimes during the holiday week, but Christmas morning is for the kids.
Much Christmas love to you.
I clicked the link to last year. Your commenters have grown like topsy! Except for loyal Deborah who was there a year ago!
I like this meme and may steal it. Our tree should have gone up yesterday but the kids aren't home and it's a sort of family tradition. Yeh it's fake. I had a real one once but they don't do well in the heat and look a bit tired by Christmas day.
Wonder all you like. You've defied the odds so far so nothing about you would surprise me frankly.
Renee, IT'S SNOWING! I can't help but think you had something to do with this. ;-) We haven't had snow here in 20 years. No shit. It's a miracle. xoxoxo
Ours is aritficial but that's because we have so many pine trees outside. I have used this same tree for a very long time now and it serves the purpose. We used to decorate of the trees outside but we no longer do that. I like the idea of what you do. I still have to mail xmas cards. Have a great weekend.
Is it a marshmallow world? Aah, yes, it's all fluff.
I've only had two real trees in my life, and one of them was won in a 2nd grade raffle at school. But now I read that buying a real tree is better for the environment. So the weekend before Christmas, I am going to imagine you, sitting there all snuggly, belting out: too bald! too full!
Dearest darling, I hope your team of experts is working their wonders on you.
xoxoxoxoxo
I think they do. Starting to know too much of the sorrow and sadness and not looking to feeling anymore. Trying to move on back to the pure joy part.
Great work AJ
Renee... You are the coolest of cool... I love you and all that you share...
Way too hot here for a real tree... though some give it a go.
I those that succeed really do look spectacular.
oooh I do love Christmas...
I've told my son that Jesus was a kind man and that's why we all celebrate his birthday and that Father Christmas too was a kind man and still is :)
love to you
Ribbon
PS.. I believe we celebrate around the world 'cause anything good is worth sharing :) x
Hi dear,Im all alone but in my thoughts with the loved ones,you are one of them.I painted one tree tranch white,3 years ago(so each year there is less of my "tree" cause I have to move it sometimes,gets broken and I repare it,:O)),and I hanged some little lamps and use that as a room light when I need to feel together with the people I love and thats all the time,even when I sleep the little lmps are on keeping the nightmares away from me!
Love and hugs,X0X0X0
Aleksandra
Over the last 30 years or so I've probably spent way too much on real trees but living many years in the middle and far east I've felt that the smell and touch of a real tree is something that really makes Christmas for me! This year we will be away for only the 2nd time ever and I will miss opening the Christmas decorations box and reliving all the memories - I have all the baubles still from my childhood plus all those I've added - one each year since 1977!!
No tree going up but we do plan on spending lots of time with family.
Just keeping it simple.
This year I would have loved a big real tree but I am calling my husband's mum the mother-in-law who stole Christmas as she is not budging on the real tree purchasing!
In NZ, it's much like OZ...chuck a few prawns on the BBQ, lots of meat and seafood and sparkles and sun....
I just went to a talk yesterday for my new job with the Leukaemia & Blood Foundation and met with some lovely people going through some really tough times and I thought of you and hoped you were feeling well these days.x
Artificial tree here. No snow here. I do miss the seasons. The trees are starting to turn colors they are so pretty. Very cold here this morning, under a freeze warning. We hope to get the tree up today before hubby has to leave. That is the plan anyway.
(((HUGS)))
Christmas is the time for more hugs, so (((hugs))) xox
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