Christmas Decorating!

A few years ago, Doug convinced me that a fake tree was the right choice for our family.

I grew up enjoying the tradition of going with my dad to pick out the biggest real tree we could convince my mom to get - so it seemed like a huge betrayal of all things Christmas. What about the rich, outdoorsy smell of the fresh pine boughs? What about the scratchy branches and slightly tilted tree (despite the adjusting and turning and cutting off the bottom)? What about having to fill in the empty spots with extra ornaments and having one side that definitely went in the back? What about crawling under the tree every day to see how much water it needed (or finding out too late that it needed more - the signal of dropping all its needles was never clear enough.)

Plastic just seemed so ..... plastic.

But... maybe I have lost some Christmas spirit. Maybe I have given into the instant gratification culture. Or maybe I just like my Christmas with a little less work these days. I must admit the joys of a pre - lit tree are extensive. It always took forever to get the lights on, and that could only happen after the strands had been untangled (because I only managed to store one or two correctly the year before, tossing the rest into the box willy-nilly with a tired, oh well). Now the tree comes out of the attic in three pieces, goes together like a large simple puzzle, gets some branch fluffing and is plugged in. Ta Dah!

We have much more time to put on all the ornaments, from hand made snowmen to the golden Wright Flyer and space shuttle the boys chose in DC last year. More time to have hot cocoa and watch Food Network Christmas specials. More time to set up the Nativity set and talk about what our favorite Christmas carols mean. I have found Christmas songs one of the best ways to begin discussions of faith - Hark the Herald Angles Sing is one of Andrew's favorites and clearly lays out the gospel.

And it is still exciting to put the star on top: