O Christmas Tree!

You know, it’s never too early in the year to start thinking about Christmas. It always seems like I am on the lookout for the perfect gift and the perfect theme for my Christmas tree. For as sentimental as I can be, Christmas tree decorating has never really been about decorating my tree with ornaments I made in school or ornaments passed down through generations in my family. Oh sure, we had our share of handmade items, but they don’t seem to last year to year. One year we even made the tree out of a paper bag. I think the only older ornament I have managed to hang onto is a red cowboy boot with my name on it that I got when I lived in Texas.

The Charlie Brown Years
I believe that since the time I got my first apartment that I have had some sort of different theme for my tree. In the beginning, it was more about budget than imagination. I started with one single color and then used silver ornaments to go with it. I knew I could use the silver ones every year, and then just change the solid color. So that worked for a while, until I was a little better off financially. I refer to this time as the Charlie Brown years, because my poor little tree was pathetically artificial and woefully bald in a few spots. Those things never really look right. But it was the right size for my apartment and my budget, and I was guaranteed not to kill it from too much water (like my cactus), too little water (like everything else I have tried to grow), or just lack of care in general.

The Long and Winding Road to Nashville
A good friend of mine that I used to work with moved to Indiana in the late 90’s. When I would go to visit him, he would take me to this fun little artsy town called Nashville. It was here where my imagination took off in terms of my tree themes. There are a couple of really great stores in town dedicated to Christmas year round. The Holly Shop and Grandma’s come to mind in particular. If you ever get a chance to go, they are definitely worth your time. So here are some of the highlights of the good, bad and bizarre tree themes over the years.

Christmas Pickles?
The first really wild theme I started with came from one of my first trips to Nashville. The store had a bunch of these cardboard cutouts of various things: famous people, people in different occupations, animals, and so on. What caught my eye were the cut outs of Carmen Miranda. Now, if you are like me, the only thing you would know about Carmen Miranda is that she was the lady that wore the big fruit turban on her head. I know she is in some old movies, but I can’t name any of them. Anyway, I saw that they had some ornaments of her and that was it. I had my theme.

Next I just had to find the filler to go with them. Do you know how hard it is to find tropical fruit Christmas ornaments? Oh sure, you can find things like apples and pears and grapes, but pineapples? Bananas? Watermelon? It’s harder than you might think if you don’t happen to live in a warm climate. So, I found what I could (including giving in and buying those weird Christmas pickles. Can someone explain that to me???) I also found some bird ornaments and a multi colored garland. For the tree topper? I found this giant ball ornament meant for a giant tree that was a bunch of smaller multi-colored balls all stuck to a center ball with a gold bow on top. (Think of a multi-colored popcorn ball and you’ll get the idea.) One of the nice things about the artificial tree is that you can manipulate the branches a little easier. So, it was a bit of a balancing act, but I made it work. Once I pulled that off, there was no stopping me. Throughout the years, I have been able to find some other fruit ornaments, which is nice. I think Carmen may need to make another appearance soon.

Marabou, Sling-backs and Beads: Oh My!
One of the nicest Christmas presents I received was from a friend of my parents. One year, much to my surprise I opened my gift to find Christmas ornaments. And not just any ornaments. These were guaranteed to make me squeal like the girl I am. They were shoes and matching handbags. Now I know I haven’t written yet about my accessory fetish, but these things take time. I know I will get there eventually. In the meantime, I was VERY EXCITED about the ornaments. He mentioned that there were other sets available. So, I asked where he got them (is that a faux pas?) and then went to go find the rest. I then went home, stripped my tree and re-decorated with my new ornaments just to see how things would look next year. In a strange twist, I received another set of shoe ornaments from ThreeL that same year. Very cool. So, needless to say, the shoes and purses theme was a very good theme year. I think it may also be the only one I have repeated.

Decapitated Barbie
One idea that I just couldn’t get to work was the Pez tree. The idea came to me from an article I saw in a USA Today newspaper. They were running a story on some interesting personalized gifts. One was to have a customized Pez dispenser made. So, I thought that perhaps a Christmas tree with Pez dispensers might be fun. I went to the website and ordered a bunch from their Christmas collection. The challenge of course was going to be the tree topper. Sure, I could have gone with the star that I usually have when I can’t find something specific to my theme, but I really thought I could do something with this. Pez didn’t really make something large enough for my tree, so I tried to think of some alternatives.

One thought was to find a Barbie head (like I used to have when I was little, although I think it may have been Farah Fawcett. God, I’m old.) Then I thought maybe I could find some sort of mannequin head or maybe get a mask when Halloween rolled around. I started to lose steam for the idea when I thought about how I was going to impale this head on my tree and how I was going to simulate a brick of sugar coming out of the neck. Or should it come out of the mouth? Either way, it was probably going to scare small children or look like I had some sort of bondage fetish, or a death wish against Barbie. (Or Farah Fawcett for that matter.) So, I gave up on that one. I may still have the dispensers although I think I probably gave them away or tied them to Christmas gifts for my family and friends.

Honorable Mention
Other themes worthy of mention were:
The Memory Tree: Included tiny picture frames gathered over the course of a year with pictures of family and friends. This tree made an appearance after 9/11 and a personal illness.

Vegas/Showgirl Tree: My first Christmas in Vegas of course warranted a special theme. It was mostly a showgirl theme, but with some Vegas touches to it to round it out.

No ideas yet for this year, which freaks me out a little since it’s already July. I keep thinking that in a moment of panic I am going to end up buying Halloween decorations on clearance and then throw them on my tree. I just don’t know if I am ready to embrace spiders and bats on my tree. Although a candy corn garland has possibilities. Hmm…a decapitated Barbie would fit nicely, don’t you think?