Letting Go of The Christmas Tree Plan

As far as I can tell there are two kinds of people in the world, those who like their Christmas tree decorated exactly the way they want and those that just want a decorated Christmas tree. I of course am the former. I have a plan for my tree, I think about it, I design it, and I execute it. Yes, I get help with the heavy lifting part, but when it comes to light placement, and lighting density that is all up to me.

Then there is the decoration plan. I have a definite look I am going for, the you-can’t-see-the-tree-through-the-ornaments look. My tree is the overwhelm scheme. I am basically hitting the viewer square in the face with a big screaming Christmas.

Getting this look from my brain to my house is best done through my own hands perhaps with a kitchen tongs for placement on the ornaments on the top of the fourteen-foot tree. Curating this look starts by decorating the tree from the top down, not because that is how I envision it, but because it is the only way to decorate the tree without knocking ornaments off the tree. See if you are standing on a twelve foot ladder leaning into the tree to reach the top you can’t have anything other than lights on the bottom of the tree.

Tonight we went to our friends the Hannan’s house for their annual Christmas tree decorating party. Mick has a rule that no tree can go up in their house until there are double digits in the month of December. This party is Hannah’s way of having a Christmas party without the worry of having all her decorating done before hand. It really is quite a brilliant plan if you are someone who is happy to let many hands create your tree.

Tonight they had a beautiful real tree with all the lights already on it. Hannah had put some of the more fragile ornaments on the tree before people got there so they would not break, setting out the others in baskets so guests could put them on the tree. Oh, how I wish I was someone who could let other people decorate my tree putting things on in a willy-nilly way, but it is just not in my DNA.

I did my part to get that tree done in a way that would be aesthetically pleasing. I tried to space the ornaments in a systematic way, and balance the colors so that there was not a big clump of red ornaments in one place, a hole of no ornaments and them a clump of gold. The hardest part is finding the strong branches for the heavy ornaments so they are not pulling the tree down.

In the end I am sure that in the light of day tomorrow Hannah may have to move some things around, but is more or less happy with the tree her friends create for her. It is kind of like a Christmas surprise. There is something to beautiful about enjoying the gift your friends give you when they decorate your tree. I wish I liked surprises.