Ten Minute Tree

Last Christmas I made the decision to retire our giant Christmas tree. It was an eight section behemoth that took a toll on our family relationships when we put it up and took it down. Little did I know when I made the three trips to the dump that 2020 was not going to be the best year to purchase a new tree.

Sadly, the company that I bought my tree from stopped selling trees retail and began making them for Balsam Hill. This meant my new tree was going to be double the price. Like I did a decade ago, I ordered the branch sample box from the company so I could pick out a tree that had the most realistic branches and color I was looking for.

As I shopped for trees I decided to go with one that was two feet shorter then my old tree. Spending my life going up and down the ladder and placing ornaments with uber long tongs was a younger woman’s job. Since I was getting a slightly shorter tree I could get one that was the newest flip technology. That meant the tree was permanently attached to the rolling stand and when I went to assemble it I flipped the tree over and added only two more sections, rather than the seven I used to.

Last week a coffin sized box arrived via FedEx. The nice delivery man actually got it into the house for me where it stood in the hall for five days. Since I didn’t want to have the box though Thanksgiving I decided that it was perfectly OK to put the tree up today. Russ and I are having a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving with just the two of us. Why not decorate for Christmas really early.

Russ helped me build a beautiful cedar box for the tree to stand on. This way our train can be put up around the tree easily. Then we lifted the first section on the box. Flipping it was easy. Russ added the next two sections, where they plugged together so the lights came on automatically. It took less than ten minutes to put the whole thing together as opposed to the hours for our old tree. Now I am fluffing the branches. Since it is a brand new tree the fluffing will take a little while, but as it is November 14 there is no rush.

Christmas is coming early here. Lord knows we can use the spirit.