O Tannenbaum!

I'm so excited it is Christmas tree time! The choosing and decorating and enjoying of the Christmas tree has always been an important family tradition for me, and it is something I'm happy to carry on in my own home. We've gotten three pretty cute trees over the years we've been married. Here they are in sequential order:

In the McMinn house, we always had a real Christmas tree. Sure they are messy and more trouble than an artifical one, but I just want the lovely imperfection and wonderful scent that comes with a real tree. I'm not knocking the alternative, but in my house I just can't imagine anything different.

My parents are notorious for going... large when it comes to their tree. They always say, "This year we're cutting back and not going to get such a big tree" and then I come home for the first time and an enormous Douglas fir has taken over a quarter of the living room. I'm talking twelve and thirteen footers. Including one that had to be anchored into the wall because it fell over twice. Here is a picture where you can see a portion of the tree from last year. The size of the fireplace in relation should tell you something about how huge the tree was.

The tree at home is always decorated with colored lights and plastic popcorn-&-cranberries garland that we have had, literally, for as long as I remember. Then it gets covered tip to trunk with a completely random and uncoordinated array of decorations. No fancy matching globes and beaded garland. Just old ornaments and craft projects from my sister's and my childhood, little pretties and gifts from across the years. And I love it all.

I especially love a little tradition passed down from my mother and her sisters to me. There is a special beauty of a lit Christmas tree that can only be appreciated by the nearly blind - to gaze upon its loveliness in a darkened room without the aid of your glasses or contacts. The glow of each individual bulb swells to enormous proportions, creating a fuzzy colored patchwork of overlapping light rings - pink and blue and gold and green and red. It is magnificant. I found this picture online, which is a pretty decent approximation of the actual experience:

Anyway, all this was stirring around in my mind because Ben & I are planning to pick out our tree tonight. I can't wait to bust out all my decorations and put on some Christmas music and usher in the season by putting up our own lovely tannenbaum. I'll be sure to post a pic of the finished project soon!