Our Perfectly Strange Looking Tree

I decided that this year we are going to create an old-fashioned Christmas for Robby. Part of my motivation is financial- it is a lot cheaper to make the ornaments and decorations than to buy them. But that is not my only reason for opting for homemade this year.

I am not sure why, but I've been feeling nostalgic for my childhood and I want Robby to feel some of the "magic" that is often lost by all of the ready-made, holiday-in-a-box decorations. The season will seem more meaningful if he had a hand in the creation. Right after Thanksgiving I found my craft books and got to work.

Last week Robby and I spent several hours, over three days, making his tree ornaments. I offered him a variety of cookie cutters, but he seemed drawn to the star. That's okay, I figured--we can have a lot of stars on the tree.

After the ornaments were dried, I went into my craft drawer and pulled out every color of paint. After all, a Christmas tree needs an array of bright and vibrant colors! Armed with the full color spectrum and a handful of brushes, I let my little artist create. He proceeded to paint every ornament yellow as he told me, "Yellow is my favorite color."

After all of his yellow stars were dried, we moved onto the glitter stage. I knew that it was going to be messy, but I wasn't deterred. Messes can be cleaned up, but the memories will last forever. With ten colorful glitter jars available, Robby used only one. He glittered every yellow star ornament with yellow glitter, again reminding me, "Yellow is my favorite color."

Determined to create old-fashioned memories, we bundled up Saturday morning in search of the perfect Christmas tree. I'm not sure if it was the cold wind or Robby's eagerness to get a tree, but he found the tree he wanted within 10 minutes. We cut it down, bailed it up and strapped it to the roof. I even convinced the family to sing Jingle Bells on the drive home.

I suppose that no old-fashioned Christmas would be complete without witnessing a parental fight while putting up the tree. Despite our "easy to use" stand, the tree kept falling. Frustrated, Scott and I began to snap at each other as we struggled to keep the tree from falling into the fireplace or onto Robby. The fact that the kitten seemed enthralled by the tree and kept trying to climb to the top wasn't helping our predicament.

I have vivid memories of putting our Christmas tree in the stand when I was growing up. After a torrent of curses from my Dad, we children were sent outside. Our job was to scour the yard for bricks and large rocks to wedge against the tree trunk to keep it in the stand. I had to smile when we were in the yard picking up rocks for the same purpose on Saturday afternoon, reflecting on how some family traditions will probably never die.
With the tree quasi-secured in its stand, we stepped back to admire our centerpiece. Despite our best efforts, it is extremely crooked. We also realized that we were a tad overzealous when lopping off the bottom branches. Our tree now has a bare two foot trunk. On the positive side, Robby thinks it is a fantastic "Christmas fort!"

Looking at the tree now I'm not sure why I didn't notice all of the bare spots in the tree. I suspect that the holes were camouflaged by the pounds of needles and debris that fell from the branches onto my floor. I have concluded that we may have found the ugliest tree in the field.

We let Robby have complete control over decorating the tree. He carefully hung each homemade yellow star with precision. Of course, he is only 3 feet tall. All of the branches above his reach are bare.

With the decorating completed, Robby told me that we have the perfect tree. I have to agree with him. Somehow, our crooked tree with a naked trunk and bare branches, positioned precariously between rocks and decorated with only yellow stars seems appropriate for our family this year. It is perfect, and Robby thinks it's nothing short of magical.