Christmas trees and decorations and such.

I notice that the house across the road now has a large Christmas tree in the bay window. They’re usually the first to put up a tree, at least one visible to passers-by. It is not, of course, beyond the bounds of possibility that others have trees hidden away where the rest of us cannot see them. The across-the-road neighbours are not, however, the first to put up decorations of one sort or another. Some houses are already well and truly festooned with climbing Santas, inflatable snowmen, wicker reindeer and masses of twinkling lights.

So today the across-the-road neighbours have been busy hanging baubles and lights on the bushes and shrubs in their front garden, presumably in an attempt to catch up. Who says the spirit of competition is dead?

The daughter of a good friend of mine put the following post on Facebook, together with a photo of her apparently inadequate tree:

“Christmas tree is up!! As you can see, it is far too small for our new house, so we are going to be selling it after this year for £175 to upgrade to a bigger one. Including this year, it will have been used only twice and cost us £419 last year!!! It is a Balsam Hill 6 foot European Silver Fir Tree, prelit with clear LED bulbs. It is 78% true foliage - each individual needle has been moulded, which makes it super realistic!!

We will drop it off anywhere in London, the South East or Greater Manchester before next Christmas. Please let me know if you are interested xx”

Okay, I should not be surprised. This is the young lady whose wedding was choreographed to within an inch of existence, ensuring not only that nobody upstaged the bride but that the guests all co-ordinated nicely! And I have heard of some of the birthday parties she has organised. She is a young lady in search of perfection!

How did she and her husband ever save up for a deposit for a house if they were going round spending £400+ on an artificial Christmas tree? They must be earning too much money! I wonder what happened to young people scratching around to make ends meet. She is obviously much more into gracious living than is the ageing hippy writing this blog. No doubt she would find my tiny tree quite ridiculous.

All of this Christmas ostentation - making sure your tree is visible to all the neighbours, decorating the outside of the house and putting baubles in the trees in the garden - goes against all my mother’s ideas of Christmas decorations. She always grew sniffy about people who put their tree on the windowsill, visible to all who went past but often invisible inside the house once you drew the curtains in the evening. She did not see the point of decorating a tree just to show off to the neighbours. Quite what she would think of some of the overdecorated houses I can’t imagine. 

Personally I don’t mind a bit of garden-decoration at Christmas but I am sufficiently my mother’s daughter to say that a line should be drawn. Discretion is the better part of good taste! Besides, are not some pensioners perhaps using their winter fuel allowance to finance the electricity bill for these outdoor lights? Is that right and proper?

My tree is a very small rooted tree in a pot. It stands about 2 feet 6 inches tall and cost me a grand total of £10 from one of the local supermarkets. I was hoping to recycle last year’s tree - also small and rooted - but at some point over the last year it lost most of its needles. I was convinced it had died but at the last minute it started to put out new growth. This new growth looks fine and healthy but the bare bits of the branches make it look terribly scrawny. So it has to stay in the garden, its place usurped by a healthy - for the time being anyway - newcomer.

The usurper is currently residing in the kitchen, waiting to move into the living room on Friday, in time for a visit from our almost four-year-old granddaughter who will help to decorate it. Tastefully, of course!