It probably should have happened last week. Some might have done it the week before. But it’s time for the tree.
My job is just to put the tree up. And the lights. That’s it. I could do more, but I know better. If I try to decorate the tree, it will be wrong.
It’s not that I do a bad job. But my wife tends to have a picture of the tree in her head and what I create does not match that picture. Ornaments that somehow belong at the top end up at the bottom and vice versa. So I just put the tree up and walk away. If I’m challenged as to why I did not decorate it, I simply say, “not my job”.
I also do not know which order things in which things are placed on the tree. There are rules to tree decoration. These rules are not written down anywhere for easy reference. And I have failed to take notes over the past forty or so years. Although I suspect these rules are subject to change, since I haven’t been taking notes I can not prove that. And there may or may not have been eggnog involved in the decoration of the tree, which makes remembering the rules even more difficult.
So I have made it very simple. Put the tree up, put the lights on and slowly back away.
At least our present animals are pretty good with the tree. The dog will just look confused and the cat will hopefully ignore it. We did have a cat a few years ago that liked to climb the tree. It was rather entertaining. The tree would shake and a little furry face would appear amoung the branches. Then it would disappear, only to reappear somewhere else. There would be a few ornaments rearranged in the process, but the tree stayed upright. Possibly because I always like to tie it to the wall.
That was something my parents always did, so I always though it was part of putting the tree up. I later learned it was because I, as a very small child, pulled the tree over on top of myself. So they took to securing the tree to the wall with the help of a well placed string and a cup hook. When I started putting up trees of my own, I just continued, thinking it was just something you did. But no. It was something my parents did because of me. I still do it. The cat may get an ornament or two, but the tree stays up.
But the time has come to get the tree up. And answer the big question of the season. Did I put the lights away neatly? Or just ball them up and toss them in a box? I like to surprise myself this time of year.
