O (Minimalist) Christmas Tree, O (Minimalist) Christmas Tree
Executive summary: We have never in our adult lives had a Christmas tree, since we have never spent a Christmas at home. But this year, even though we will again be gone over the holidays, hubby’s one request was to set up a tree in our new home … which I acceded to, but on my own (minimalist) terms.
My husband has an easy-going personality, and his response to all my design dilemmas is, “I don’t have an eye for this. Whatever you think looks good.” While it’s totally unhelpful on the one hand, it really is best for our marriage on the other hand, since I have an opinionated personality. So when hubby does state a strong preference for something once every 5 years, I’m both surprised and willing to listen. When we bought our condo in the spring, his one request was to finally get a Christmas tree this year. I am terrible at seasonal decorating — I prefer to have the same look all the time so I don’t have to remember to switch things out or store them (a total minimalist nightmare!!) It is fun to decorate for holidays, I admit, and I will make an exception for Christmas. For the sake of my family and my marriage. Even if we never spend Christmas at home (we’re always traveling or at the grandparents’ over winter break), I can manage to un-Grinchify myself enough to set up one Christmas tree to look at for the month of December. I made four separate purchases to pull it together: the tree, the lights, the ornaments, and the tree skirt. To make it easier on my minimalist psyche, I group those objects into one in my mind: I just pretend everything came attached to the tree.
What holiday spirit we have now, fa-la-la-la-la, la-la, la, la
I considered getting a real tree, and weighed the annoyance joy of having to acquire one every year against the mental anguish of storing a faux tree for 11 out of 12 months. But a real tree also sheds, and I really don’t want to deal with the upkeep, so a faux tree wins out on that factor alone. From an environmental standpoint, I’ve read that keeping a faux tree for ~10 years “equals” the same impact as getting a real tree annually (though up to much debate), so that’ll have to be our goal. I ordered the 7’ tall “Kingswood Fir Pencil Tree” by The Holiday Aisle after seeing good reviews, and it’s slim enough to fit in our condo without blocking off walkways (only 2.5’ diameter base). I don’t know anything about what goes into making a Christmas tree, but they seem pricey! Like, even Costco doesn’t sell ones for under $300, which surprised me (and they all come pre-lit, which seems wasteful if you have to toss the tree when the lights inevitably fail). But I remembered seeing more budget-friendly options on Wayfair and paid $100 for ours. I’m not a faux tree connoisseur, but it looks good to me, and certainly is no worse than the one I grew up with.
I didn’t want to acquire a bunch of ornaments that I need to store all year, so I aimed to keep our tree minimal. I think it would be nice to slowly grow a collection of homemade ornaments by the children, or something nostalgic like that, but all I’m starting out with is a pack of holiday gift tags from Costco that I’m repurposing as ornaments. It came in a set of 72 tags, but I only kept 20, the ones that had (almost) no glitter — I cannot abide glitter shedding in the house, no matter how pretty it is. In the same vein, I tied on a giant gift wrapping bow to serve as the topper. If it’s too flimsy to survive past this year, maybe the tree topper is something we’ll have fun switching out every year. As for the tree skirt, I didn’t like the idea of having a single use item (I know, I set myself so many constraints to make life hard). My compromise was to just buy 2 yards of red felt fabric from Michael’s for $8 and drape it around the spindly legs at the base. There, a tree skirt that’s not an actual tree skirt, minimalist mission accomplished.
Tree decorating in progress.
Now the lights … I wish there weren’t a story to tell here, but apparently my husband is more particular about his Christmas tree than I had given him credit for. He is Team Colored Lights all the way. I am Team Golden Glow, no doubt about it. I find multi-colored lights too gaudy for my style at home, but I suppose Christmas is a gaudy holiday. Given that I unilaterally make 99% of the decisions in our lives, I can throw my husband a bone … just this once … he totally owes me … we’ll do half-half. Most guides online say that a 7’ tree needs ~1000 lights, but our tree is extra skinny. So I purchased 600, half of them colored and half of them “warm white.” It’s more than enough, and we probably only need 400. But neither hubby or I will give up our preferred lights, so we’re stuck with the full 600 if we’re not willing to cut back on either set.
So that, my friends, is how we came to acquire our first Christmas tree. I have cozy memories of setting up and decorating a tree as a child, even though by the time I reached teenagehood, my parents had completely given up and I was on my own every year. I hope that my kids will want to do this activity with me for, well, ever. I’ve made quite a concession this year, allowing this garish monstrosity through the door in the name of establishing holiday traditions, so the family had better get involved and appreciate it for the rest of time!
Signed,
The Un-Grinch