This Tree Is Rocking

Doin’ things right. I’ve been looking forward to the holiday season since June.

I should say, we’re doing things sort of right, because early Thursday morning, the whole thing totally fell over:

…So, some of you might say “doin’ things wrong.” And yes, Pete was wearing bottoms, but no, you can’t tell.

Never mind the small-scale national disaster of broken ornaments that we dealt with in the middle of the night, I can really appreciate the size of our living room when it comes to decorating for the holidays because for the first year since I’ve lived with my parents with their vaulted ceiling, there’s enough livable space to accommodate a large tree without yet having to move furniture and decor around to suit. (For what it’s worth, we attribute our first-ever tree tippage to the screw orientation in our base, and an imbalance in the ornaments weighting it forward. Live and learn and then use extra shims. Also, thankfully, we don’t believe that the half-gallon of water did long term damage to our new maple floors because we cleaned that part up immediately whilst hyperventilating. I’m glad we were home when it all went down.)

The ceilings in the living room are no higher than the ceilings than our old house, but the scale of the room is such that getting a 8′ tree with a 5′ diameter feels spot on. My self-enforced rule reads just that the tree needs to be taller than 5’8″ me, but at 8-feet, this one is also taller than I can extend my arm, and that’s enough to make me feel like a little kid again. Stamp of approval.

This year, we unpacked two tree toppers from our combined many plastic bins of ornaments and decor. I teased earlier this week that my most favorite wooden star would never win a place on the tree over Pete’s silver sparkly topper (a 7-year old calls the shots around here), and I was right, Julia adamantly declared sparkles the winner. But instead of giving in so fast, I found a new topper at Target that we all agreed upon unanimously. Throwback! With colorful lights and tinsel. A sure thing, it radiates happiness. Not even the West Elm toppers that I also admire can compete with the inexpensive charm in this $15 star. Bonus feature: It attaches to the tree with a clamp that’s identical to a hair claw/clip, making it fit securely and sit straight.

As part of our mission to transition all of our holiday lights to LEDs this year, we picked out new strands of small-but-classically-shaped multi-colored bulbs (Philips C3 Bulbs, if you’re shopping around). Color and size-wise, they’re great, but I do actually wish they put off a little more light. Maybe we just need to buy up a few more strands for impact.

Being at home all day has its perks, but this time of the year the best part is being able to sit and stare at the tree from morning until night.

How is your holiday decor implementation going?