I know, I already mentioned the holidays once. Get used to it for a little while, ok?

Since moving here three years ago, we haven’t bought a tree. In my family, it was always a real tree, in hubby’s, it was the same fake one. Growing up, we always got a Douglas Fir the day after Thanksgiving and decorated all weekend. It was always an 8 foot tree at least, because Dad has always needed to look “up” at the tree because of course, you did that as a kid, and Dad is over 6 ft tall.

So anyway. Our first Christmas here, we cut down a scrubby little tree that was growing in an overgrown section of the backyard that was going to get removed anyway. It was our Charlie Brown Christmas tree, and it was fun, if really shabby.

The second year, we didn’t have a tree.

Last year, I took a tall potted palm tree (a drachena), wrapped it in lights and a few select ornaments, and called it our Florida tree. [I looked for the pictures but haven’t found them - once I do I’ll add them in]. It was fun, but not what I want yet.

I’ve considered the beer bottle tree - surely you’ve seen that email floating around during previous holidays - a “tree” made from green beer bottles all stacked up in the shape of a Christmas tree. Only… we don’t drink beer, we’re winos, and even if we had saved all the bottles we drank this year, they wouldn’t be enough to build a tree out of. And, we oughtn’t forget, we live in a Baptist community where drinking is a terrible sin - putting a stack of empty bottles in our window might cause more pastors to come knocking on our door.

Our ceilings are tall, and I did inherit Dad’s desire for a tall tree. I’ve also come to like skinny trees. For all the height of our living room, the house is not very big and a wide tree would expose what I have so carefully tried to make seem otherwise - but I have yet to find a fake tree I like!

I might be making one. I’m open to suggestions. I’ve considered finding a decently long tree section with bark, buying cast-away fake trees at yard sales, and drilling and gluing the upper branches into my log to create the tall skinny tree. Sort of a borrowed idea from those fake Ficus trees that were so popular 15 years ago. I figure I can fit the bottom into one of my galvanized buckets, painted red, to ensure stability.

Other than that, the Drachena might be up for the fun again. Though, I might be better off decorating an old wooden ladder than having a repeat performance like that. Small town, I’d rather keep people guessing. Ha!