O Tannenbaum

I unapologetically love all things Christmas – Christmas decorations, Christmas music, Christmas movies, Christmas specials on TV. The wick on my jack-o-lantern candle is always still warm to the touch as I’m hauling the Christmas tree out of the attic. Love it.

When I was growing up, my daddy would pack my sister and me up in the car and we would drive out in the country (or, in our case, farther out in the country) to cut down a huge cedar tree for the living room. There was always the requisite admonition from my mother to Daddy before we left to be sure it wasn’t too tall or too big around. No matter how long we traipsed through the woods or how carefully we measured, though, it was always both.

Those were the days of the big, multi-colored screw-in Christmas bulbs (the type where one bad light could doom the entire string) and the countless strands of silver tinsel (or “icicles”). My mother was always very insistent that we put those on the tree a strand at a time (which we were never prone to do); afterward, we had to walk past the tree slowly so those wispy silver strips wouldn’t get caught up in our wake and come sailing off the tree after us.

“Stop running past the tree,” Mama would say. “You’re swishing the icicles off.”

By the end of the holiday season, the tree was as dry as shredded wheat and would shed a trail of needles as Daddy wrestled it out the door. No amount of vacuuming ever totally freed the cedar flotsam from our carpet. My parents eventually pulled up the carpet and refinished the hardwood floors underneath about the same time they bought an artificial tree. Ironic…

Once I was on my own and able to indulge all of my holiday decorating whims, I began amassing a vast collection of Christmas paraphernalia and decking my halls to the max. From elaborate, multi-tiered arrangements of brass horns, candles, ribbon, and garland atop the grand piano to whimsical tableaux of stuffed bears trimming stuffed bear-sized trees in the windows, it was a fa-la-la-la-full-blown yuletide fantasy at my house each year.

When I had a much bigger house, I was known for putting up multiple Christmas trees (one year there were eight), including a black tree with silver ornaments, a Mardi Gras-themed tree and a cowboy-themed tree, complete with chili pepper lights and barbed wire garland (painful to handle, but oh so cute and clever).

The tree in the picture at the top of this post is the current Christmas tree holding court at the Lizard Lounge (so far, just the one…so far…). The gold and silver ornaments and trim I’ve collected over the past 12 years or so make it feel very glittery and elegant without being too “foofy” (says the guy who just used “glittery and elegant” in the same sentence).

My next several posts will deconstruct the tree here at the Lounge step-by-step and detail my theories for decorating the perfect Christmas tree. (Don’t roll your eyes – after 25 years of putting up Christmas trees of course I’m bound to have theories.)

Please know that all of this information is based purely on my personal taste. It’s always been my opinion that there are few hard and fast rules for holiday decor. My tree has a more high-end, designer feel to it with a clearly crafted color scheme, but that’s just because I think it looks good like that – it suits my creative side and brings a temporary touch of beauty to my little concrete block Florida house. A tree with an olio of ornaments, whether purchased, inherited, or crafted by your kids, can be just as beautiful and meaningful. In the end, if you feel all warm and fuzzy when you walk by it and it evokes those kinds of holiday memories that truly epitomize the spirit of the Christmas season, then it’s the perfect tree for you.

Just don’t walk by it too fast, or you’ll swish the icicles off…

Next: O Tannenbaum: What light through yonder window breaks?

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