Downsizing the Tree

Bigger is better, right?

That's what I've always thought when it comes to Christmas trees.   Growing up, we always had big trees to fit the high ceiling in our living room.

I remember trudging through the woods of Vermont (somewhere) with my family and watching my father top a good 12 feet off the top of an unsuspecting pine tree.

The tradition continued when I was married and we had our own house with a cathedral ceiling in the living room, first with real trees (from a tree farm) and in later years with a 12 foot artificial tree.

It was always a major event to put up the tree as the kids oohed and awed over each ornament as they placed them exactly where they wanted them on the tree.

Vance was usually on the stepladder to decorate the top section of the tree.

This was fun with the anticipation of Christmas in the children's faces, even though taking it down and putting all of the ornaments away was one of the worst tasks I faced each year.

As time passed and the kids grew up,  they wasn't the same excitement in putting up the tree anymore.  In fact, for the past two years they just wanted lights on the tree with no decorations!  When my sister was here for Christmas last year,  my niece, Hali, took pity and used here own creativity to make the tree more festive.

This year,   it was Adam's idea to downsize.   Since we spend most of our time together in the dining room, he thought it would be a good idea to get a small tree and put it in the corner near the table where we could enjoy it.  At the time,  we were picturing a perfectly shaped small tree, but it didn't turn out that way at all.

When the time came to go to the tree farm to pick out a tree,  Kerry got the idea to cut a small tree down from out back yard,  and that seemed like a fun idea to everyone, so we all trudged through the snow to the back section of our yard to take a look.

It was not quite a "Charlie Brown" tree, but pretty close.

It was a lot easier than any other year and everyone enjoyed the novelty of it!

We put it in a bucket of rocks with water for a stand.

The kids picked out their favorite ornaments that didn't weigh too much for the delicate branches.  We used micro LED lights on a thin wire too.

And voila!

The next morning, it made me happy to find Adam doing homework by the light of the tree.

At least for this year, and maybe in the years to come,

downsizing was a very good decision!

And it will definitely be a breeze to take down after the holidays.