Trim the tree? Why? Did it grow too much?

Christmas trees are magic. I remember my Grandma's trees when I was a kid. They had a tree stand that would play Christmas carols while the tree revolved. They wouldn't turn it on very often (and looking back I can see the inherent instability in having a fully loaded Christmas tree spinning around) but when they did I would sit on the couch, leaning on the arm nearest the tree, watching those spinning lights, mesmerized. If I closed my eyes most of the way the lights would blur into streaks of color. Those were the best Christmas moments, sitting enveloped in music and light in the warm, sweet-smelling house that my mother grew up in.

We put up our tree last night. Kind of late by some standards, but it works for us, especially with a curious toddler in the house. She's had to be reminded not to play with the ornaments about a thousand times already, with a few billion more reminders to come.

The tree is an artificial one that I bought our second Christmas. It was $20 for a 6 foot tree and looks pretty good. Considering how much real trees cost I think we've done pretty well.

(I would never have considered a fake tree when I was younger. Plastic and metal? Heresy! Never, never, never would I give in to convenience and buy an abomination. So there! Then I got married and found out my husband had some real issues with Christmas. His previous marriage was bad, very bad. Christmas is just one of the many areas of his life where he's shell-shocked. After 6 years together he's much better than he was at first, but it's still hard for him. Our first Christmas I couldn't get him out to buy a tree until just before Christmas, and even then only because I practically pitched a screaming fit. Our second Christmas I could see the writing on the wall and took preemptive action. An artificial tree is second best, but if it lets us have a happy Christmas I'm thrilled to pieces!)

I put the tree together every year. This year the toddler helped, pulling branches out of the box and handing them to me while her adoring daddy took pictures. We hung the ornaments together. The toddler pointed to where mommy should put the ornament and I did my best to comply.

It was fun. Very simple and short. We only used a few of our ornaments this year in order to keep the whole thing down to a managable time for the toddler and then we turned on the lights and just enjoyed it. Magic. Absolutely.