The year was 2008. I had a five year old and a two year old. The following essay was written by me the next day. To understand this piece of jewellery, please pay attention to the paragraph about LED lights.
"Yesterday I was foolish enough to go out into the deep freeze of blowing snow and wind chill to buy a Christmas tree with my family. The weather made a very unpleasant experience out of something that is supposed to be fun. We drove to a farm that is close by my house. The kids were miserable in less than a minute. The wind chill was -19 c and even though it wasn't actually snowing, it may as well have been. It was impossible to see anything! Adrian told me to take the kids into the market that was there and he would pick out two trees with the poor girl that was working. I could then come out and choose between the two. About five minutes later, I selected the tree based on the following criteria: which one was closest to the car? Which one had the least snow on it? Things like symmetry, bare spots and bushiness, which had always been my requirements in past years, were unimportant as the wind beat sheets of snow against my face. I made my choice and hurried back to the market and felt guilty and sorry as two employees tied the tree to the car.
When we arrived home, I was shocked to see that the tree I had picked was over ten feet tall. I hadn't noticed this. We do have high ceilings, so it is fine, but this is a monster tree, way bigger than what we have ever had before. I normally like to put the tree in the family room, by the fireplace, but this one is way too big for that. It had to be placed in the living room, and it is now taking up about a quarter of that room. It is more than twice the size of me! It became clear that the lights we have were going to be inadequate by a long way. So we had to go out and buy new lights.
Everyone who knows me knows that I try to live in an environmentally responsible way whenever possible. I recycle everything. I despise products with unnecessary amounts of packaging. I walk my kids to school most days. Etc. etc. I'm not perfect but I try. However, I absolutely, positively, hate LED Christmas lights. That is all you can buy now. Yes, I know, they use vastly less energy than traditional lights. I KNOW! I KNOW!! The LED lights are...ugly. They don't produce any real light. They don't sparkle. I don't mean twinkle, I mean sparkle. They don't sparkle like a child's eyes on Christmas Eve. They don't have the glittering sparkle of diamond snow when the sun shines after a big fluffy snowfall. They are dead and flat. Sorry but I'm on a roll...they remind me of the light in an office building, when one is forced to work late on a Friday night in February. They are soulless. They are a politically correct mockery of the brilliance that Christmas lights should be. There is absolutely no ambience associated with these lights whatsoever. And now there are 400 of them on my excessively large Christmas tree. I will have to make up for it with an unreasonable amount of candlelight.
Now having said all that, I have realised that I really should shut up. There are people out there, probably closer than I think, who would do anything to have a Christmas tree of any kind in their home, if they even have homes at all. So why am I bitching about the lights?
I guess the topic of the Christmas tree is somewhat of a issue with me.
The first year that I was married, I talked in my sleep a lot. Stress or something I suppose. Adrian told me that I asked him repeatedly for a Christmas tree. Why, I don't know, as there was never any question about this, of course we would be having one. When I lived on my own I didn't have a real one, I had a puny fake one that Jean gave me because my place was too small for a normal tree. I loved this tree. It was the cutest little Charlie Browniest tree. The branches were green, and reasonably realistic, but they had a dusting of silver glitter which made it really pretty. There was nothing on it but coloured lights. REAL lights. I still have that little tree, it sits in the front window of my house in lieu of an outdoor light display. I do that because the year we moved into this house nobody had the energy to put up the lights outside. We had just moved in on November 28, and Jean had passed away a few days later in early December. Putting that tree there was easy, and it seemed like an appropriate thing to do anyway so I just did it again the next year and so on. I'm never putting LED lights on that little tree. Lucy Van Pelt would be appalled.
The tree was something of an issue for me the year Dad died too, on December 23, thanks a lot. My brother and his wife and I had gone to get a tree for Jean on the 22nd. We put it up, but didn't have time to help her decorate it. When I arrived at the house the next day, there was nothing on it except my Dad's favourite ornament - a white and green shiny ball with a glittered green tree on it. Pretty ornament, but very sad. Nothing else was done to the tree and nobody even mentioned it. It wasn't so surprising that Mum had done that. She hated Christmas since she was a girl. Her own father had died on December 21 when she was 14 and she never got over it. So for her to be dramatic like that was probably to be expected, just another hit at Christmas for her. After we moved to Toronto, she worked at a nursing home and used to volunteer to work Christmas Day every year. She said it was so that the nurses who had young kids at home could be with their families on Christmas morning. Hello? I was only 9 when we moved. But of course, now I get it. And none of this was the worst. The worst Christmas was the year I was 11. Jean had kidney stones and was in the hospital over Christmas and it was postponed for a few days until she recovered. I know I didn't complain. But I was quite upset about all of it and feeling guilty about being upset about it. I was the youngest, and the only one who was still a child in the family by many years and so nobody else really cared about any of it. My young age was very isolating. Another thing that I've never forgotten regarding a Christmas tree happened the year I was 16. I had a boyfriend that I'd been dating for a few weeks and he came over one day after school. We had a really great tree that year, big and bushy and all the decorations seemed to hang just right. That boyfriend came over and laughed at this tree. He made fun of it. I was really mad and confused about that - I really liked this guy and for him to come over to my house and do that caused a massive internal turmoil. Then in the middle of the night I realised, Andrea you idiot, I bet there's no Christmas tree at all at his house. That should have been obvious to me right away.
So I guess I should just enjoy this gigantic tree and be happy about it. I discovered that if I squint at it, the lights look almost normal. Will I be squinting this entire season? No. This is a magnificent tree anyway. You can smell it all over the house; when I open the front door to come in the piney scent hits me like a beautiful olfactory bomb. I better get decorating...my inner Lucy Van Pelt will learn to accept it!"
Here's the Vintage Lights Earrings!
Sterling silver, red or green chalcedony, stainless steel
The year was 2008. I had a five year old and a two year old. The following essay was written by me the next day. To understand this piece of jewellery, please pay attention to the paragraph about LED lights.
"Yesterday I was foolish enough to go out into the deep freeze of blowing snow and wind chill to buy a Christmas tree with my family. The weather made a very unpleasant experience out of something that is supposed to be fun. We drove to a farm that is close by my house. The kids were miserable in less than a minute. The wind chill was -19 c and even though it wasn't actually snowing, it may as well have been. It was impossible to see anything! Adrian told me to take the kids into the market that was there and he would pick out two trees with the poor girl that was working. I could then come out and choose between the two. About five minutes later, I selected the tree based on the following criteria: which one was closest to the car? Which one had the least snow on it? Things like symmetry, bare spots and bushiness, which had always been my requirements in past years, were unimportant as the wind beat sheets of snow against my face. I made my choice and hurried back to the market and felt guilty and sorry as two employees tied the tree to the car.
When we arrived home, I was shocked to see that the tree I had picked was over ten feet tall. I hadn't noticed this. We do have high ceilings, so it is fine, but this is a monster tree, way bigger than what we have ever had before. I normally like to put the tree in the family room, by the fireplace, but this one is way too big for that. It had to be placed in the living room, and it is now taking up about a quarter of that room. It is more than twice the size of me! It became clear that the lights we have were going to be inadequate by a long way. So we had to go out and buy new lights.
Everyone who knows me knows that I try to live in an environmentally responsible way whenever possible. I recycle everything. I despise products with unnecessary amounts of packaging. I walk my kids to school most days. Etc. etc. I'm not perfect but I try. However, I absolutely, positively, hate LED Christmas lights. That is all you can buy now. Yes, I know, they use vastly less energy than traditional lights. I KNOW! I KNOW!! The LED lights are...ugly. They don't produce any real light. They don't sparkle. I don't mean twinkle, I mean sparkle. They don't sparkle like a child's eyes on Christmas Eve. They don't have the glittering sparkle of diamond snow when the sun shines after a big fluffy snowfall. They are dead and flat. Sorry but I'm on a roll...they remind me of the light in an office building, when one is forced to work late on a Friday night in February. They are soulless. They are a politically correct mockery of the brilliance that Christmas lights should be. There is absolutely no ambience associated with these lights whatsoever. And now there are 400 of them on my excessively large Christmas tree. I will have to make up for it with an unreasonable amount of candlelight.
Now having said all that, I have realised that I really should shut up. There are people out there, probably closer than I think, who would do anything to have a Christmas tree of any kind in their home, if they even have homes at all. So why am I bitching about the lights?
I guess the topic of the Christmas tree is somewhat of a issue with me.
The first year that I was married, I talked in my sleep a lot. Stress or something I suppose. Adrian told me that I asked him repeatedly for a Christmas tree. Why, I don't know, as there was never any question about this, of course we would be having one. When I lived on my own I didn't have a real one, I had a puny fake one that Jean gave me because my place was too small for a normal tree. I loved this tree. It was the cutest little Charlie Browniest tree. The branches were green, and reasonably realistic, but they had a dusting of silver glitter which made it really pretty. There was nothing on it but coloured lights. REAL lights. I still have that little tree, it sits in the front window of my house in lieu of an outdoor light display. I do that because the year we moved into this house nobody had the energy to put up the lights outside. We had just moved in on November 28, and Jean had passed away a few days later in early December. Putting that tree there was easy, and it seemed like an appropriate thing to do anyway so I just did it again the next year and so on. I'm never putting LED lights on that little tree. Lucy Van Pelt would be appalled.
The tree was something of an issue for me the year Dad died too, on December 23, thanks a lot. My brother and his wife and I had gone to get a tree for Jean on the 22nd. We put it up, but didn't have time to help her decorate it. When I arrived at the house the next day, there was nothing on it except my Dad's favourite ornament - a white and green shiny ball with a glittered green tree on it. Pretty ornament, but very sad. Nothing else was done to the tree and nobody even mentioned it. It wasn't so surprising that Mum had done that. She hated Christmas since she was a girl. Her own father had died on December 21 when she was 14 and she never got over it. So for her to be dramatic like that was probably to be expected, just another hit at Christmas for her. After we moved to Toronto, she worked at a nursing home and used to volunteer to work Christmas Day every year. She said it was so that the nurses who had young kids at home could be with their families on Christmas morning. Hello? I was only 9 when we moved. But of course, now I get it. And none of this was the worst. The worst Christmas was the year I was 11. Jean had kidney stones and was in the hospital over Christmas and it was postponed for a few days until she recovered. I know I didn't complain. But I was quite upset about all of it and feeling guilty about being upset about it. I was the youngest, and the only one who was still a child in the family by many years and so nobody else really cared about any of it. My young age was very isolating. Another thing that I've never forgotten regarding a Christmas tree happened the year I was 16. I had a boyfriend that I'd been dating for a few weeks and he came over one day after school. We had a really great tree that year, big and bushy and all the decorations seemed to hang just right. That boyfriend came over and laughed at this tree. He made fun of it. I was really mad and confused about that - I really liked this guy and for him to come over to my house and do that caused a massive internal turmoil. Then in the middle of the night I realised, Andrea you idiot, I bet there's no Christmas tree at all at his house. That should have been obvious to me right away.
So I guess I should just enjoy this gigantic tree and be happy about it. I discovered that if I squint at it, the lights look almost normal. Will I be squinting this entire season? No. This is a magnificent tree anyway. You can smell it all over the house; when I open the front door to come in the piney scent hits me like a beautiful olfactory bomb. I better get decorating...my inner Lucy Van Pelt will learn to accept it!"
Here's the Vintage Lights Earrings!
Sterling silver, red or green chalcedony, stainless steel
