Oh, Christmas Tree

This was seriously one of my favorite Christmas songs before I was old enough to know that better songs existed. It still has a special place in my bank of holiday memories though. Included with this song in my memory bank is the presence of an actual Christmas tree. On December 6^th, after all of the Sinterklaas business, Christmas trees go on sale in the Netherlands. We purchased our own this past weekend.

Several logistical factors had to be taken into account before we made our purchase. One factor was our lack of a car. In the States, we would take a trip to the countryside to cut down our own or visit a local stand to buy a tree. Either choice required a car. Gearoid quickly decided (and I begrudgingly agreed) that we were not skilled enough on the bikes to transport a tree.  Although I have (coincidentally) befriended many people who own cars, I felt uncomfortable asking for help with this task. We also considered signing up for green wheels program in which we could rent a car by the hour but decided that would add undue costs to our tree purchase. So we decided that the tree had to come from someplace where Gearoid (and not me- more on that later) could easily carry it home.

We had two options- the local grocery store or the garden/flower shack that was two blocks from our house. The grocery story had cheap 15 euro trees but they were at least a foot shorter than me. I understand that part of living in a small country is conserving household space with smaller furniture, ingenious shelving, and apparently table top Christmas trees. I, however, wanted a big tree like I would have had in the States. A tree that was at least as tall as me if not taller. Our second option was the flower shack which had a very limited option of Christmas trees. However, after Gearoid convinced me again that we were not skilled enough on the bikes to transport a tree we made our way two blocks down the way and perused the freshly unloaded Danish Christmas trees at the flower shack.

Unlike our other Christmas tree purchases in which we would find a tree but then walk around for another 45 minutes to make sure we found the perfect tree, we chose the first tree we saw. It was taller than me, had the kind of needles that were soft enough not to stab your fingertips, and was sufficiently full. Plus, there was only one other option. I really wish I had my camera with me on the walk home. It was quite hilarious to turn around and see just the top of Gearoid’s head and a grasping hand.

We made it home and did the usual battle with the tree stand, vacuumed copious amounts of needles, and rearranged furniture. When the tree made it into the actual house and was sitting prettily in the corner, we realized why Dutch people buy smaller trees. It’s because their living space is smaller. We now had a beautiful tree that took up approximately 25% of the living room space. We had to remove a table and push the couch and armchairs asymmetrically into corners to accommodate the green pine branches stretching across the living room. The other issue is we had to turn off the heat source in the living room because the only place we could put the tree (for spatial and electrical reasons) was flush against the radiator.

The next step in our Christmas tree adventure was to get lights. All of the lights we brought with us in our giant Tupperware of decorations were American lights and wouldn’t fit the European sockets.  We made the journey via bus to the local shopping center and fought the crowds to get two boxes with a total of 280 lights. We thought we would have extra to string around the living room but upon adorning the tree with the lights, we discovered that we thought wrong. Our 280 lights were stretched to the max and barely covered the entire tree. They were also a little dull and couldn’t at all be described as twinkling. We thought that our ornaments and garland would brighten up the tree but sadly, we thought wrong again.  After much discussion and debate with Mr. OCD- I mean, Gearoid- we agreed to string some American lights over the decorations and garland (his argument was that the lights had to go on first and I was unwilling to undecorate in order to redecorate)and use one of our transformers to make the lights work.

The end result is a somewhat twinkling tree which although not as bright as we’re used to is still comforting with our familiar ornaments. I try to be positive and instead of thinking of my living room as cramped and cold with a dimly lit tree, think of it rather as cozy and gezellig with a real and delicious smelling tree.

Oh, and there was the burning itchy red rash. I am sadly allergic to Christmas (pine) trees. One year, many years ago, the Christmas tree fell on me and the result was a skin reaction. Since then, I’ve been careful with real trees by handling them sparingly and washing up quickly after touching them. I decided to test the theory to see if I actually was allergic and wasn’t so careful when handling the tree this year. A few hours later while I was relaxing after a day of decorating adventures the burning began. I shared my itchy experience with my grandma who shared her own story with me. Apparently when I was really little she had to take me to the doctor after a weird rash appeared on the side of my face. The doctor asked what I had been doing and apparently my answer was hugging trees. So I’m allergic and the advice by many is to get an artificial tree. The truth though is that the risk of rash is worth the incredible coziness of real tree.

This picture doesn't do it justice. Sandwiching the tree into the corner are the couch and a couple of armchairs.

Stockings hung with care over the turned off heating unit.