Oh Christmas Tree

Every year I debate about whether or not I will take the plunge and commit to Christmas decorations proper. Ideally, I would like a tree with exquisitely co-ordinated baubles and fairy lights, but I talk myself out of it because it seems an extravagant purchase just for me. Instead, I usually find myself in a $2 shop purchasing bits and pieces to create a Christmas diorama for a side table, around which I place the presents for family and friends as I buy and wrap them. Every year the setting is created anew, probably because I think the arrangements never quite capture the sense of Christmas effectively. Perhaps, in my mind, a ‘proper’ Christmas can only be represented by a green Alpine tree—even after my rail against the appropriateness of the props of a European winter for a sub-tropical climate. So I continue to try and create Christmas with the miserly budget and spirit I afford it.

Here is a photo essay of this year’s efforts. I struck upon the idea when I was in Target. I bought a packet of gift rosettes with sticky backs which I stuck to a lamp, vaguely in the shape of a Christmas tree, that I already owned. The metal curl on the top of the lamp was the perfect hook from which to hang a Christmas decoration in the shape of a star. It turned out rather tackier than I had anticipated while I was shopping, but then poor taste is an aspect of Christmas too, isn’t it?