It wouldn’t seem right to skip my annual report on putting up the Christmas tree. We were a little later than usual putting ours up this year. The boys forgot to nag about it for a little while which allowed the parental holiday sloth to take over.
Eventually the boys realized there was some hulking monstrosity missing from our already crowded living room. The sloth was chased from the house, but the parent host was made to stay and drag all his tubs of festive cheer up from the basement.
We have an artificial tree (the sloth’s legacy), which the boys were eager to assemble. You don’t get that kind of quasi-LEGO experience with a real tree, no sir. On the other hand, a real tree doesn’t require the dreaded chores of spreading wire branches and fluffing Mylar needles. It’s a Yuletide tradeoff.
Hanging together.
After the first minute of branch-fluffing, I noticed Big Brother and Buster had disappeared. Big Man was still invested though. He helped me test the lights, and gave me tons of helpful advice about where I should run each strand. I was switching the TV back and forth between a basketball game and a football game, and trying to finish cooking a stew in the other room, so he certainly put more thought into running the lights than I did. One way or another, they got on the tree.
The football game was coming down to the wire, so I corralled Big Brother and Buster and made them help Big Man hang ornaments while I let myself become distracted. There was an indirect correlation between the height of the decorator and his enthusiasm for the job, which is why the bottom of the tree is more densely populated than the top.
We have a number of TV character ornaments. Big Man found two from the same cartoon. “I have to hang these two next to each other, because they’re friends,” he told me. I couldn’t argue with that. Besides, I gave up arguing with children about the proper ornament disbursement years ago. Joyful little hands always make a more beautiful tree than cold geometry does. Sure enough, Finn and Jake ended up dangling from the same branch. Friends should always hang together.
Finn and Jake always hang together. It’s what friends do.
Later I noticed Rudolph, Clarice, Yukon Cornelius, Hermey, and the Abominable Snowman hung in a group. So were Homer, Bart, Marge and Lisa. Both television casts were on display near the bottom of the tree, leaving no doubt as to who hung family and friends together.
Why are Rudolph and Hermey in such a hurry?
Abominable Snowman is after them!
Big Man may not win any Martha Stewart Christmas Tree decorating awards, but he’s ahead of the game on empathy. I’ll take that over a perfectly balanced tree any day. It’s a good thing.
Snoozing on the Sofa 
Great photos
Thank you. They were fun.
Fabulous! Creating memories for the boys all the while catching a little of the game! Merry Christmas Scott!
The best of all worlds. Merry Christmas!
Precious memories. Creative kids. Good dad. Who won the game/s?
Now tell me do things get move and adjusted when little ankle biters aren’t looking? It may or may not be my ocd asking or just plain curiosity.
Very nice tree.
It was a great day; the good guys won both games. I leave the tree just as they made it. I’ve found I enjoy it more that way.
Sounds perfect. The tree and the games! Merry Christmas!
Oh and Merry Christmas to all of you.
And Merry Christmas to you too!
Thank you.
I enjoyed the themed ornaments 🙂
They are definitely more memorable than colored bulbs, though you need a few of those too.
Wonderful. Eventually, you will have lots more ornaments on the top. We hardly have any near the bottom any more. 😦
By that time I’ll be shriveled and hunched enough to take care of the bottom. The cycle of life, you know.
Beautiful tree, I think the clusters of related ornaments are kind of charming, better than cold geometry any day. When I was a kid, we had an artificial tree. In addition to all the fun you mentioned (building, spreading, fluffing), my Mom insisted the tree got dusty up in the attic and needed a “shower” every other year. The branches had to air dry before we could do the rest. I’m kind of a non-traditionalist now. Not having a tree is OK with me. Forget the roast beast and figgy pudding… we go out for Indian food. As long as we’re hanging together, that’s all that matters. Merry Christmas! 🙂
Yeah, no, we’re not washing our tree. If there’s any dust, we’ll call it tinsel. Enjoy your Indian food. I make a ham because it’s the one meal none of my boys complain about, so that’s my Christmas gift: Peace. Have a very Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to you. I stopped doing the tree long ago. It’s always my hubby’s job and we have artificial too and this year, only half the ornaments went on the tree. Because no one else was interested. Not our 15 year old or 13 year old. However, they did enjoy that someone else did it…because we need lights outside too, you know. So dad made it all happen.
Even with my relatively young kids, everybody needs the tree put up but nobody ever bothers to plug in the lights at night. That’s why I don’t do outside lights. Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas! I hope you have a lovely day with your family. I recently published an article that is about my family. I hope you manage to read that and suggest any improvements for my future articles
Merry Christmas! I saw a nice essay about your sister. I don’t know what improvements I could suggest.
Hey Scott, this is a very belated Merry Christmas, and a HAPPY NEW YEAR to you and the family. Not to worry about the tree, though, the best things in life are always a little off-kilter—even trees! 😀
Trees are the least of our off-kilter home. Happy New Year!
😀
My lateness just proves I haven’t been on WP much. Adorable post, Scott. Could you do me a favor and come on by to teach hubby how to multi-task? I’m impressed with your ability. If I were a betting woman, the odds that you were not a multi-tasker before marriage and kids is pretty high. Hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas!! Happy New Year! ☃️
I haven’t been here much lately either, Amy. Kids getting their Daddy time and all. I’ve always been able to multitask when it comes to watching two sports at once. Other than that, I don’t know. Happy New Year, Amy!
Family comes first. You got it! 😘