Yep, this week you get to give opinoins–about a subject that is near and dear to us all, our Christmas trees. Just finished decorating ours, and it is…well, beautiful. It smells piney and has some endearing imperfections, but it’s the real thing. There are many different thoughts on what makes a beautiful Christmas tree, and maybe some might not like that adjective. Perhaps it should be clever or funny or sporty. Well, let’s see where you weigh in.

1. Whatever your favorite type is (a Douglas fir, a Frasier fir, a spruce, a concolor), why do you choose it?
a. price (oh, yeah, they are all more expensive this year, having to do with a dought in Texas, they say, and I thought they were all grown in Lenhartsville)
b. size–does it have to dominate or just fit in
c. shape–are you a round and fully packed or a svelt and sleek tree lover?
d. layering of branches–must the ornaments hang vertically or can they look layed on
e. will it fit in the stand–or do you have to get a bucket of sand and ropes to fortify it
f. all of the above

2. When do you get and trim your tree?
a. Halloween, when the stores do theirs
b. Thanksgiving, between football games
c. early in December
d. when I’m finished marking papers
e. when I finally get around to it
f. Christmas eve, because Santa brings it

3. Lightin preference
a. tiny little white lights because they’re elegant
b. colored lights–the more colors the better
c. ones that chase each other around the tree
d. bubbling candles (remember those?)
e. whatever I found on my grandmother’s attic
f. the cheapest ones I could find at Ace Hardware

4. Ornaments–
a. traditional balls
b. I’ve got a theme tree
c. ones my children made–love those construction paper chains
d. ones I made in school–love those snowflakes and origami birds, but they’re getting a little yellow around the edges
e. the cheapest ones I could find at Ace Hardware
f. anything left after the cat knocked the tree down last year

5. What do you do with all of those little fuses and bulbs (and all of those little tags that say CAUTION and UL listed–what does that mean?)
a. throw them away
b. use them, of course, I haven’t had to replace lights in decades
c. put them in a desk drawer and now I have a collection of more than 1000 of them
d. glue them together to make little garlands for a miniatrure tree
e. what fuses and extra bulbs?

6. What goes on the top of your tree?
a. a star
b. an angel
c. a partidge in a pear tree
d. nothing–can’t reach it

7. Final touch?
a. garland
b. tinsel/rain/ice cicles
c. popcorn and cranberries
d. angelhair (remember that?)
e. it looks good the way it is

8. Who loves your tree the most?
a. the cat
b. the puppy–has eaten everything half way up
c. my mother (she loves everything I do–especially at Christmas)
d. my grandchildren
e. me

I hope you chose “e” for the last one. Enjoy it all!

Ellen

In addition to internally-lit vinyl snowmen ballooning on front porches and yards all around town and the mail people delivering pieces of mail actually addressed by hand, for me a sign that the Christmas season is upon us is that I am driving about with a timpani in the back of my Forester. Timpani–those gorgeous sounding and looking large kettle drums– the rhythmic soul of an orchestra. I’m a violinist, not a timpanist, but I play with the Reading Philharmonic Orchestra, a group of volunteer musicians who give free concerts. We have no budget for instrument or equipment transportation. People just chip in. When we have concerts, someone drives the crates of music about, someone brings the sound equipment, and if someone has a vehicle resembling an SUV, then she must drive one of the timpani. Our timpanist is in his 90s and no longer able to carry them himself. They are ordinarily stored where we rehearse, but those spaces are not accessible except at rehearsal time. So now that we are in concert mode, playing at malls and churches, I carry this drum with me everywhere I go. It’s been my December routine for the last few years. And, oh the places we go–to get a Christmas tree–tree on top, drum inside. Shopping–gifts snuggled in around it. Picture it parked in lots from hither to yon. It bounces over back roads, and every once in a while I hear a resounding bong from the back, protesting a turn too quickly taken. Actually I’m a much more careful and considerate driver with a timpani in tow–“precious cargo”, as my mother-in-law always said when I was driving my little ones around–and that big kettle kind of cuts down on rear visibility, so I challenge no one for that spot in the right lane.
It is covered in a quilt so as not to distract gawkers or tempt those criminally-inclined who will do anything to obtain recyclable copper. We’re a pair for these weeks–me up front singing along to my Christmas CDs, the drum in the back lending a resonance.
19 days and counting. A votre sante, Jane…et tous nos femmes…et tout le monde.
Ellen