#12DaysOfBlogging – DAY EIGHT: The Christmas Tree

Disclaimer: This is not the Tomlinson family Christmas tree. It is decorated far too well and stylistic for any of us to have even touched it. And there’s presents already under it before Christmas morning.

When it comes to Christmas, the only thing more synonymous with the festive period than Father Christmas himself, is the Christmas tree.

Almost everywhere you go, you’ll see a tree of some description. Whether it be a town centre’s showpiece, a shopping centre’s entrance or the main display of a single store; there’s no escaping them.

Despite being so ever-present though, it’s amazing how many different types of tree you can come across.

At work we’ve had the Christmas tree of ‘customer orders’ where you added your name to a star which made up the tree every time you completed a Christmas Food to Order.

There’s the ‘Tree of Light’ in Warwick town centre where you can remember loved ones who, sadly, are no longer with us.

And of course, there’s the standard household Christmas tree, but which is more popular the artificial or real?

For years, the Tomlinson household would be home to a real Christmas tree. Every year, the first Saturday of December would see Mom, Dad, Lizzie and I go to choose the tree and decorate it at home. It was a real family occasion. In fact, it was the family occasion bar Christmas Day.

Then suddenly, three or four years ago, everything changed. Dad went Christmas tree shopping on his own but it didn’t stop there. He brought back an artificial tree.

Here were his arguments:

It creates less mess. Ok, I’ll give Dad this one. It doesn’t matter how long you spend hoovering up the pine needles from the real Christmas tree, you still find them in the carpet come June. (Or I’m just really, really bad at hoovering.)

It’s pre-decorated/lit. I’ll give Dad this one too. Less time needs to be spent decorating the artificial tree as the lights are already pre-built in. This also means there’s none stood on and smashed or masses of wires to detangle beforehand.

It’s the cheaper option in the long run. Can Dad stop winning these arguments now please? Ok, ok. This is a valid point too, pay £30 this year and get to use the tree for it’s 10-year guarantee or pay £25 for a one-use only tree. No brainer in the current climate, right?

But, selfishly, my only argument was that it kills the excitement of going to find the perfect Christmas tree.

For all those years as a child I’d look forward to going and spending an entire Saturday afternoon wrapped up in seven layers of jumpers, out in a cold field in the middle of nowhere, staring at humongous Christmas trees which would never fit in the car (not that ever stopped me asking for those ones,) and carrying it into the living room, pine needles dropping everywhere.

So you’d be surprised to learn that the Christmas tree in my flat’s living room is an artificial one because I’ve come to accept I need to let go of my childhood and start saving the pennies like a real adult!

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