Christmas First

For four of the last five years I had a roommate who gladly took care of all the Christmas decorating. Julia and Ashley had very different Christmas-decorating styles (Julia's was an interesting blend of nontraditional and traditional, and Ashley leaned toward lights and colors and sparkle), but in both cases I could basically just sit back and let a wonderfully festive apartment just happen. Last year, when I lived with Stephanie, I think we wanted to get in the Christmas spirit but didn't really know what to do. At some point I put a wooden Christmas tree centerpiece that my mom had given me in the middle of our table, but that may have been as far as we got.

Last week when I stopped at Smith's for groceries, there were Christmas trees sitting by the entrance. Something about the smell of pine as I walked past infused me with the Christmas decorating spirit, and I decided I needed a Christmas tree.

I've never gotten a Christmas tree by myself before. I've lived with roommates who have splurged on Christmas trees, sometimes real, sometimes artificial, but the responsibility has never fallen to me. As much as I loved the smell of the real trees, my current apartment is far too small for one. But the tiny artificial trees at Target looked kind of lame and awfully...artificial. Even with pre-installed twinkling white lights, I couldn't convince myself that I wanted to commit.

Yesterday, though, I finally found what I wanted. It was less than half the price of the other mini trees I'd looked at, and looked about half as artificial, mostly because the trunk is made of fake wood instead of black aluminum. It's big enough and sturdy enough to hold the dozen or so ornaments I've acquired from various sources over the years, and it's tall enough that when I start wrapping my family's presents, I can probably actually place them under the tree and make my apartment look even more festive.

Now that it's up, it looks a bit like a token attempt at decorating for Christmas, so I may have to hang some lights after Thanksgiving, and move my nativity from the piano room/library (yes, even in my tiny apartment I have a piano room/library!) to a more prominent location. But in the meantime, having the little Christmas tree there by the door makes me happy.

In other news, my two newest book reviews are up, and they are as different as can be - Selected Stories by Anton Chekhov (but I spend half the review talking about my improv class so you don't have to be interested in Chekhov to read it) and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (which you should not read if you have not read the book yet because it's full of spoilers).