full circle/fake vintage

thoughts on christmas trees:

our family had a tradition of buying the tallest, freshest spruce we could find about two weeks before christmas. then when we were older, my brother and i took over the purchase process because my father never wanted to spend more than $10 for anything. to get the grandest tree we could afford, my brother and i ended up adventuring downtown to the haymarket where haggling was expected. i think our best year we got a 14 foot blue spruce for $12.

i can remember watching many, many times the "charlie brown christmas" special and always loving the scene at the tree lot, lucy running around looking at all the brightly colored aluminum tinsel trees. this scene made me question why a tree had to be green, why couldn't it be something shiny and bright and wonderful? my mother's response every year, "that's just tacky". and so i kept my love of the tinsel tree quietly to myself, not wanting to upset my mother and her high opinion of my taste level and her low opinion of the fake tree.

as i grew into adulthood and had my multitude of apartments, i always looked forward to the holiday season and shopping for a tree. i had a favorite tree lot on preston highway where i usually got something just a few feet tall to fit into whatever tiny space i was renting.

older still, i now have returned to the glitz and extreme artificiality of the tinsel tree and last night i finally made one of my subversive dreams come true when i purchased my first silver tree. i don't care if my mother thinks it's tacky, i love my new tree.