Oh Tannenbaum

Merry "soon" to be Christmas. Yup, it is right around the corner and I still have 90% of my Christmas shopping to do, but my tree and decorations are done, so that should count for something.This is a picture from last year and it is decorated the same this year with a few different decorations added to the mix. I want to discuss my OCD tendencies that I have with my Christmas tree and whom I blame these OCD tendencies for.

I blame my father for this one, I said it, my father, not my OCD riddled mother. My father has a philosophy about putting christmas lights on a tree, you should squint, and if there is a lot of blank spots, meaning without light, then you do not have enough lights on your tree. So 6 hours later 1,000 plus strings of lights and vast amounts of squinting I finally have enough lights on my tree. Finding a tree growing up was one of the few times my father shopped around, we had to touch the tree, shake the tree, look for fullness and density, and once all these criteria were met did we finally purchase a tree. Then he commenced to pulling out a huge box of lights that took hours of untangling and wrapping meticulously around the tree until perfection was met. The one difference is we had real tree's growing up but I don't have a green thumb and somehow cannot keep a tree alive so I use a fake tree to keep my sanity. I shopped and shopped until I found the right fake tree. It is big, dense and bushy and not pre-lit because pre-lit tree's do not fill my OCD light quota. I am kinda a light Nazi, I want only light perfection on my tree.

The ornament arrangement does not necessarily come from my father but because he is creative an artistic he believes there has to be a certain art and logic to the tree and I do follow in his footsteps on that one. I stick with three colors, red, white, silver and they are arranged just such on the tree, In certain pattern and randomness that makes it look cohesive. I know, we have discussed this before, I need therapy. Our tree growing up had homemade ornaments that were made from previous Christmas Eve parties (our Christmas eve parties were a tradition that involved food, music, pinatas , family, friends and a lot of booze) so because of the "booze" a lot of interesting ornaments were made. Our tree was always beautiful and everyone always looked for their ornament that they contributed the year before, if they remembered because of the "booze" that they made an ornament.

My OCD flaw is on display in my front window. All of my neurotic tendencies glowing hues of white and red for the world to see. Yes, I blame my father, but when people slow down in their car to look in my front window, and when people stop me in our small town and say, your tree is beautiful, I smile and think to myself...... thank you dad.

P.S. I do let my children decorate a downstairs tree, it is all theirs, they can decorate it any way they want and I promise I do not "Tree Nazi" them...but maybe just maybe one of them is watching and learning from me and they will carry on the OCD tree.....