Wednesday, December 13, 2006

O' Christmas "Tree"

This is my homemade Christmas tree. I gathered some branches from a pine tree in the garden, arranged them, cut out some red and green foil circles and tied them on with yarn. You can't really tell that well in this photo, but the ornaments are nice and shiny like I wanted them to be. It all looks wonderfully sparkly and festive, especially when the room lights are off.

You wouldn't believe how incredibly difficult it is to buy actual glass Christmas bulbs here ("baubles" as they are called in England). Everything is "shatterproof" (read: made of cheap looking plastic with a horribly obvious seam). Are they still selling good old-fashioned glass in the US? I don't know of any glass bulb (or even bauble) related deaths or major injuries, but maybe I'm just misinformed. Anyhow, it's probably a good thing I didn't find any (that weren't exorbitantly expensive and overly ornate) because I suspect my little tree wouldn't be able to handle the weight of anything heavier than paper.

I'm pretty happy with my tree. I only hope it lasts until Christmas.

7 comments:

  1. VERY festive, i'm so glad you were able to rig something up! there is nothing like the light from a "tree" in the dark, there's something really cozy about it

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  2. ..hmm..plastic Christmas "baubles", that's unfortunate, I can't imagine they look as good as the glass ones, not to mention that they're now entirely non-biodegradable, except for the wires which can rust still, but even they're very insulated from the elements..

    but you can still go buy glass baubles here.. all shapes and sizes and colors, even these odd fluorescent looking ones that pierce right into your retina and give the illusion of staring into another dimension, very Christmasy indeed.. Have Yourself a Merry Little High Def Christmas..

    ..but my favorite (sarcasm) is the result at Christmas time of the recent fad of putting up lights on your house for all the other holidays too, and then people just leave them up and turn them on at Christmas time, so we have a lot of houses with orange and dark purple Halloween lights, green St. Paddy's lights, red and pink Valentine's lights and my personal favorites (not) are the pastel colored Easter lights.. all very Christmasy ..ahem..

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  3. ..oh and how could I forget the all-American red, white and blue lights that people put up for the 4th of July holiday..oh so patriotic and oh so unfitting for the Christmas season..

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  4. ..yes, and those fluorescent ones can make you blind, so have a Happy Blind Christmas!!

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  5. You're making my tree look better all the time!

    Are the fluorescent ones you are referring to LED lights? I was dubious about those too until I learned they are more environmentally friendly ... although I still have the cheapest form of tungsten on my tree this year.

    Aren't you two referring to
    lights, not bulbs? You know Christmas bulbs, not light bulbs. I don't think there's any such thing as a light bauble, but I'm not sure. :)

    Eugh on the other holiday lights at Christmas (or any time of the year in my opinion). This recent fad sounds like the old-time tradition of "lazy bastard".

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  6. yes, and in case it doesn't show in the above remarks I'm not a fan of lights on houses for any holiday except Christmas, and I especially hate seeing other holiday's lights being relit for the Christmas season, it's really gross and very trashy in my obtuse opinion.. and yes, I believe those fluorescent ones are called LED, Gabriel seems to think they are, I just think they look very odd, like I'm staring into a black hole or something, I think they somehow short circuit my brain..

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  7. i like the added picture in the dark, looks like it accomplishes that cozy christmas tree light nicely

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