I start these things you know, with the hashtag, #1. I never get further than the first one. But there’s something about this idea that just stuck with me. Am I adulting? I question this pretty much every day of my life so of course, there should “theoretically” be plenty to talk about each week. It’s also a little bit more anecdotal, a little glimpse in to how my brain works and all the crazy crap that runs through it on a daily basis. (Read: My brain is ridiculous and I need someone else to listen to the bat shit cray cray stuff it thinks up.)
It started last year, the ninth year of putting up a sparse, bedraggled, cheap looking Christmas tree. You know the ones, where you can see right through it because it has only 3 branches on each layer. At £7 for a 5ft Christmas tree it seemed like the perfect fit for our first living room. Money was tight but we were going to have our very first Christmas tree in our first home. I had to. Equipped with about 10 baubles, it was our first Christmas tree and it was ours. It did the job. It made me happy that we had a little bit of festivity in our home. With each year, I’d buy more and more ornaments making it look a little bit fuller but it still looked pretty sorry for itself because you now couldn’t see the tree at all for all the glitter and sparkle covering it.
You know, I really do wish I was one of those “got my shit together” adults who go out every year on a family day out to go spend £75 on a real, Nordic, pine tree that sits in the vestibule of the house, covered in candy canes and pretty little stockings beside it. Sadly I’m not one of those types so I needed to come up with a new plan. We couldn’t go on anymore pretending that our current “stump” was going the distance any longer. So, finally I caved. I looked at my Christmas tree and whilst it had lots of lovely baubles on it was time, 2015 was going to be the last time that tree stood in our living room. I’d made my mind up. It was time to say goodbye to ye olde faithful.
We headed to B&Q (the most adultiest adulty shop of them all) at the weekend to go look at work surfaces for our brand new kitchen (did I tell you I’m an adult now?) and on entering the store we were blinded greeted with their festive displays. Humongous trees, lights everywhere and singing polar bears. My eyes lit up, it was just so Christmassy. I couldn’t help but get drawn in by the bright lights and there it was standing before me, a 6ft fully branched tree that was going to fit right in to our cosy living room! It was £24 (knocked down from £36 in the Black Friday sales – hallelujah for American culture) and it was coming home with us. I felt smug. I was finally buying a proper adult Christmas tree. I’ve finally adulted and bought a tree that cost more than 75p (okay, okay, slight exaggeration) now it’s just the age old question of, when do I put it up?
Have you got your Christmas tree up? Did buying your first second tree make you feel Country Living Christmas Fair in Harrogate this weekend!
