Oh no....not a perfectionist! (Decoration Ideas)

Member Name: islander13957

Product:	Decoration Ideas
Date:	24/12/00 (104 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The tree looks wonderful!

Disadvantages: Perfection is impossible to achieve...

Help! I don't want to be a perfectionist.....

My husband much prefers a real Christmas tree to a fake one, so every year for the past five years we have spent the best part of an evening just before Christmas messing around with a bucket of gravel, trowels, chunks of wood, hammer and nails, secateurs and an unhelpful seven foot tall Norway spruce wrapped in finger-lacerating plastic netting.

It is quite a complex operation getting the trunk inserted securely into the purpose-made tree base that he has devised. First of all, four 12" lengths of pine tongue-and-groove wall cladding are nailed lengthwise to the trunk to enclose it in a sort of box. Then it is slotted into a thick circular piece of wood, cut to the diameter of the bucket, before being located centrally in place and packed in tightly with gravel. Finally, the bucket is filled almost to the top with water and the tree is cut free from the tangle of plastic netting. The bucket (a bright orange 10 litre catering cooking oil bucket) also has to be covered with foil to make it look festive.

The nice thing about a real pine tree is the scent that it brings into the room but it is, I admit, a rather messy houseguest. I hoover up the needles scattered on the carpet after the tree is in place and we rotate it gingerly to make sure that its best profile is facing the centre of the room. Then we will leave it overnight to allow the branches to relax down after being tightly wrapped for heaven knows how long.

The next day my husband drapes one hundred tiny white lights over the tree (secure in the knowledge that fusspot here will not be happy with the result and need to make essential adjustments herself...). We have moved gradually to a minimalist colour scheme for the big tree over the past few years. A seven footer takes a lot of decorating so we bought big packs of plain and faceted baubles in gold, silver, white and crystal. Some of the prettiest ones are twelve 6&qu
ot; twisted gold icicles that we bought on holiday in the Loire region of France one autumn. We also have some simple white glitter-coated polystyrene 'snowballs' which are very effective. The only splashes of primary colour (and you have to look hard to see them!) are three perky clip-on robins that I perch on high branches as if they've come in for a warm roost overnight to add a humourous touch. The final additions are thick lengths of gold and silver tinsel and some strings of gold and silver bells. We don't have an angel on the top of the tree, instead we have a single large clear star which has one of the white lights slotted up inside to illuminate it.

It takes me about two hours to complete the decoration of the tree, together with numerous cups of tea and the occasional mince pie to keep my strength up. Many times I have wished fervently that I wasn't such a perfectionist and could just put it up and forget it. My husband knows that I will be tweaking the decorations for at least a couple of days before I'm happy. Well, icicles just have to hang straight, don't they? Lopsided ones only spoil the effect :-)

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