Christmas is a favourite time of the year for me. Lots of food, drink, parties, family and out door lights and Christmas trees. I love decorating our home with lights in front and in back too. In our area there are some spectacularly decorated homes so a drive around on a dry dark night is a must. Some communities really go all out. Last night the little town of Ladysmith lit up the Main Street with 175,000 lights. Upwards of 20,000 people were expected to be there to see the switch go on. We’ve seen their lights which are quite spectacular. It’s worth a drive to see them.

I have always loved Christmas trees, even the ones we had as kids that were so sparse we loaded each branch with that silver tinsel to make the tree look fuller. Tree stands used to be terrible and I recall once a guy in our home got so frustrated trying to get the stand working he finally nailed it to the floor right through the carpet.

We have friends who flock their tree every year and they usually celebrate the flocking with a party. He puts the tree on the patio, mixes up the white flocking and sprays it on the tree with a vacuum cleaner. Makes a mess but the tree does look snowy.

Until recently we always had a real tree which we usually purchased from the cubs and scouts. Noble pine is our favourite. One year a little cub would not let us take the tree until he ‘twirled it’ for us so we could see all sides.

Ok, I admit that we have capitulated and now have a fake tree. No. Let’s call it a replica tree. A Martha Stewart no less, with a simple but attractive stand that works. But it looks like a real tree! Not like the ones on display at Canadian Tire today. A pink tree! Powder Blue maybe? Gold? Who would have a tree in their home that looked like these..

Call me old fashioned but a Christmas Tree ( not a Holiday Tree) should look like a tree.

Only 6 more days until our lights go up. Then the place looks festive! ”Tis the Season”.

Just saying.