Friday, December 3, 2010

A Holiday Diversion

What with all the royal engagement news in the past weeks, some might be finding it hard to concentrate on the holidays coming up.  Not so at our house, we are giving equal attention to Christmas and to Wills' and Kate's big news.

This year we decided to give ourselves a little rest break between Thanksgiving and the decorating for Christmas.  Normally our tree and outside lights would go up on the Saturday following Thanksgiving, but, this year we have waited a week.  However, I couldn't resist buying the tree the day after Thanksgiving.  While buying a tree for my mother's house in Savannah, I spotted a great tree that would be just perfect for our living room.  Typically we travel not far to a local tree farm to cut our own Virginia Pine.  But, when I saw the tree, pictured above, I just had to have it.  This tree will be perfect, with its sparser branches to really show of the many vintage ornaments we have, as well as the fantastic lead tinsel/icicles we have collected.

Buying this tree was an adventure.  After choosing my mother's tree, hauling it to her house, decorating there... I return to the tree lot in Daffin Park, in Savannah.  My little tree that I spotted earlier in the day was still there.  I will admit that many people wouldn't have given it a second look, but I knew right away it was the type of tree that really reminded me of the old-timey Balsam firs that we used to get in the '60's and '70's.  These days all that are available on tree lots in our area are the super trimmed and super perfect Fraser Firs from.  However, this tree lot gets it's whole supply from a North Carolina farm that doesn't believe in shaping the trees to such an extent.  The weather had turned ugly by the time I went back for my tree, but I was determined to have this one.  So, after getting it securely tied to the top of my rather small car, I drove back to Hilton Head in a dark driving rain.  Our tree is good and watered, and has been waiting patiently on the back patio for a week now.

We can't wait to start decorating tomorrow.  I will be sharing pictures of the finished product, as well as posting some other interesting pics that I have come across.  Also, some of my own pics of Christmas trees from past years.

Hopefully this will keep us occupied while we wait on further details of the upcoming royal wedding.

Royal Tidbit for the day... The Christmas trees that grace royal residences such as Sandringham, Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace, and Frogmore were typically cut from the woodlands of Windsor Great Park adjacent to the castle.  These trees were mainly Nordman Firs, the most popular choice in England for Christmas trees.

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