Neither my daughter, nor I put up a Christmas tree this year. For me, it just seemed unnecessary, but with her, I was surprised she didn’t buy one. After the work year she’s had, clearing an area to make room for a tree, wasn’t worth the effort.
I saw a commercial that said, “When the first wreath is hung, it’s officially Christmas”, and that saying applied to 75% of my life. As Mother’s we have Christmas décor down to a science, so the Christmas tree magically appears shortly after Thanksgiving, but once children begin adulting and the tree doesn’t magically appear anymore, they realize that decorating for the holiday season feels a lot like work.
I didn’t prepare my daughter for Christmas without me and felt guilty over that. We spoke over the phone and I apologized for the overly decorated Christmases of her childhood being a thing of the past, but then she shared something interesting that I made note of it. Her most memorable Christmases weren’t as a child and seeing it fully decorated, but the years we went out and picked the tree together!
She went on to share, “I think that’s one of the reasons I wasn’t motivated to do it this year…no one gets the magic of picking like you!” We had the best time picking out the Christmas tree and a couple of times drove to a Christmas tree farm to have an endless selection. When we moved out of the country and closer to the city, we’d go to tree stands, or anywhere they had the trees ready for purchase. I’d dig through them, stand one up and twirl it around for her to inspect until we agreed upon the right one.
Every tree hunting expedition has a hilarious story behind it that we’ll laugh about for years to come. Since we’ve been living apart, an important piece has been missing from both our Christmases…the magic of picking.
Feature Photo by Seoyeon Choi on Unsplash
Inbarbsworld 
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