random truths – Day 1,044 (Wednesday) – decisions

There was never a conscious decision to have a collection of small trees. I never woke up and thought, “You know, I’m going to collect a bunch of Christmas trees.” It happened gradually.  

The fake tree forest
of procrastination.

There was a red and silver foil tree bought in Tennessee because it was festive and in the colors of the roller derby team I was part of and could be left up until Valentine's Day without being too weird. It was followed several years later by a cute plastic tree with candy decorations found in an antique shop while shopping with Mom. It accelerated with three mid-century modern style ceramic trees from Target that lived in storage until I had my own place. More followed, found at clearance sales and church rummage sales. 

Most of the year, the trees live in boxes on shelves in the cellar.  Once a year they are unpacked and dusted off for the Christmas season. The two foil trees go on a table in the enclosed porch. The white and silver ceramic trees on the dining room table. One on the buffet, one on the TV stand, some on a bookcase. This year, a small forest of bottle brush trees sprouted under the black tinsel tabletop tree.

It’s nice to see the trees. It’s less nice packing them up to be put away. A couple weeks ago, after the COVID convalescence, the trees were gathered onto the dining room table in preparation of packing and storage. They are still there, a fake tree forest of real procrastination. 

Just like there was no decision to start a collection of trees, there hasn’t been a conscious decision to finish putting them away this year. It will happen eventually, I suppose. Maybe this weekend. Or not. It’s not like the world will end or someone will be injured because the trees are still on the table. I hope.