Oh Tannen Baum

Sunday, 11 December 2005

GR spent much of last week in bed - five days to be exact - with a nasty cold that he's started to pass around to the rest of the family. This past Thursday was the first and only chance we had to go out and get a Christmas tree. For the last 3 years or so we've gotten a beautiful "real" tree form one of the optimist club lots sprinkled around town and spent at least $50 on each of them. I've come to the conclusion that a real tree isn't environmentally friendly or economical, and it's difficult to care for and dispose of.

So, I've been looking at artificial trees. My criteria for an artificial tree... It needs to be full - I don't want to stare at a metal poll every time I look at my tree; it needs to be realistic; and it can't be too tall (many of the trees that fit my criteria, have been 8-10 feet tall, which doesn't really work in our house).

I found a pre-lit tree I really liked at Wal-Mart for about $160, but when I took GR and the kids to see it Thursday night, they were sold out of everything but the display model, and GR wasn't very excited about trying to get an assembled tree with no box, home. So we headed for Hobby Lobby to see if they had anything comparable in look and price. For twice the price of the Wal-Mart tree we found a beautiful 7.5 foot pre-lit tree that with a good amount of fussing looks quite nice. Their trees were 30% off, and I had my 40% off coupon which narrowed the gap between the Wal-Mart tree and our tree.

This evening after Emily’s preschool Christmas concert we got it decorated, and tomorrow I’m taking my receipt back to Hobby Lobby – their Christmas trees are now 50% off and I’m going back to get my additional 10% off!

I’m really pleased with the overall look of this tree. It’s base is wider than I we expected… a few of the branches in the back near the wall, needed to be bent so it would take up less space in the corner, and all the furniture got moved 8 inches towards the kitchen (GR was worried the back door wouldn’t open, but I managed to arrange everything so there’s just enough clearance for the door).