Jule Tide

Prelit Christmas tree

September 5th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed

Price: $79.19 USD

Moving Home at Christmas

When I first moved away from home, I moved into a tiny flat which was really no more than a bedsit. In fact sitting on the bed was all there was room for. When Christmas approached, I had to decide what to do about Christmas decorating. There was no way I had space for a full-on Christmas tree so I went out shopping and eventually came home with a prelit Christmas tree. All I had to do was unwrap it and plug it in. I also bought some spray-on snow. I drew a snowman on one window pane and a Christmas tree on the other and I was done.

I actually spent the Christmas holidays with my folks back ‘home.’ My bedroom was still more-or-less intact, minus a poster or two, so I took my prelit Christmas tree with me and set it up in my bedroom. Home from home, as it were! I left the spray-on snow in the bedsit though.

The Beginnings of a Sentimental Attachment

Throughout the holiday season, I went to numerous get-togethers with my family and friends. A select few were invited into my room to admire my prelit Christmas tree. You could see it wasn’t real. You could see that it had been plonked on a stand in about 5 seconds flat. But it was festive and it marked my independence. In short, it was here to stay.

I followed this pattern for the next five years or so, even after I had moved to a much bigger flat. Then one sunny Christmas Eve, things changed radically. I met a girl. Before you could say ‘Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer,’ we had moved in together. Although our flat was not very big, it was old and had very high ceilings (were people taller back then?). She insisted on a real Christmas tree, and in the first flush of new love I obliged with an evergreen monster that touched the ceiling. It took us hours to buy the Christmas decorations and even longer to apply them to the tree. Pine needles rained down on us for two weeks, but the flat smelled fragrant and fresh for the first time.

My prelit Christmas tree never made it out storage. There just wasn’t space in the flat, or in my head, for it.

Not Quite a Homecoming

Things went on like this for three years. In fact, things went on just long enough for us to end up deciding to go our separate ways. As chance would have it, I found myself back at my parents home with a couple of suitcases and a guitar just before Christmas. I also had my precious prelit Christmas tree with me. I set it up in my former bedroom - now transformed into a ‘guestroom’ complete with flowery curtains and frilly doilies. It didn’t feet like a kind of homecoming. I went on to enjoy a quiet Christmas full of reflection and, well, relief.

Since then, I have made a point of always setting up my prelit Christmas tree. Most of the bulbs are still the originals, but I add a little touch of extra Christmas decoration to it every year. Even though my family and I always have a real Christmas tree that we decorate together, my prelit Xmas tree takes pride of place at the end of the kitchen counter next to the coffee machine - two of my most treasured possessions side by side.

The Moment Christmas Begins

Every Christmas I have to defend my right to fetch my prelit Christmas tree down from the attic and set it up once more. Up to this day, I’ve always won my argument. Everyone has their own special moment that marks the beginning of Christmas. Maybe it’s going out to fetch the Christmas tree. Maybe it’s sitting down to write Christmas cards. Call me a sentimental fool, but for me Christmas begins the moment I sit down in the kitchen with a fresh cup of java and flick the switch on my prelit Christmas tree. Christmas just wouldn’t be complete without it.

(You are welcome to use this article on your web-site or blog as long as the resource box and the links it contains remain intact.)

Eoin Beckett is a freelance author and editor. Although he stems from Ireland, he currently lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark. Read more about Prelit Christmas Tree at Juletide - the ancient and magical word for Christmas.