Sunday 21 February 2010

Setting up the Christmas tree

Due to my lack of spatial awareness and numeracy skills, I had overestimated the space in my flat. I bought a 7-feet Kodiak tree, thinking that it would look really grand. I had always wanted a grand-looking Christmas tree and didn't want a mere 5-feet which just about every flat-dweller asks for. Shortly after it arrived, I realised that there is a good reason why most people opted for a 5-feet tree.

I also learnt that there is a difference between the make of trees of different height. A smaller one usually has just 3 parts ie. top, body and bottom stand. But for mine, it has a stand which is broken into 2 parts due to its length, the top bushel and the branches that come with hooks, which we have to hook them onto the stand one by one. It's very tedious and not much fun really. Most of the time, I have to do it by myself because others quickly give up due to the need for great tenacity to endeavour in setting up the tree.

The branches, sorted out by their colour codes, according to their length
The botak stand
Coco fitting in the branches

Okay, the tree's done

Standing on a chair to decorate the Christmas tree





The final product

I've also learnt that the best-looking colour on a Christmas tree is probably gold. A reno forum held a Christmas tree competition a few years back and most people had a gold- or silver-themed Christmas tree. And the gold ones stood out alot better than the silver ones. Silver ones looked, at best, greyish. Gold ones, at best, looked stunning and glamorous. So now my purchase of ornaments leans towards gold coloured ones and so far, they are beautiful and look great on my Christmas tree, especially when on pictures.

When I first bought the ornaments for a purple-themed Christmas tree the first year we had it, upon knowing that ornaments were not cheap, I chose bigger ornaments to cover more surface area of the tree, and I ended up with a lot of bollies. Kinda boring if you ask me. Last year, I decided to buy a variety of designs for the ornaments and tried as far as possible not to repeat the designs. The product was more satisfying than its former version.

The price of a Christmas tree is just the icing on the cake. Everytime I buy the ornaments, I would limit my budget to about $100 so as not to overspend without realising it. And the thrift in me feels stupid to spend a few times more on the ornaments than on the Christmas tree at one go. Buying the ornaments also tells me one thing: it is better to have a smaller Christmas tree.

Adding on the chasing lights will make the tree look fuller if the ornaments are not many.

Last year, I decided to be clever. We hung ornaments on the parts of the tree that were meant to be seen. However, last year, I came across a rotating Christmas tree which I thought was cool. It was a 6-feet tree if I remember it correctly. If I ever buy that, then the strategy of decorating the seen parts of a Christmas tree will not apply.

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