Confession time, the last time I had a Christmas tree up it was 2010. My daughter stopped believing in Santa Claus when she was about 8 and since we don’t really believe in the whole religious meaning around the day, and money had always been tight, we just never bothered with a tree. We would purchase extra things through out the year for our daughter and give it to her then. She always preferred to get her gifts on the now side instead of waiting until the “day” everyone is supposed to exchange gifts.
This also allowed us to teach our daughter that the holiday’s are away for big companies to make more money. I mean do we really need a Sweetest Day and a Valentine’s day to show the people we love that we love them? I know I don’t my husband and I show each other daily, and to be honest it’s the small things he does for me that I will cherish, not a box of candy that will make my ass wider and flowers that will die. Sure I love candy and flowers, but showing our love for one another shouldn’t have to involve money. After all they say money is the root of all evil.
We also have always tried to teach our daughter that you have to appreciate the smaller things in life rather than the larger things and for that she is grateful if I buy her a pack of gum. On her 13th birthday we gave her a $500 check, as soon as she seen it she wrapped her arms around me and started to cry. She cried in my arms for about 5 minutes, and of course her cries made me cry. I was crying because I new I raised my daughter right, she was crying because she was thankful for the gift she had just received.
Anyways, this year I decided I was going to have a Christmas tree. While we don’t celebrate the holiday because of the religious belief behind it, I love the lights, I love the presents under the tree, and I love the excitement on my daughter’s face when she opens up presents she has been wanting for awhile. I mean what parent doesn’t love to see their child glow when they get something they had been wanting. I am a parent that loves seeing my child happy, a parent that loves (when we have it) spending money on my child, and let’s face it I to add in on lining those big companies pockets with my money.
So when we were at Walmart the other day, we purchased a Christmas tree. Looking at all those trees set up, made me want one even more. You know what we did after we made the purchase? We let the tree sit in the trunk of the car for a few days, and decided what the hell, we will put it up NOW. Yes, as my child had her costume on to go to a local trunk or treat event, we decorated the Christmas Tree.
Of course, we keep our tree simple, we don’t put all the garland and messy things like that on it. Instead, we put our personalized ornaments, a few balls, and some pine cones.
We could have added a few more things to the tree, but with not having a tree up the past 3 years, this to me is perfect! You cannot have a tree up without some presents. Since our daughter likes to guess, we put the presents in bigger boxes and wrapped them. Now all she sees is different size boxes. Of course, we might not do this with everything but with the things we already got we did.
So if Walmart can have their Christmas trees up already, SO CAN I!
Here are a few better pictures of my daughter’s Halloween costume, she went as a “hybrid” (new monster high doll thing, don’t ask) she is a “zombie” 50’s girl.
When do you usually put your Christmas tree up? Do you celebrate for the kids or because of the religious belief behind the day?
Next year, we will not be putting the tree up 2 months before Christmas. LOL
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