… so I have to show you.
Thirteen feet of Christmas tree is what I’m talking about here, People!
The Chili family ventured out into the cold last Sunday afternoon to secure ourselves a holiday bush.
Mr. Chili, who is usually the one who determines the height of the tree we take, had a different system this year. Usually, he puts his 5 foot 7 inch self in his winter boots, grabs a hack saw, stands on his tippity toes and reaches up as high as he can; if the tree is slightly higher than the top of the saw, that tree is in the running. This year, though, he ditched the hack saw in favor of a four foot piece of two-by-four (though the saw was retained for cutting duty, it wasn’t employed as a measuring tool this year). He figured that, since we’ve got more room in the great room (being as it’s no longer the room we spend all our time in), we could take up more space with a bigger tree.
The end result is that we’ve got a 13 foot tree in our house. It took all the light strands we had and is hung with every ornament in our possession (well, not every ornament; we choose to not put our collection of Hallmark Star Trek ornaments on the tree anymore) and it still looks like it could take even more and not be overdone.
Here are some of the ornaments I love. I’d show you more, but for some reason, all the pictures I took were disappointing.
This is one of the newest ornaments I have. I bought it for $1.99 at The Christmas Tree Shops. It was too cute for me not to buy:
These two were purchased years ago at Pier I. They were cheap, cheap, cheap, but I love them anyway. Who else do you know who has a fish on her Christmas tree?
Santa, done in bamboo:
I’ve also got a cute little wooden star done up as Santa (think Maggie Simpson in a snowsuit), but the picture came out badly.
Is a thirteen foot tree a bit much? Probably. The facts of the matter are that it’s a gorgeous tree, that a thirteen foot tree cost us no more than a four footer would have, and we have the space for it. It really is a glorious bit of holiday cheer, and I like seeing the looks on friends’ faces when they walk through the door and see that we’ve got a giant sequoia decorated for Christmas.
Gorgeous. We have a much smaller tree, but since it’s on a table, it reaches to the ceiling. We don’t have a great room, but we have a pretty good room, so the ceiling is about 10′ and the poor angel on top of the tree is getting tired of bumping her head on the ceiling.
Why did you ditch the Star Trek ornaments?
That tree is phenomenal! I’m kinda of in awe at the hugosity of that monster and how it actually fits in your lovely home.
Are you putting up the black Santa?
They never went on the “main” tree, anyway; they were always relegated to one of the fig trees that we’d decorate. I guess we kind of just grew out of them. Hell, now my students don’t even know what Next Generation is – the association they made with Patrick Stewart when I showed them a Christmas Carol wasn’t with Jean-Luc Picard, it was with Professor Xavier from X-men…
Indeed, I DID! The black Santa is up; we have a very inclusive Christmas tree (you don’t happen to have a Star of David ornament, do you?)…
But do you have a gay santa? Not as inclusive as you thought, huh?!
I don’t know, Auntie… The Santa in the snow globe seems like he might play for the pink team.
Hey – in your travels to gay-friendly places, if you see a Santa with a pride flag or something like that, get one for our tree….
Thanks for sharing. I have never seen such an interesting shaped tree. They must grow different in the south. What kind of tree is it?
I have about 10 fish ornaments, and i bought another one just the other day.
That’s a Frasier Fir. We get all kinds of trees up here, Liv; we like this variety because, even though it’s kind of spindly and spiny, it’s a good display for the ornaments.
Meno, I KNEW there was a reason I liked you so much! Post pictures!
What a pretty tree… It’s huge, but just right for that lovely, big space.
I bet you don’t have a fisherman nutcracker ornament on your tree…
Tense, I DON’T! I have a nutcracker ornament – he’s in a little silver snowglobe – and I have four nutcracker decorations of various sizes around the house (a rather large sentry, a smaller band leader with a baton and a guy with cymbals, and a little fat guy who seems to have no particular job), but no fisherman!
That tree is the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. I love it and would love to see more pictures! Breathtaking!