Budget-friendly or Luxurious Christmas Tree?

I had a brother who loved the Christmas Season. In fact, he made it into a whole-year-round-occasion. He never put the Christmas tree down and stored it in the chest. For me, Christmas is great but it was much appreciated when I was young. When it was night time and all the lights would be switched on, I felt the Christmas spirit. I stayed under the tree and looked for my Christmas gifts, and I would count them and shook them, trying to guess what was inside the wrapped presents.

Ah yes! Those were the days. People always say that Christmas is for the young and the young at heart. I grew up and really matured. Frankly, even if there would be no decorations and ornaments, I would be happy. I would only just make sure that I heard Holy Mass on Christmas Day. And, that would be enough. Is it that not the true meaning of the Season? The Nativity of the Infant Jesus?

Well, my late brother was the young at heart. He was childlike and enjoyed the simple things in life. There was even one time when he asked me to get something from his cabinet and to my jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring, pleasant surprise, there were children’s toys neatly displayed inside on the floating-wood-panels. He adored the gigantic Christmas Trees in the malls.

Then, one December day many years back he gave me money to make our Christmas Tree look like a Mall Christmas Tree. And, there was a hefty talent fee. Gee, it was a challenge that I thought was quite easy. I was absolutely mistaken. It became a monumental practical arts project.

I still remember when we had to do a lantern project in grade school. We only had to cut six round pieces of cartolina, paste the edges together, paste old Christmas cards on each of the four sides, then cut the Japanese paper for its tail. Voila! It was done. However, for the Christmas tree there was a step-by-step process that I learned as I embarked on the project. It was sometimes trial and error. YouTube tutorials were non-existent at that time. Here are two choices on how to have your own special Christmas tree.

First, the luxurious Christmas tree. The height of the tree must give ample space to the star or angel that you would put on top. A tree that touches the ceiling is a huge faux-pas. It will actually do the opposite of your goal which is to make the tree a towering central focus of your space.What it does is make your space small and cramped. To avoid this, do not forget to measure your room height. Keep in mind that in order to make the colors have a calming effect rather than be an eyesore, you must choose one to two colors only. For example, silver or red only. Red and gold. Blue and gold. With an opulent tree, there would be a tendency for the tree to topple down as it becomes heavy with ornaments. The solution for this is to have a custom-based pot that you slid the tree’s trunk inside.

When you have your tree ready, the first thing you put around it are the lights. Please do follow safety standards to avoid short circuit leading to an unwanted fire disaster. Start from the top, of course, then work your way toward the base. Connect two strings of lights only. For an extra inside glow, you can light your star, then just let the lights hang along the trunk of the tree. Then, you can now put the balls, ribbons, bells, angels, reindeer, poinsettias, etc. The best practice is to put the bigger decorations from the bottom then move upwards as you add the smaller ones. To make your tree even fluffier you may add garlands.

Finally, we discuss the budget Christmas tree. Instead of buying a ten footer tree you may purchase a five footer tree. Now, to make it taller, look for a table in your house and place it at the side of your biggest sofa. Make sure that the other chair sofa is placed nearby making an L-shaped arrangement. You will notice that somehow the table is hidden and your tree is now at least 8 to 9 feet. So, in principle you get a tree half the price. Then, you just follow the aforementioned decorating procedure.

And as a bonus, what if you would want to have a Winter Wonderland Christmas. Should you buy a white tree because you have an existing green tree? Well, you do not have to, what you can do is choose a silver and white combination of ornaments to hang on your tree. The effect is almost the same and way less the price. October is the next best month to buy decorations, it gets more expensive in November and early December, but after Christmas day the prices become really marked down which is a great opportunity to purchase for next year’s celebrations. Happy bargain hunting! Be wise…

Any topic recommendation or just want to say hello? Send a message to: Email: jameszcarpio@gmail.com | And, please do subscribe @jameszcarpio on YouTube. Thank You. May you be inspired by The Holy Spirit and God Bless!