Friday, January 13, 2012

Taking down the Christmas Tree

Well, you gotta do it sooner or later. But taking it down is never as much fun as putting it up. Then there is the "which ornament goes in which box" dilemma. I've begun labeling each little box. Then there is a flimsy box problem. The ornament boxes are ultra cheapo with huge cellophane windows and they just sort of disintegrate sitting in the attic waiting for Christmas again. Egg cartons last longer. How do I know? Simple, a fair number of my boxless ornaments now live in old egg cartons, and have been living there for several seasons now.
Then the light people need to sharpen up. The damn things come with a 10 conductor cord thick enough to moor a cabin cruiser. Even though it's tastefully dyed green, it still looks humungous up on the tree. Sort of "Santa comes from PSNH" looking.
Then we have the bubble lights. My grandmother gave us a couple of bubble lights for Christmas back in the dawn of time. We kids loved them. Mother thought they were tacky and plastic and she made them disappear. Years later I see boxes of bubble lights in the store and buy a couple for old time's sake. Trouble is, the lights only bubble when they are straight up and down. The cheapo plastic clips on the sockets are mostly busted off, and this year the lights hung every which way and didn't bubble at all. Next year either no bubble lights or I make some kind of clips (twisted paperclip wire?) to hold them in place.

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