Multi-colored or White? {The Christmas Tree}
I don’t think marriage preparation books even address “the great Christmas debate”. You know, the one where you want white lights on the tree and your husband wants the raucous multi-colored ones…
As a little girl, I remember my Aunt Violet’s Christmas trees. Each year, they were a different theme and color scheme. I thought they were so put together and beautiful, and looked forward to the day when I could do a “cool” tree like that.
The first Christmas we were married, we put up our tree in October. We lived in Northern BC at the time, and it was the first time I actually “tromped through the woods” to cut down a tree. I was giddy with excitement at putting together my white-light, blue ornamented tree. We got it all finished in the corner of our little duplex apartment, and then left for supper at my in-laws.
After a few hours away, we walked in to our apartment and looked at the sparkly tree. We stared at it for a while, and I’ll never forget what my husband said next…
“O.K., {awkward pause}, I can’t stand it. I hate white lights.”
If I remember correctly, those were quite traumatic words at the time…
Yep…
They don’t address that issue in marriage books.:)
Perhaps it should read… Marriage lesson # 1~ You’re going to need to do some Christmas “compromises”…His Traditions + Her Traditions = A whole new family tradition.
My husband asked for so little in the whole “decor” thing…and this is his home, too, after all… So, I carefully wound all those silly white lights into their strange little boxes and took them back to the store…along with the pretty light blue ornaments.
Home came multi-colored lights and red ornaments.
And we’ve had a jolly, raucous multi-colored tree ever since… (And, really, it’s been o.k. with me.)
…Until this year…
Out of the blue, my husband said, “Maybe we should try white lights on the tree this year.” {Yippee Skippee-do!} I have no idea what changed his mind, but I bought those lights faster than you can say, “holly jolly”.
…and today I finally got them on our poor, naked tree…
I love them…and {thankfully!} so does my husband!
{More pictures to come soon.}
Your tree looks beautiful!!
This made me laugh out loud! We have the same problem, I win with white lights on the tree since our fake tree (which I actually hate til it's loaded with ornaments- the skimpy tree, not the lights!), is pre-lit with white lights. Hubby would love to load it with multicolored and has tried to convince me to buy s pre-lit multicolored tree. We are thinking of venturing onto a real tree, just neither one of us have ever had one!
Also he looooves the houses lit up with all different colored lights, some blue, some red, some multi, usually a blow-up snowman, plastic Santa in there too! Uck. Not me! White icicle lights please! Guess I have a good hubby because he let's me win that one too!! 🙂
Sorry for the long comment! Can't recall if I've commented before, but I've been reading since your 31 days posts and am following along now! Love your blog!
I had to laugh because when I first met my husband I had a tiny tree in the dorms with tiny multi-colored lights. I was so proud of them as they were tiny pinpricks of color which made the little tree come alive. After we were married and had "our" tree (the next year) I discovered he HATES colored lights. So I packed my pretty little lights up and sent them off to goodwill. 21 years later and we still have white lights! I do love them but have to admit I loved those teeny tiny little colored lights which filled my tree with pinpricks of color. Trust me I've never found another strand like those as they had a delicate soft glow to them.
This is such a fun story! We arent having a tree for our first married christmas (insert nostalgic whine here) which is suprisingly ok with me. since we just moved into a miniature house its just too hard! but one funny thing my husband said after living together for 3 weeks, "so.. are there going to be flowers on everything?" gotta love him! 🙂
That is so funny…and so true! Except in our house, it was backwards. I wanted the multi-colored lights and gave in to my husband's desire for white lights. I'm content, too. It is beautiful!