my fake little tree

One of the challenges of urban living is space. SPACE, SPACE, SPACE! When we moved here, I got rid of everything I was not madly in love with down to the ink pens. We converted to all black pens and donated all of the mix-matched promo pens that constantly find their way into every corner of your house.

Our first year in DC, we went out to buy a tree in old Convention Center parking lot. We carried across the icy pavement an entire three or four blocks home. Last year, they moved the Downtown Holiday Market to a much better location in front of the Reynolds Center. But with the move, out went the trees. So when I went home for my TV debut, I was on a mad hunt for a cute little fake tree. That was much harder than I thought.

I finally found this one in Greensboro at a super cute gift shop. But it was a little more than I wanted to spend. So I ended up leaving to continue shopping and mulling over it, before coming back to buy it. I wasn’t totally crazy about the chartreuse lights. It is a little like a glitzy Mountain Dew tree at night. But in the day time, it is the sweetest thing. Plus it has the added bonus that it collapses into a box that isn’t much larger than a shoe box for a really tall pair of boots. That way I don’t feel too guilty when I lug it home to my mom’s in early January. This is very small in comparison to all of my other stuff packed away in her attic.

The tree is essentially four nested wreaths with a tree on top. They collapse into one another after you remove the pole that drops down the middle. It is so easy to put up. Literally only two screws to keep the legs locked in place, drop the wreaths in place, add the topper and plug in. The last are already in place. I did have this crazy idea that I could change all of the light bulbs to white last year, but that never happened. I guess that is why I found a set of white lights in my box of decorations.

Before I bought it, I was also concerned about all of the space between the branches. That is not totally my style. But then I had the genius idea of cutting circles out of sweater boxes and laying that as a base support in all of the open space. Then I added some matching tissue paper to fill it out. Perfect. You can’t even see the green pole hiding behind the tissue paper, ornaments and fake little gifts. Plus it is the perfect prop for all of my bird ornaments, which I also love.

Henry hates this little ice cream cone, yet he was the one who hung it there. Hmmm…

When we came home from Thanksgiving, I was literally able to put up the tree in about thirty minutes. Henry asked me to slow down so that we could pop in a Christmas box set. I thought that it would be a lot easier to put it up then than stumble over the box for several days.

I think that place the tree on a nesting table is much better than the stool, which we used last year. At least it is now closer to the height of a full-sized tree. I can actually look up at it instead of almost knocking it over with my elbow.

Last weekend while greeting people at Paper Source, I spied these super cute napkins. They were just like my tree. So I had to buy a pack, well actually two, to have on hand for any holiday party I have yet to plan. Plus I bought a red pack just in case I needed a quick little hostess gift. I love them. And it make me love my baby gift tree even more.