I don’t really like Christmas. I love Jesus and am grateful He was born, but I really don’t like “Christmas”. So I tend to come at it with a bit of a rebellious spirit and attitude. This year I took it out on the Christmas tree.
I have to admit that it doesn’t help that I’m really cheap budget conscious. So I decided to have an “alternative” tree. I searched the internet for ‘unique Christmas trees’ and found some really bizarre ideas. The one I settled on was this ‘Mt Dew Tree‘ (it really helps to follow this link to get a visual of the tree). I thought to myself ‘wow! That’s shiny!’ and ‘I can do that’.
There were a few hurdles, like the fact that I don’t really drink much soda….. so we adopted a new policy in the household - drink more soda and SAVE THE CAN!
So one evening there I was with my box of saved up soda cans ready to put this ‘Christmas Tree’ together. I didn’t really have the same materials that the very detailed instructions called for; but I figured I could still make it work with some junk I had laying around the house….. how hard could it be? I’ve got the basic idea down.
Well, as I got started the first thing I realized was that I didn’t have nearly enough cans, not even for a small tree. So I decided to do a ‘half’ tree that we could just push against the wall, you know, like a semi-circle. Then I discovered that even then I wouldn’t have enough cans. I also discovered that the detailed instructions were probably the way to go.
As I attached the last few cans, my kid takes a gander at the ‘tree’, looks at me with a cocked brow and a face that clearly says, ‘are you kidding me?’ and then her mouth says the same thing! “Mom, can’t we just get a normal tree?”
We all got a good laugh - AT me, not with me, the ‘can’ tree went outside, we went to Hospice Shop and we bought a lovely little fake tree on sale for $3.50. At least we stayed on budget…. The kid got to decorate the tree and everyone lived happily ever after. (next year I’ll be more prepared!)
