Christmas Cat

[lydamorehouse]

 
Image: my big fluff button under the tree, having captured an ornament.

We trimmed the tree this weekend. I'd take a picture of it, but photos never do Christmas trees much justice, IMHO.  Perhaps because the eye needs to roam between the lights and the individual ornaments to truly appreciate the personality of an individual tee. For instance, our trees always have a whole flock of birds hidden among the branches, antique blown glass of my grandmother's, a high heel wearing crocodile, several Star Trek ornaments, Captain America, and other curios gathered over the years. 

Because Willow is still young, the bottom half of the tree is still trimmed with unbreakables (like the one Buttercup nabbed.) 

Normally, we would never put up a tree quite this early, but there is a Christmas tree shortage and so when we saw a full lot on Wednesday, we impulse bought a tree and brought it home. In the past we've waited until Solstice, but we just don't think there will be much to chose from by then.

What about you? Do you do a tree? Are you lighting candles on a menorah? Preparing your list of grievances for Festivus? Reading up Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica for Newtonmas? Reciting poetry for the Iranian solstice celebration of Yaldā Night? House cleaning for Ōmisoka? Brushing up on your Esperanto for Zamenhof Day? Anyone I know celebrating Kwanza?

Comments

[pameladean]

Good grief, it's as if he trained to be a cat model. That paw, that expression. What a great photo.

We don't do a tree. My mother does. My brother just sent me a bunch of photos of the tree, the mantelpiece, the lights on the deck and the front of her townhouse, etc. It all looks just as it should.

I've occasionally decorated a little Norfolk Island pine tree when I had one in a pot, but they really don't seem to like indoor living in our house and generally sort of give up after three or four years, so it seemed wrong to keep getting new ones to demolish.

P.

[sabotabby]

I'm lighting candles on a menorah. That is well out of the reach of the kitties because neither have the survival instinct God gave a log.

[dreamshark]

Oh, crap, what now? A Christmas Tree shortage? I thought everybody was cancelling Christmas so we should be swimming in trees.

Normally Richard buys an 8-foot tree and spends a week carefully filling it with blinking, flashing, color-changing lights, starting from the inside and working his way out to make sure it is 3-dimensional. Then we add a hundred or so of his hand painted ornaments, carefully hanging the smaller ones at the top to create an illusion of perspective and increased height (this is what happens when you let an MCAD trained artist decorate a tree). At the end I add a few dozen birds, because birds were my favorite when I was a kid. And we pick our favorite dozen ornaments to put on rotators and start them all spinning.

But this year we have cancelled Christmas, so why bother? No singing party, no game parties, no Minnstf meetings, and no grandkids. So we're planning a small table-top tree decorated in Throwback style. He's planning to use the old mismatched lights and decorations that don't fit his fully evolved effervescent tree style. Quiet little snowman lights that don't even change color and that sort of thing. We're planning to go tree shopping tomorrow. Merry Christmas.

[oracne]

I bought an tree-shaped ornament rack, 3 feet tall, and am very happy with it. I meant to wait to decorate it, but did it the same evening it arrived!

[duskpeterson]

I once attended a Yalda celebration outside Washington, DC, when I was a religion news reporter. There was a lot of singing, dancing, feasting, and, as you say, poetry. The Iranian Zoroastrians had to explain the holiday to the Indian and Pakistani Zoroastrians who were there.

[j00j]

We are lighting menorahs as we usually do (partner's family has many, usually we get out one per family member. The kids made their own in daycare).
We bought a tree for the first time; normally we all travel to various places, so we are adapting and making some of our own traditions this year.

[sraun]

We celebrate NewtonFest with apple-flavored foods, gravity games, and Road Runner cartoons.

Our Modern Neo-Technopagan Winter Festivities Symbol Holder stays up all year. We'll turn the fiber-optic lights on a couple of times between now and Christmas.