Oh, Christmas Tree

Since before we moved in to Bardmony, Chris and I have been dreaming about what our first Christmas in the house would look like.

We imagined celebrating our first married Christmas here, inviting our new neighbours for a fancy holiday party, and hosting Chris’s family for Christmas itself, all surrounded by the magic of the house and setting our new family traditions for years to come.

When we made our offer on the house in January 2020, COVID was still a faraway virus that had no bearing on our plans and dreams. As it has for so many, it completely changed the shape of our year – we have sadly ended up postponing our wedding until next autumn, we’ve not been able to see any of my family since last year, and we won’t be with any family or friends over Christmas.

Still, we are lucky enough to have our health, our jobs, our home, and our nearest and dearest still safe – so we count ourselves as extremely blessed with plenty to celebrate, even if it is just the two of us rambling around here on our own!

And with that in mind, we decided we were going to do the whole nine yards this year – real trees and everything.

Chris has been begging me for real trees basically since our first Christmas as a couple and I have always resisted because I like to put my tree up a bit earlier (ahem…mid November just means more time to get in the holiday spirit!). But this year, I gave in – why not? Everyone needs all the happy they can find right now, and Bardmony is a house that deserves a real tree or two.

And when it comes to real trees, more is more.

Chris and I were both agreed that the real trees would go in the drawing room and the space by the front stairs. Fairly comically, we had tried to estimate how big the trees could be by using a tape measure that maxed out at 10 feet. Anyway, in the end, we decided that the drawing room could manage a 12′ tree and the stairs space could probably reasonably accommodate a 14′ (skinny) tree.

We went to the Easter Rattray Christmas Tree Farm (about 3 miles from us) last Friday night to start our search. Upon arrival, the attendant asked us what we were looking for, so I told them “BIG!” (childlike glee definitely included).

With a small chuckle, one of the chaps led us to a separate part of their barn, where they had the Big Ones all in a row for our viewing. We selected our two favourites and then sadly looked at our Volvo, which was in no way capable of carrying them home.

All there was for it was The Van – our awful, awful, awful very ancient Mercedes extra long Sprinter that we were planning to sell the next day… So, we settled up and agreed we’d be back early the next day to retrieve our prizes, and headed home.

The next day, we arrived bright and early, unaware of the troubles to come excited about our tree adventure.

I first realised they perhaps thought we were a bit eccentric when we asked them to please net the trees for us. Looks were exchanged. But the trees made it through their really cool baling machine, and they helped us load them into the awful, awful, awful very ancient Mercedes van…

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Then, we trundled home in the awful, awful, awful very ancient Mercedes van (PS, dear reader: the van is still for sale if anyone is interested 🤣).

Next, we got the trees into the house… The trees were about 13-14 feet each, so this was a bit of a job for a short vertically challenged person like me…! Suffice it to say, I was not super helpful. Poor Chris.

Next, we had to figure out how to get them into their stands. The farm had a new style of tree stand, and we were one of the first to buy, so they couldn’t tell us how they worked practically – only in theory – but we were pleasantly surprised. A few good whacks with a hammer and about 45 seconds later, Tree 1 was up:

By this point, I had begun to suspect that perhaps we had the trees in the wrong places. One of the trees was a bit fatter than the other – remember I said that the stairs area needed a skinny tree! But it was up, and neither of us were keen to undertake a tree moving operation. Let the chips fall where they may!

The next job was to remove the netting:

Yep, definitely the wrong tree. This was definitely the fatter tree. And…somehow it was taller than I thought it was when we picked it. Not to worry – plenty of space vertically! We ended up sorting out the girth issue with a few clever rotations and a sneaky prune here and there.

Then, it was on to Tree 2 for the drawing room. Having got one tree up, we were feeling fairly confident.

Folks, we should not have been confident. The tree was TOO BIG. More was more, but perhaps it ought not to have been! 🤐 Neither the tree nor the ceiling remained unmolested from this work…

Next, the lights. Oh dear sweet friends, the lights. How does one light a tree this big? Never fear – we found the answer on YouTube! We ended up going with the up-and-down method, which seemed more practical for the size (I was pleasantly surprised – each tree only took about 20 minutes to light, most of which was spent untangling the dang things).

I will admit, I absolutely used the stairs to help get the lights on. Imagine me shoving my arms through the spindles, desperately trying to jam lights on to this massive tree. Yep, that happened.

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But, I think it was worth it. Look at them at night. Just look at them. 😍🎄

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And the girls are absolutely in love with them. How cute are they?

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We spent the rest of Saturday relaxing, watching cheesy Christmas films on Netflix and testing out Chris’s birthday surprise (a Philips Perfect Draft machine).

Amazingly, after the Great Christmas Tree Adventure of 2020, we even woke up Sunday morning with enough energy to get some lights on the drive to share with the neighbourhood!

So, there you have it – this is what dealing with two enormous Christmas trees entails start to finish! What do you think?