Our Christmas Tree
At Home with the Hastys - Our Christmas Tree
The Backstory
New to Hasty Book List? Read about the fire that prompted this home renovation, here.
The Inspiration
Our Christmas Tree was one of many things ruined in the fire. We had it decorated with ornaments given to us over the years by my mother-in-law and some vintage tinsel garland my mom gave me. I could have sworn the restoration company cleaned our ornaments and gave them back to us shortly before Christmas along with our tree skirt and stockings, but I can’t seem to find the ornaments anywhere. I had a bit of a breakdown when I realized I didn’t know where our family ornaments were. I tend to cry anytime something new pops into my head that I haven’t seen since the fire, especially things that hold so many memories like those ornaments.
At Home with the Hastys - Our Christmas Tree
After Christmas last year, we purchased a new tree and garland for the mantle. It was our way of looking toward a brighter future. At the time, we thought we’d be back home well before Christmas. We didn’t realize we’d be spending our second Christmas as homeowners in a temporary apartment. I debated about putting up the tree as I held out hope that we’d be able to move in before the holidays. But as our move-in date got pushed back further and further, it became evident that I’d need some holiday cheer this year. So we put up our tree a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving.
At Home with the Hastys - Our Christmas Tree
We purchased a new tree topper, tree skirt, and stockings (the other ones still smell faintly of smoke so we tossed them…there is no room in our home for more reminders of the fire.) I found a few ornaments that were given to us after the fire: the yearly ornament from my mother-in-law, a “our first home” ornament I had ordered prior to the fire but didn’t arrive until after the fire, and a set of ornaments that a friend of mine sent me that say “peace,” “love,” “hope,” and “faith.” This friend lost her home several years back in a tornado, so she understands what we’re going through. Then, I filled in the tree with some ornaments I found at my parent’s house that my grandma made. We bought several strands of white LED Christmas lights and wrapped the tree in red felt garland (I love the way it looks with the Ulsta tree skirt and stockings!)
At Home with the Hastys - Our Christmas Tree
As a final touch, I thought adding some old-school loose tinsel would make the tree extra festive…I kinda regret this step. First, we did not research best practices when putting loose tinsel on trees and it was very clumpy in the beginning. Panicked, I called my dad and he informed me that: 1) he hated putting tinsel on trees and 2) my grandparents always told him to pick up one individual piece of tinsel and put it on one individual needle on the tree. He also recommended only doing this to real Christmas trees because it is a pain to remove the tinsel…all things I wish I’d known before I got started. I have no doubt that we’ll be finding tinsel for as long as we own this tree. On the bright side, it does sparkle really nicely at night.
At Home with the Hastys - Our Christmas Tree
We aren’t the kind of people to buy things for temporary use, so I’m not going to go out and buy new ornaments so that our tree looks full this year. Besides, a bunch of meaningless ornaments would just remind me of the sentimental ornaments that are missing (they are probably with the restoration company…we’ll find out when we move back into the condo and get our belongings back.) So instead, I thought I’d fill the tree with Christmas cards that we receive from family and friends. I LOVE sending and receiving Christmas cards, especially cards with photos on them. It is still early in the year, so we’ve only received a few cards but already they are already making the tree look more festive.
Is this my ideal tree? The one I’m most proud of or the most beautiful? No. But it is bringing me a lot of joy this year and that’s really all we need this year, don’t you agree?
