Oh, Christmas Tree! Oh, Christmas Tree!

It's my first time to put a Christmas tree on my own.

Usually, I am just the assistant (read: one who hands the decors)/ supervisor (read: one who critiques) / clean-up crew (read: that one is self-explanatory… the artistic ones are usually not bothered with the menial stuff) for my brother, Oscar or my sister-in-law, Ann Janice. So … I was a bit anxious putting up the tree on my own because I was not sure if it would look as good as when it was done by them.

Well, I think it turned out quite alright…

That is, after putting on the lights, ribbons and decors , taking them down and then putting them back on THREE TIMES! Yes, 3 times! Just to get the right look! I'm not even going to tell you how long I had to do the Christmas tree. I don't have any elves helping me like others, you know (wink! wink!).

What I learned from this experience though are:

1. Control your excitement in hanging the decors. The lights go first. The ribbons and/or garlands second. And the decors come into the picture last!
2. The lower part of tree needs the most lights. My Christmas tree's lower third actually has about 200 lights on it! 

While doing all that multiple put up/take down of the lights, I actually thought to myself that I "needed" to buy one of those "pre-lit" Christmas trees. I did look at some of them in the stores but most have those 1-inch "needles". I didn't see any that would match my current Christmas

 tree's 3 inch-needles which looked like an Austrian Pine (Pinus Nigra) 

...  or perhaps the Philippines' Agoho.

Anyway for the first time, too, our tree is full of red decors. On the previous years, red was banned from the tree (and in fact, from the house!). We usually had silver and blue decors instead. The Christmas tree looks really better with red...

And to complete the look, I dug up some post-Christmas sale "curtains" I got from Ikea and put them as backdrop. Initially, Al said it looks like the Swastika curtains in Hitler's stage. I guess he has not seen a lot of other stage productions :). Eventually, it grew on him and he's accepted it. Actually, he loves it!

So did I do the Christmas tree "right?"? Whaddaya think?

Meanwhile, I'll show the other decors I put up tomorrow!