Oh, Christmas tree!

Nowhere does your individuality reveal itself more than the way you decorate your Christmas tree. If your tree is up and covered with lights and shiny things and baubles already, take a good look at it. Is that you looking back at you, a reflection of your soul as it were?

There’s no right or wrong, just interesting.

To follow up on this individuality thread I thought I’d bring you a tale of two pines today, fake ones of course, have a good look at the creativity applied to each of them, acknowledging they both represent exactly the same thing. The Spirit of Christmas and the celebration thereof.

First let’s have a look at the somewhat classic work of art belonging to my very good friends Deena and Ian Shanley. I mean, it is stunning.

I asked the pair to give me a bit of an overview as to their approach to this resplendent symbol of the season.

Ian: “Our tree measures 7.5 feet in height, features over 1,000 lights and too many ornaments to count.”

Do we have a theme going here? “Yes actually, we do. Our theme is usually gold and red with peacock ribbon, although we occasionally switch the ribbon to pressed red roses.”

Oooo, classy.

“The tree goes up just after Remembrance Day and stays up until after Ukrainian Christmas. This year we added an owl and a glass angel ornament from my in-laws Kathy and Bob Gates, in memory of our 11 year old girl cat Lady Linda McCATney, who we so sadly lost on June 21 of this year.”

So sorry for your loss.

Thanks for sharing your tree with us Deena and Ian, it is a wonder to behold.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, the tree rotates. Ian is a bit of a wizard in the gizmo department.

Now let’s move along to a tall pine with so obviously a much different approach. The oh-so-fine pine of equally good friends Holly and Gary Plouffe.

The creator of this masterpiece is mostly Holly, and I can tell you from personal experience, yes this tree is definitely a reflection of her magnificent fun-filled brilliant soul.

Holly tells me a big part of the reason there are so many ornaments and nick knacks adorning their tree, is because the tree, artificial as stated, has hardly anything left on it except a very beat up stock and a few gnarly bent branches.

I mean, they got it second hand, a long time ago.

So to give it some body, she creates one from just about anything and everything she can find.

Do we have a theme here Holly?

“Yes, it’s a Grinch Tree, because, as you can see, there is a Grinch kind of wound in there, the only thing is, it’s in three pieces.”

I don’t remember seeing anywhere that a Grinch has to be whole.

What else do we have in there?

“A lot of stuff from thrift stores, Value Village and wherever I saw something that might work. The red and green balls and some of the material holding my work of art together from Value Village as well and Dollarama. And as much as possible I try to stick with the colours red, green and white (silver also counts as white) because obviously they celebrate the colours of the season.

“I’m a bit of saver, and when this dear old tree got beyond decorating in the usual manner, rather than throw it out I decided to give it new life by redefining what ‘had’ to be on the average Christmas tree and turned it into the most magnificent Grinch tree ever created.

“I even added balloons this year which are a bit of a pain because you have to keep blowing them up. Maybe I’ll try something different next year.”

I have no doubt you will. Two magnificent pines, from two wonderful couples.I have no doubt Santa will love both of them. Happy weekend.

Comments and column ideas welcome at lmustard1948@gmail.com