Are you a white lights kinda person or a colored lights kinda person? You know, for the Christmas tree…it’s a big debate in my family and it seems to break down like this…white lights are more “elegant” and colored lights are more “kid friendly.”
Now, you can have kids and have an elegant tree or you can not have kids and have colored lights. In fact, I’ve had both before and after children.
It just strikes me this Christmas as I get ready to decorate our tree that there is a chasm dividing these two camps. My sister, for instance, loves the elegant look but leans toward having a kid centered tree for her two kids. Her husband likes the elegant tree look so I think they’ve worked out a deal where they switch off each year…I don’t know what they’ve decided this year.
My Dad and his wife actually have multiple trees, so they have a white light tree, a colored light tree, a nutcracker tree (decorated with nothing but nutcrackers) and so on and so on. They have a big, grand Victorian house so it all fits right in.
And my Mom has these ridiculous outdoor, big bulb, fire hazard, string on the outside of your house in 1970 lights that she has kept lo these many years. Those plus the red, hot chili pepper lights make her tree a sight to behold. Filled with all sorts of elegant, silver stars and handmade ornaments I made in 1st grade plus the embarrassing photos of us in our teenage years ornaments, you can guess in an instant she and her husband are artists. And somehow, they make it work.
As for us, we’re (I’m) opting for colored lights again this year. I might even mix up the entire family and put both (gasp!) types of lights on our tree…
And you, which way do you roll?
photo credit: Storeyland
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