The Hassles and Magic of Christmas

Doing Christmas tree lights is an OCD perfectionist's worst nightmare. Ever since I was a kid I would feel tense and uncomfortable as I watched my older sisters and mother getting the lights up before we could start decorating the tree. When I lived alone in the States I only had a small tree because I would leave for vacation so early in December that it didn't really matter. So I never had to worry about the lights myself. Last year in London was the first time I ever had a medium-sized tree of my own to decorate in my flat. But I actually found a tree in Cargo Homestore that came with the lights pre-attached to it, which was perfect because it meant I wouldn't have to worry about doing the lights myself. Just put the tree together, plug it in, and - hey presto! - the lights would come on, all perfectly placed around the tree. It was an OCD's dream come true.

But alas, nothing gold can stay. This year I unpacked my Christmas tree, put the whole thing together, plugged it in, and tragedy struck. Two whole rows of lights weren't working. I tried playing electrician for about an hour but all I did was end up turning off one more whole row of lights. Finally, I gave up. I decided I would have to remove the pre-sets, buy a new string of lights, and just do my best.

Well, removing the lights turned out to be much more of a hassle than I'd bargained for. Imagine 200 twinkle lights, each and every one attached to the branches of the tree with two of those little green clips you see on my coffee table in the picture. What you see here is nothing - there were hundreds of those little clips by the time I was done. I keep finding random ones scattered around my flat. Anyway, it took me about two hours, lots of frustration, and a few scratches on my hands to get them all off.

Then the next day I bought a new set of lights and decided that I could do this - how hard could it be? Holy crap. First of all, it wasn't just a simple string of lights - one row of wire with lights attached. No, the thing was split into two parallel rows - imagine one long row, folded in half, with the two ends meeting together at the plug. That's what it was like. How on earth do you string those around a tree? I'd only ever watched my sisters and Mom doing the single row one when I was a kid (although they had to use two full strings to cover our whole tree, which was always huge because we'd buy a real one).

Suffice it to say, it took me ages. I won't go into the details because only those of you with OCD will understand - the rest will just think I'm nuts. I finally managed to get the string all around the tree after about two hours (with a 20 minute break in between). Then of course, it was another hour as I sat on the couch and analyzed the distribution of the lights and kept fine-tuning it.

I hate this disease.

Anyway, once that was done, I finally got to decorate it. It felt kind of pathetic doing it all alone. I even downloaded some of the Christmas songs we used to listen to when we were kids while decorating the tree (OK OK, I'll admit it, it was the Boney M. Christmas album). But once it was done, I made myself a mug of hot chocolate, lit up some candles, played some Bach fugues, and I felt warm and peaceful. Well worth the hassle. As I sat there looking at the tree I remembered my lovely mother. She always added the finishing touch to the tree when we were done - the tinsle. My mother made Christmas - and life - magical, and even though she is no longer with us to celebrate it, the magic she brought to it is still inside me and my sisters and Dad. Nothing in life has ever beat that feeling of Christmas morning when we were kids - that absolute pure family joy. So, even though I'm 27, Christmas will always make me feel like a kid again.


I'm having some friends over on Wednesday evening for some warm Christmassy drinks which I cannot describe here, gingerbread men, a chocolate yule log cake, and I'm tempted to get mince pies because I've never had them and just cannot possibly imagine what they're like. Everyone will go home with a candy cane off the tree. I love this season.

(If anyone points out the gap in lights on the bottom left part of the tree in this picture, I'll deck you. Pun intended. Get it, get it? Deck the halls? Anyway, it only looks that way in the picture. It's fine in real life...Raine.)