Caving in on the season

I grew up in a family that got a fresh Christmas tree every year. Part of it, I'm sure, is the fake trees weren't very good back in the '70s. Part of it was that I grew up in the heart of Washington's Christmas tree industry (well, one county north), and my dad even worked a brief time for a Christmas tree company after he got out of the Army.

Thus, even though I'm allergic to evergreen trees (ironic, considering I grew up on the Kitsap Peninsula), I've always resisted fake trees. This is despite the gentle (and not-so-gentle) prodding of my beloved.

Well, we were at Costco a couple of weeks ago. I don't normally like going to Costco, but I was invited along. Turns out it was an ambush because Melissa wanted to show me the pre-lit fake Christmas trees. They're normally several hundred dollars, but Costco had a nice 7.5-foot tree for under $200. With real trees running $70 or so, we'd have this baby "paid off" in like four years! At least, that was the hype.

I caved. I'll admit it looks pretty nice. Not having to put on lights was a bonus (though I never really minded). Not worrying about watering is slick. And not having to haul it to the landfill will be excellent.

Yeah, it isn't so bad.

Let's move on to non-tree decorations. When we lived in a one-story house, I was pretty diligent about putting up outside Christmas lights. They never went higher than I could reach on a ladder, but we made the effort. Since moving into this house in 2002, I have avoided Christmas lights, primarily out of sloth but also because I don't want to climb on the roof - or anywhere near it.

Turns out we're pretty much the only house on the street that doesn't put up lights. The folks in the other two houses in our half cul-de-sac take the various holidays way more seriously. Like Griswold seriously. And not just the major holidays like Halloween and Christmas. We can count on seeing lights and yard decorations for Easter, St. Patty's Day, Valentines and Thanksgiving.

I don't care much for cheesy crap that goes in your yard. It's a waste of money and resources. But we have a 4-year-old now, and she looks at the blow-up turkey during Thanksgiving and the blow-up Santa, snowman and penguin that are next door now.

Sunday, Niranjana came up to me and asked for a blow-up Santa for the front lawn. How could I resist? So we headed out (giving Mommy a much-needed break). At our second stop, Target, we found a plump Santa who was five feet tall, and Niranjana loved it. Perfect! I was going to get out of there for under $30.

Then she spotted a train with lights. She insisted we needed that, too. I did a poor job of resisting, so we headed home with both.

The Santa went up on the front lawn (with the help of our holiday-loving neighbors who obviously are old pros at setting these things up), and the train went in the back yard so we could "share" it with Cate.

Meanwhile, thousands of dollars' worth of Department 56 houses lie dormant and dusty in our attic. Perhaps they need to come out next?