I saw a post on Instagram reminding us that 2022 is just days away, and the things we are still processing from 2019 happened about three years ago.

I let that sink in for a bit and acknowledged that somehow, time marches on even if we’re not ready. Even while we’re still processing all the things that have happened since 2020, the calendar keeps flipping. 

I started thinking back to Christmas 2020, and I realized that in spite of all that we lost, learned, and gained in those less-than-ideal circumstances, there were some pretty great moments that came from it. For instance, The Great Christmas Tree Fiasco of 2020.

Something important to note: I am an avid rule-follower as well as a tradition-enforcer. I like things the way they’re supposed to be. My motto is: If we’ve always done it a certain way, then that’s the way we’ll always do it. It’s how I like to maintain the illusion of control in order to keep my anxiety at a manageable level, especially during the holidays. Because that’s really in everyone’s best interest.

You can imagine, then, that when 2020 messed everything up, and my typical holiday traditions were darkened by a cloud of uncertainty, things weren’t sitting well with me. So in a quick moment of rebellion, I declared that in the Year of the Pandemic, we would be putting up the Christms tree BEFORE Thanksgiving.

I know.

For at least the previous dozen years, Thanksgiving Day signaled the start of our Christmas decorating. We typically ate our Thanksgiving meal around 1:00 and spent the rest of the afternoon grazing on leftovers while pulling ornaments out of boxes.

I loved our tradition and it always felt so appropriate to wrap up one season while we were simultaneously welcoming another.

However, once we officially heard the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade would be among the next of many virtual-only events in 2020, social media turned itself inside out with people posting about putting up their Christmas decorations early. Everyone declared that 2020 was stupid and we should all just do what we want and if Christmas makes us happy, then pull out the tinsel.

I considered the sentiment and wholeheartedly agreed.

I made an announcement right then and there that my family could expect the Christmas decorations to go up BEFORE THANKSGIVING.

I said what I said.

There was only one small problem. We didn’t have a tree. Our beloved tree suffered a slow and painful death the previous year. The entire middle section of lights went out each time we plugged it in. We figured out a way to fix it, but it involved bending the wires just right and wiggling the connecting plug about an 1/8 of an inch until the lights flickered on. So basically it was inconvenient, and I also had a suspicion that it might be a fire hazard.

So we decided to retire our faithful tree to the big Goodwill Superstore in the sky, which meant we needed to purchase a new tree that year. 

Immediately after walking through the doors of Costco, I saw her: a big, glorious, towering tree with light changing options. One setting was for clear white lights and another setting for multicolored lights circa 1985! The only thing that would have made it better was if it had those vintage candle-shaped bubble lights, but you can’t have everything.

My level of nostalgia skyrocketed and I knew we had to get this tree.

It took two adults and a furniture dolly to get the box inside the house. This one was a 9-foot-tree. Our home has very tall ceilings and I thought it would be a beautiful upgrade from our previous 7.5 foot spruce. However, not only is a 9-foot-tree substantially bigger, but the box it comes in is quite impressive as well. 

My husband was not impressed when it appeared the box would barely fit inside the storage closet. There was simply no room for anything else if we were going to keep it in there. He turned an unfortunate shade of white as he mentally calculated the various ways to store this monstrosity, while not tossing out everything else that previously resided in the closet. 

It was a pickle. I’m not saying it wasn’t. There was definitely no more room in the storage closet, and I feared our emotional storage closet had also reached capacity.

But we pressed on in the spirit of we-are-putting-up-this-tree-no-matter-what-it-takes, and the four of us took turns pulling out pieces of the tree from the box. Every time we lifted a section out, it seemed two more appeared in its place. It was like a clown car version of a Christmas tree.  

Eventually we had all the sections scattered around the living room and the tree was ready to be assembled.

It didn’t take long for us to realize that things were headed downhill fast. When we pulled the bubble wrap off the bottom section of the tree, its branches sprawled into an impressive 5 foot diameter.

You need to know that while our ceilings are tall, our living room area is quite average. There isn’t an additional 5 feet of space for an artificial tree to reside.

My husband began to see black spots and sweat profusely. I stood there cheering us on, explaining that all we needed to do was push the couch up against the wall. 

“It’s cozy!”

“It’s fine if the branches are scraping the wall!”

“We don’t need to use the recliner!”

Our youngest daughter continued assembling in silence while her sister stared at us, arms crossed, with an expression that can only be described as pity.

Ok, so the tree didn’t exactly fit the space.

I began to imagine the Griswold Family Christmas Tree and, if it weren’t for the smell of new plastic still hanging in the air, I would not have been one bit surprised if a squirrel jumped from beneath the branches and attacked us all. It looked like we had hiked into the Rocky Mountains and unearthed a Douglas Fir.

I came to the depressing conclusion that my Christmas tree eyes were bigger than my living room stomach. It was time to call it quits, box it back up, and return it for the smaller model. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to box up a Christmas tree but it’s no picnic. It took all four of us and a lot of grunting (and also laughing!) to get that thing back in the box enough to tape it closed again.

Our arms looked like we tried to cuddle a rabid cat with an amphetamine addiction, but we accomplished our mission and successfully loaded up the tree and drove it back to Costco.

Thankfully we found a humble 7.5 footer which also had various lighting options, so we called it a victory. It also became one of my favorite family memories. In a time when we still need a little laughter, that story keeps coming back to my mind all these months later. And to my surprise, we pulled out the tree early again this year….BEFORE Thanksgiving. I’ve really loved having the extra time to enjoy our Christmas decorations around the house.  

So often I have an ideal image of my mind about how things should go, from parenting to working to decorating for Christmas. But I’m learning that ideal isn’t real, and that it’s ok if things go off course just a bit.

Instead, I am learning (slowly) to be a little more flexible and to give myself grace when things don’t turn out as I believe they should. I guess it’s the pandemic gift that keeps on giving. But I actually think it’s something I never realized I needed.

Here’s hoping your Christmas season is full of hilarious surprises and new traditions. And hopefully 2022 will leave you with plenty of room to spare in your emotional storage closet.