Thursday, December 17, 2009

More Than Once Is Once Too Much



Last week a customer came into my store and was telling me all about how her Christmas tree fell over, ornaments and all, and how she had to clean it all up and how all her favorite ornaments were broken in the fall.

"Oh no", I tell her. "I can completely sympathise," I say. "That happened to me once."

Once.

I then tell her, "You really have to tie the tree up every year because, you know, the falling over thing can happen at any time."
I continue, "Yeah, and isn't it a shame when you loose special ornaments that you have had forever? It's heart breaking."

Then I say, "I learned my lesson. I bought this hevy duty tree stand. The thing is iron clad and takes good care of my Christmas trees....."

Of course karma loves it when I put my foot in my mouth.

Late Saturday night,(the Saturday night after the conversation with the customer in my store) my daughter and I are having a grand old time putting up that Christmas tree in the picture above. We were laughing, listening to Christmas music, and ooohing and ahhhing over all our favorite ornaments. Just when we are about to wrap it all up and put the finishing touches on the tree........

Do I even need to tell you??

I know you know exactly what happened.

Yup.

Some of them were thirty years old. One I had just brought them home from Aruba....in bits on my living room floor.

You can't see it in the picture but NOW there is floral wire tied to the tree to both windows on either side.

As I said, more than once is once too much.

15 comments:

The Peach Tart said...

Oh no honey. I've had it happen once and bought the heavy duty stand and tied it up. It looks beautiful.

Jim said...

A good stand is key. Ours is a plastic one, but tall and very broad. Once I get the trunk trimmed up, and the bolts tightened properly, you'd have to seriously lean against it or push it, to get it to go over.

That being said, we've done the wire thing too, with ones that had crooked trunks or were too heavy for some reason.

You've got a nice full one, and it's very well decorated, so congratulations. Have a wonderful holiday season, Candy, and a Happy New Year.

XOXO

Scope said...

I can so see my fake-a$$, end of season 90% off last year tree going over. That's why, as you can see in TODAY'S POST (cheap plug) the glass ornaments are on the mantle, or protected on five sides by the a big wooden box. The tree is covered in stainless steel and brass ornaments.

But the tree looks great now. If that helps any.

Deech said...

That is heartbreaking.....

wigsf said...

I'm sorry, but that's a bit funny to me.

Then again, I use a fake tree with built-in lights and haven't even put a single decoration on the tree.

the walking man said...

Now i am not the most devoted adherent to Christmas and all but I do feel for you because you did treasure your mementos. That is a bummer.

We leave our Christmas tree up all year long. It is a paper towel tube with the words Merry Christmas written on it. I still don't know how the old lady made it so it stays upright but its never fallen over.

Anonymous said...

Ha! That happened once when I was a kid. The entire family went out to get a tree, and when we got home we realized our old tree stand wouldn't fit around the trunk of the tree. Exhausted, and not wanting to head to the store to buy a larger stand, my dad suggested we take the giant round tin from one of those gift popcorn trifecta things (carmel, cheese, etc.), fill it with dirt and put the tree in it.

It worked! ...for a little while. Then all of a sudden in the middle of watching This Old House, CRASH! The tree came down. I don't remember if anything was broken, but I couldn't stop laughing for about 10 minutes.

(My dad...always trying to be creative.)

BeckEye said...

Ahhhh that sucks! I don't have any good ornaments; they're pretty much all the colored balls from Wal-Mart. My life is ruled by Murphy's Law, so I wouldn't even tempt fate by putting valuable ornaments on my tree.

Furtheron said...

My daughter when about 1 year old managed to pull ours down whilst learning to 3 point turn her walker...

SkylersDad said...

Sorry you lost some nice ornaments. But this is why all of mine are made from steel or Kevlar.

Chris said...

Ugh. Sorry to hear it, but you know, you DID jinx yourself.

The Dental Maven said...

Oh Girl, I'm so sorry your tree done felled! I hope your floral wire does the trick, if not: duct tape.

June said...

I feel your pain! I have some ornaments that I bought for my very first Christmas tree as a adult. One year, I tripped and dropped a whole box of these ornaments and half of them shattered... I cried.

Richard said...

Oh that's heartbreaking! I'd be gutted if our lovely decorations with all those memories shattered. I'm so sorry! :(

Cora said...

Oh no! I've never had a tree fall over *knocking on wood* but I'm always afraid it might so I tape the stand down with packing tape. Packing tape will hold a tree up, right?

R-r-right?

Ummm....

Now that I'm thinking about it, I can't remember taping it down this year. I was busy watching Scope putting the star on top and all. Whoopsie. I think I'm going to go check my tree now.

Bye.