Oh Christmas Tree

Since we got married, my wife and I decorate our Christmas tree together. And we usually do it during the extended All Saints' Day / All Souls' Days break.

But this year, we decided to break tradition and set up our tree one week earlier mainly due to two reasons. First, we are changing trees. We needed more time for adjustments should the fickle mind of my wife decide to change colors and motiff if the end result does not turn out the way she expects it to be.

And second, my wife is just plain excited with all the new decors she bought during the three-day-weekend-shop-till-you-drop-or-till-your-credit-card-maxes-out-mega-sale last weekend. Just couldn't wait one more week for us to set up the tree.

We decided to get a narrower tree this year. Not a smaller one, but a narrower one. (See picture) What the new tree lacks in width, it makes up with its height. The new one is a gigantic eight-footer, one foot higher than our former tree. I can just imagine the look on our nephews' and nieces' faces when they get to see this one. AJ would need to have a longer stick in order to pick the balls and the stars hanging on this tree.

If you think that putting up a Christmas tree with my wife is just as simple as buying different colored balls and hanging them randomly on the tree till the spaces run out, think again. This project, my dear friends, took one month of careful planning. It started with the mapping out of the color combinations using Adobe Photoshop (yup, this project involved full use of latest technology). Then we had to run back and forth to the different shops selling Chistmas decors to compare colors, designs, and prices. And, of course, before pushing through with the final purchases, a detailed plan was submitted to me containing the budget for the whole tree and ornaments.

Almost everything went according to plan. Well, except on the calculation of the Christmas lights to be used. We estimated that since the new tree would be a lot narrower than our former, this one should eat up only around 400 bulbs of Chistmas lights. That's 100 light bulbs per two feet. A reasonable estimate.

Or not.

As it turned out, I had to run to the nearest mall last weekend to purchase more lights for our tree. I still can't believe it. How can a narrow tree with a height of 8 feet consume 700 bulbs of Christmas lights?

Our electricity bill for the next two months should be interesting.