As is the tradition in our part of the country, we recently put up a Christmas tree in our family room. As is the tradition in our family, we put up an artificial Christmas tree. The best thing about using an artificial Christmas tree? No sap! Well, not usually, anyway.
As is the tradition for my wife, she asked me to run a strand around the Christmas tree's center pole while I was assembling the tree, so that there would be light coming from inside. Mission accomplished!
As is the tradition for me, I then proceeded to test our various remaining strands of Christmas tree lights, of which we have many, to determine which ones to put on our tree, and which ones we'd donate to the seagull farm, if you know what I mean. Well, all of the strands had problems! At best, on any one strand, 50% of the lights lit up. All the strands will be "recycled".
So, there our Christmas tree stands, our single working strand of lights wrapped around its center pole, and the dark star on top (no nearby strand to plug it in to). At night, when I turn the tree's lights on, the tree gives off an eerie multi-colored glow from within its depths. So eerie that, the first time I turned on those lights, trick-or-treaters showed up at our door! No garlands or ornaments adorn the tree yet, as it is still waiting for more lights.
On the plus side, the cats haven't tried to pull the tree down yet! (In past years, they usually tried at least once, claiming that the ornaments made them do it. Yeah, whatever... we all know it was the catnip.)
