oh hipster christmas tree

My family have an epic Christmas Tree tradition. My Dad would sneak out after work when it was dark and chop down a tree he would have had his eye on for the last few months. From the side of the road, or the back of the farm, but always somewhere secret. (My sister and I would spend every car journey all year asking him is that our tree? is that our tree?)

Mum, my sister and I would be sitting at home sorting through our old ornaments, throwing out those that had fallen apart, remembering those we had made when we were kids (this piece of cardboard with glitter on it, awww!), I'm pretty sure we didn't buy new tinsel once in my entire life. Dad would drag the tree in and we'd spend hours trying to come up with innovative ways to make it stand upright. This sometimes involved bricks in a bucket, stacked strategically, but normally ended up with the tree leaning against the wall, or being tied with a piece of baling twine to the curtain rail. We'd then decorate it, and fall asleep happy.

This year my boyfriend and I got our first Christmas tree and while decorating it I remembered this strange family tradition we have, and the holiday season homesickness set in. I think my Mum's frugality over new ornaments has made somewhat of an impact, as you can see I went for the 'whatever crap we have in the house' decorating technique.