Holiday Tree: January
So no one is a stranger to the shit show that was 2020. We were in a pandemic, locked in our homes and life as we knew it changed forever. I don’t know if it was the fact that I had not lived alone in almost a decade or the utter complete isolation from human contact but when Christmas came around the corner I was actually very eager to put up a tree. I hadn’t decorated my home for the holidays in three years. I normally don’t spend my holidays at home and never saw the point of putting in such an effort. Maybe I felt a bit more compelled to do something because I was in a new apartment, maybe it was because I was actually going to be home for it this time. Whatever it was I couldn’t even wait to put everything up after Thanksgiving. I became one of those people I roll my eyes at every year for pre-emptively decorating their homes. I was at the peek of my last and most stressful semester and I just needed something to look at. I needed some semblance that everything was going to be ok. My Christmas tree did that for me. I apologized profusely to my friends on social media for being “that person” but also I didn’t care, it made me happy. This beautiful monolith to all things good and innocent just truly brought me joy. When the holidays were over I was sad to know that I was going to have to put my tree away. I wondered what will fill that space now? Maybe existentially I felt that way as well. Maybe I used the tree as a kind of safety blanket. Knowing that it would be gone and all that would be left was an empty space was too much for me. So I decided to keep it. 2021 was already being weird, keeping a Christmas tree up for the year seemed like a drop in the bucket. So I decided to decorate the tree every month.
Christmas Tree 2020
January: MLK/BLM
I mean unless you have been living under a rock, or want to claim straight ignorance, you know that 2020 shed a bright light on social injustice, especially when it came to the Black community. I personally have not been able to watch any of the videos circulating regarding the cold blooded murders of these innocent black lives. I don’t have the stomach to take it. I don’t need to see a video to understand and believe that these disgusting acts occur in the dark and they finally are out in the open. I was appalled at the blatant ignorance people have exemplified. I thought “Wow, now people will know.” I was so wrong. People actually tried to make excuses, tried to justify these horrible acts. I don’t know what was more surprising. Too much blood shed has occurred for far too long and I am glad that it has finally gotten a spotlight. As someone who came from a very diverse upbringing in NYC and now live in the Midwest, I myself have endured passive racism. I don’t think that everyone here is racist, I assure you I know a lot of progressive White people who are more invested in this disgrace and making sure it does not continue. Regardless, I felt I had not really given a voice to my opinions on the matter. When I looked at what holidays were in January the only one I could think of was MLK Day. I feel that this year more than ever MLK’s presence will be felt. A man who lost his own life while his predecessors continue to deal with the very same racial issues and judgements that he once endured. I knew that this was a way that I could declare my stand on the issue. A way to somehow try and support my fellow brothers and sisters through this plight. I’m proud of how it turned out. My desire is that not only does this tree continue to bring me joy, but that those looking at it can also feel hope, strength and awareness to something we have been sweeping under the rug for far too long.
MLK/BLM Tree
How the Tree was made:
I tried to find as much as I could to make it easier to shop the stuff I used for this tree. You can click on the title of the item and it should send you to where I got it.
I purchased the tree from Target. It’s currently displaying as $115 I purchased it for like $35 when it was on sale in like early November. It is 4.5ft tall and pre-lit. I knew I wanted a pre-lit tree for sure because I’m lazy and I didn’t want to deal with untangling lights. I thought 4.5ft was a good height but it was actually much too short. I placed the tree on a stand ( a turned over laundry basket) to adjust the height which probably makes it more like a 6ft tree. The issue is finding a blanket to cover the basket, luckily this one I had worked out well.
So I knew that I had an idea of making my own ornaments in a sense, but I still decided to look around the interwebs to see what I could find. I was really happy to find these ornaments on Etsy. I will say, the picture displayed is a little misleading. I am sure that in the description it stated you would get 1 ornament. I thought I was getting a pack of smaller ornaments so I ordered 2, what I thought were sets of ornaments. I was surprised when I got them cause the packaging was smaller than I thought for what I assumed would be maybe a dozen ornaments. These are $7 each and yes it is a single ornament. I was still happy with the way they looked. I also think that purchasing things from Etsy can sometimes be a bit more expensive, but having a best friend who crafts a lot, supplies and time are not cheap so take that into consideration when browsing purchases. I also like the personal touches that I get whenever I order something from Etsy. This order came with a Hallmark thank you card and a BLM reusable face mask!
These were the bane of my existence with this whole project. So these are glass balls that you can fill with anything. The issue is that you have to shove whatever you want through a narrow opening at the top of the ball. I had to print out, cut out then roll up these little pictures and maneuver them to face the way that I needed them to. It was really frustrating at times and took the most amount of time. I just need better tools because my eyebrow tweezer wasn’t as long and thin as I needed. Between the tweezer and the straw cleaner brush I used, I did manage to get the effect I was going for. I downloaded some template I found for some Cricut outline of an ornament and used Adobe Illustrator to align and size the pictures so that they would fit in the ball. The good thing is I can reuse the balls for other months which will save me money.
So these “Red Lights” as I call them were a whim purchase. The lights are actually white and match those of the tree which just gives it a brighter kick. They come with little red balls attached. I purchased the lights from Amazon because they looked like blood drops to me. I felt like it was a symbolic touch of the bloodshed that has been happening. It worked out well I think. It’s a subtle touch and maybe people won’t pick up on it, but I liked it.
The rest of the things on the tree I just purchased from Michaels. I just bought a variety of ribbons and stuff during their after Christmas sale. The color ornaments I already had from a set of ornaments that I had purchased for the actual Christmas tree I did.