When I was a kid, my father had an ongoing joke every. single. year. He threatened to paint a Christmas tree on a white window shade.* To decorate the tree, all you had to do was grasp the bar at the bottom of the shade firmly and pull down. At the end of the season, grasp the same bar, give a sharp downward tug and let go and the shade would roll up.
Needless to say neither me or my sister thought this was funny. And every year Dad stuck a real tree in a stand. In later years they were trees in pots from the nursery which were planted in the back yard after Christmas and all died about two months later.
Maybe this suggestion that real trees were a lot of work when brought inside the house has stuck with me. Or maybe I’m just fundamentally lazy. But a real tree has not found its way inside my house since I left home.**
You may remember my holiday decorating from two years ago, the Christmas loom? The funniest part of that video is still the beverage which belonged to my long-suffering helper.
This year, that same helper opted for a far simpler approach. This was entirely Emily’s idea and I believe we will adopt it for the foreseeable future. I doubt there will ever be a shortage of yarn around. The brilliant thing is that come January, the one string of lights gets rolled up and the yarn goes right back on the shelf. It is even better than a window shade!
Christmas Yarn Tree 2018
The knitted snowman is from Little Christmas Decorations to Knit & Crochet by Sue Stratford & Val Pierce.
*Remember the window shades made of white vinyl that had a spring inside the mechanism so theoretically they rolled up when you gave them a sharp downward tug? That is what he was talking about.
**Incidentally, though my parents still don’t have a window shade tree, they also usually opt for a tiny rosemary plant with a short string of lights if there will be grandchildren present, or a string of lights on a houseplant if not.