After my last post, I just could not get the image of my imaginary retro tree out of my mind. So I started searching the ‘net for either a silver tinsel tree or a white one. In the end, I abandoned the idea of a silver tinsel tree because I knew I wanted to add shiny ornaments to the tree, and that would all be a bit . . . much. Even for me. So I concentrated on white and looked around.
And looked and looked some more. Sheesh! I only wanted to spend, like, fifty bucks on this tree, since I had planned it to be a second tree in our house – one on which I could play around with decorations, etc. Needless to say, nearly everything I encountered was well over a hundred and almost everything is prelit. I didn’t want a prelit tree because I wanted to be able to change the lights around if I wanted to. Don’t force me to have white lights, people!
Obviously, this retro tree chase was not going to be easy.
Then last weekend I was visiting my sister in Minnesota, and we decided to take a quick trip to a certain superstore that begins with W. While we were there, I said I wanted to check out the Christmas trees to see if they had any unadvertised white ones that were within my budget.
And there, stacked alongside the green trees, was a simple little box containing a 6.5-foot white tree. Unlit. $40.
I tried not to do a little happy dance as I snatched it up. Next stop: ornaments.
It was getting harder and harder NOT to do a happy dance as I saw what the ornament aisle held for me: sparkly starburst ornaments . . . for a dollar. ONE FREAKING DOLLAR! I found the silver ones and tried not to feel piggish while I snatched up every last one. They had a whole slew of silver ornaments (and gold, and red, and green) so I grabbed some silver snowflakes as well. I remembered I had blue, white, and silver ornaments from a couple years ago, so planned to use those to go with the blue and white lights that I purchased too.
Behold: my creation.
The ornament above was one I found last year in a dollar store. Sadly, they only had three of them. But hey, they go nicely with the dollar starburst ornaments:
. . . and the snowflake ones:
. . . and the blue, silver, and white ones:
And the white and blue lights look so pretty nestled among the white branches:
The best part, obviously, was the price. In all, this creation probably ran me about $80 with the ornaments, lights, and tree topper. And although it’s not quite from my favorite era (too 60’s-ish and not 50’s-ish enough), I am in love with it. I can pretty much guarantee that my tree is unique.
