I Loved Our Christmas Tree, Now I Think It's Possessed

Four or five years ago we invested in our first Christmas tree. Well, actually it was our third Christmas tree. But this was our first tree that was large enough for us to actually use a tree topper. And it came already wired with lights. And it was a great tree, until this year. This year it's developed a mind of its own. It's like it's possessed.

Our first tree was my wife's. It was about a foot and a half tall, and the branches had those fiber optic lights that lit up. I think she may have bought it when she got her first apartment. And for quite a few years we used that as our Christmas tree. It sat proudly on the large TV stand that served as the focal point for our living room for years.

Then my wife wanted a purple Christmas tree. Yes, you read that right. A purple two and a half foot tree. I didn't think I'd like that one very much. But I was wrong. I think it was more in between purple and pink but I grew to love the kitsch of it. It was fun. And it was the first tree we could put in our living room window. That served us well for several years.

My wife wanted to go bigger and more traditional the last time we got a new tree. So that's what we did. We got a green four-foot tree wired with clear lights that had a nice warm glow. It was a big deal to have warm-looking white lights.

And it's been a great tree. We've hung great full-size ornaments on it. We've strung garland, beads, and ribbon around it. We've gone with it looking very traditional. And it's served us well. Until this year.

Kathy, my wife, was all excited this year for Christmas and we decided to change it up this year dropping white and silver as our ornament color and getting some new ones in red and green we also got a shiny red star to top the tree. And a fun little blue tooth lever to turn the tree on and off every day so we don't have to bend down under the tree and plug it in and unplug it.

I decorated it and put the tree skirt on it. And it looked great. Worked great too. Until one night when I pulled the lever to turn it on. And the bottom third of the tree didn't light. That lead to a discussion on whether or not we get a new tree, or just supplement with a string of lights. We chose the lights, because well, we figured making a hasty decision on a new tree might lead to Christmas tree purchase regret if we didn't like it.

Anyway, I take the time and somehow manage to get the bottom of the tree wired up with the new lights, only knocking five or six ornaments off in the process. And it wasn't as hard as I thought. The tree didn't look too bad either, and replacing the ornaments I was able to place a couple in some bare spots I had originally missed.

The tree worked great until Wednesday. It was all lit up perfectly fine when I took the dog out for his end-of-the-night walk. I came back in, and this time, the top third of the tree was dark. My heart just sank. Ok, maybe that's a little bit of an overreaction. But I was annoyed. I just snapped the tree off and went to bed.

This time, though, it was harder to find some lights for the tree. Pretty much most of the Christmas stuff was picked over two weeks ago. I know because I was thinking of putting some lights in our windows and I went looking and just decided to pass this year because I couldn't find what I wanted to really make it work.

So I knew heading out on a Thursday night, the week before Christmas, it was going to be difficult to find the lights I wanted. Those warm-looking clear lights, but LED style. I knew Walmart and Lowe's were pretty picked over. So I thought I'd check out Menards. I didn't see them at first. I picked up some of the cool white lights and figured while my wife wouldn't like them as much as the warm-looking lights, they'd be OK for this year.

Until I spotted them on a shelf away from all the other lights. There they were. At knee level. Warm-looking clear LED-style lights. Turned out these were rated for both indoor/outdoor use so they were in a different place. I grabbed them. Because on December 16, if the lights are close to what you want you get them.

I even managed to get them up on the tree this morning before heading to work, so when Kathy got up and turned the lights on she'd be surprised with it being completely lit up. And I did it with only knocking two ornaments off the tree this time.

Now all I have to do is keep the tree lit through December 26 and I'm home free. Don't go near it, don't pick at it, don't talk bad about it, don't breathe on it. Don't even look at it funny. Cause I really think it might be possessed.