Traditions & Christmas Trees by Estelle Hallick | Publicist Guest Post

I’m excited to have my friend, Estelle (of Forever), here on the blog today to talk about some of her Christmas traditions and her love of Christmas trees! The tree is my favorite part of Christmas, for sure, so this post makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

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Christmas trees have always been my thing — specifically real Christmas trees.

When I was a kid, I would go with my dad to pick up a tree near where we went to church. I designed a hat that looked like a tree for a hat contest in grade school. Every Black Friday, my family and I would take the train into New York City and stare at the still unlit tree at Rockefeller Center. When I got married, I was happy that my husband shared my affinity for real trees so while there were a lot of compromises to be made when it came to holidays, the tree was never one of them. My parents brought me up to be a person who really believed in the importance of tradition – the trip to NYC once a year after Thanksgiving, when we hosted holidays and went to other people’s homes, our annual summer vacations to the same beach and then later, Disney World. All of these moments – big and small – were cornerstones of my childhood and also shaped so many of the ways I do things as an adult. But I’ve realized that while we don’t adhere to some of our traditions anymore, it’s not because my parents decided to do something different – it’s because our places or circumstances have changed. I truly think if my parents had it their way they would keep things the same forever. I don’t blame them; change is hard for me too.

This leads me back to the Christmas tree. After seven years of living in apartments where we couldn’t control our heat, my husband and I were a little tired of our tree dying before the 25th of the month. IT WAS SO DEPRESSING, especially for two people who like to keep up their tree until February. (It’s true.) This holiday season, the most surprising question popped into my head and wouldn’t let go: “Should we maybe sorta consider buying a fake tree?”

Needless to say, coal did not drop from the ceiling when I voiced this thought. My husband was on board. Everyone on InstaStory was thrilled to tell me why they loved their fake tree when I still had my doubts. Suddenly I found myself purchasing a tall, fake Douglas Fir for the same price of a rather tiny, who-knows-what-kind-of-tree-it-was in our neighborhood.

The tree arrived. We spaced out his branches. (Harder than it looks.) We hung up all of our ornaments. This tree might not have a name yet (we’ve named each of our real trees but it’s harder when the name is permanent) and he might not have that fresh scent, but our scaredy-cat cat who hates strong scents snoozes under it every day. There are no pine needles to clean up, and on Christmas Day, it looked exactly the same as it did on its very first day in this apartment. When I saw my parent’s tree this week, decked out for Santa’s arrival, I did feel a little ping of sadness. But then I remembered that I get to see the Rockefeller Center tree every day on my way to work and then go home to my cozy apartment where I’m in control of how long the holiday continues. (Even if I can’t control the heat in my apartment.)

Estelle is the publicity and marketing manager at Forever, a Muppet enthusiast, and best friend to Santa. You can find her on Instagram and Twitter @thatsostelle.

Header Photo by Aurelio Arantes on Unsplash