A Very MOSY Christmas

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So, what do you do when it’s two days before Christmas and you’ve been too busy to go out and buy a tree? When you’ve been so busy, you quite frankly can’t be bothered going out and buying a tree?

You could use the cheap plastic tree you bought once for an interstate Christmas and now gets relegated to being the classroom tree at work. You could, but it would undoubtedly send out work vibes and who wants that at Christmas?

You could just skip the tree altogether. After all, the children are all adults now. Would they really care? I care. It’s just not Christmas without a tree.

What do you do?

Well, when you’re a Jack of All Trades and a holder of things that ‘might come in useful’, you make one out of the pile of fence palings that have been languishing in a spot in the backyard for five years.

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I knew it would come in handy. Take that Marie Kondo.

Of course I planned carefully, measuring the distance between each paling to ensure uniform placement, using a protractor to ensure an accurate right angle so the palings were straight, trimming the ends to ensure a perfect Christmas tree shape.

Pfft.

I’m a Jack of All Trades. I ain’t got time for that. Just whack it together and see what happens is how it works in the MOSY workshop.

Finding the right bits to make a Christmas tree shape
Finding a pole the right length because who can be bothered cutting one?
Close enough

I put it together and then I wondered, “How do you hang the ornaments on it?” I don’t know what the official answer is but my solution was to bang small tacks into the palings in random places from which to hang the ornaments. I resisted the urge to place them in patterns. Actually, I was feeling too lazy to bother and just put them in wherever.

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Tiny tacks shorter than the width of your finger plus a hammer leads to banged fingers.

I’m pretty pleased really. I feel like some influencing sustainability lifestyle blogger on Instabook or something.

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Looks like a Christmas tree to me

I went out and bought a nice metal bucket to put it in and the boys (as is tradition) decorated it.

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It may a look a little out of place but the Weeping Angel on the top of the tree is now a family tradition.

And now we have a tree.

You know, in the spirit of the eco-conscious, it could be used for firewood afterwards. If it was winter which it isn’t. And we had a woodfire which we don’t.

MOSY Christmas everyone!

However you celebrate this time of year I wish you peace, happiness and love and all the best things for 2020.

 

48 thoughts on “A Very MOSY Christmas”

  1. EASILY the best tree I’ve laid eyes on ! – congratters, old bean ! 😀
    I love that the boys hung the decos: if that’s not family at xmas, I dunno what is.
    BLOODY WONDERFUL, Heather Dempsey ! Fantastic, my very dear H !!!!

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  3. I was a bit worried that your makeshift tree might look a bit like an orthodox graveyard cross at first glance, but no, it definitely scrubbed up really well!
    Fantastic example of making do with what’s available.
    This is the first year we won’t have a tree, as our fake tree got lost in the two house moves perhaps deliberately so. Like you, the children are all adults and have now left the nest. I have a coniferous potplant that will serve the purpose this year.
    Happy Christmas Mosy

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  6. lol, Merry MOSY Christmas 😉 It does have its charms and shows more than a little creativity. Actually, I did something like that with strips of paper instead of wood for the card I sent my parents this year.

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  8. Fabulous tree Heather — full marks for creativity and craftswomanship.

    I’m a little envious that your boys still engage with Christmas: mine has inherited the Grinch gene from his father apparently. We used to get a real tree which the boy decorated with all manner of fun things (before the gene kicked in at puberty), and while it was kind of nice … T is allergic to them, we had to completely rearrange the living room and take paintings down to make space for it, and I spent two weeks swearing as I swept up pine needles.

    These days we string up some coloured lights in a tree-shape and put the prettiest and most memory-laden ornaments in bowls to be admired. Minimalism rules!

    Meri Kirihimete. I hope you and your whanau have a fun day, and a happy healthy year ahead.

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  10. We are treeless this year, the minions haven’t got around to putting it up and it is only the four of us here this year, as opposed to the seven who slept here Christmas Eve last year, it feels much less, well, Christmassy…esp after the smallest minion admitted to knowing the mystery of gift giving…..
    having said that we had a lovely day on Saturday with one branch of my family and we will lunch with immediate family and tea with the other branch of my family…

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  17. Merry belated Christmas, Heather! Hope you had wonderful family time and that Santa was good to all. Love the tree and I think you should keep it as a new annual tradition or a spare tree for the she shed. Wishing you a most awesome year to come!

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  20. This is a brilliant tree, I might copy you next year (with proper acknowledgement!). We got our tree last minute. There were four unwanted trees left when we finally got around to buying it. The one we chose was unsold because it was really wonky (it was also half price). Because we use a wide tub and place it in a corner no one even noticed!

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