Christmas in Korea

Tree 2010

I am going to be abroad for most of December; I am going to the wedding of a wonderful friend from University. I feel as though I might miss out on a lot of the excitement you experience in the run up to Christmas. The decorations, the parties, the food – the tree. I have made a point of getting a real Christmas tree for the past few years now. My love of real Christmas trees stems back to my childhood. I remember one particular Christmas when my family got a huge tree, 7ft at least, as the house we were living in at the time had very high ceilings. It was amazing. We had such a fabulous Christmas that year, and I seem to have encapsulated the whole experience wrapped up in the image of the tree. The beautiful twinkling lights which reflected and glistened off the shiny baubles, and the deep sensuous smell of pine.

This year I have decided to get an artificial tree. It seems so sad to have to do it. However, I was motivated by the even sadder thought that if I got a real tree then it would be left to die on its own in my apartment with nobody to appreciate its beauty. I have been having a debate with my boyfriend over the criteria I am using to choose the type of artificial tree. He thought I wanted a tree to make the place look warm, traditional, and homely. That was the rationale for my choice of real tree. My criteria for an artificial tree seems to be a lot different. If I am going to pick an artificial tree I think I need to embrace and accentuate the fact that it is not real, rather than trying to pretend that it is. Even a good fake is still obviously a fake – where’s the smell. I have decided to go for a white Christmas tree. The colour scheme for baubles is going to be silver and black. My boyfriend tells me he is preparing for a futuristic space age Christmas with me. :)

Perhaps he will be lucky, and we will find a few Christmas trees over in Korea to take the edge off the fact that he had a space age one here.