That's right -- the Christmas tree in the Standard-Examiner's features department stayed up all year long.
It's not as bad as it sounds. Maybe our experience will even inspire you to have your own year-round tree.
Last January, I had just removed all of the decorations from the tree, and started removing its semi-real-looking branches, when Mark Saal noticed what I was doing. Our humor columnist immediately labeled me a Scrooge for killing the holiday spirit.
"Fine," I said. "If you want the tree left up, I'll leave it up. I can decorate it for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. For that matter, I can decorate it all year long!"
And I left the tree up, with just unplugged lights on its branches.
I meant to leave it until the end of the day, just to tease Mark, and then take it down. But then I started thinking that it would be fun to follow through and actually decorate the tree for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
It turns out that there aren't a lot of tree ornaments for the King holiday, so I had to make my own. The garland is strips of paper printed with phrases from King's "I Have A Dream" speech. Plain paper wasn't pretty, so I turned a tan crayon on its side and ran it across the paper to create a parchment look; I covered it with clear contact paper, in hopes that it would be more fire retardant, which made it look more like ribbon. I had gold plastic bells (bought at a dollar store, and left over from a craft project), and used ribbon to tie them to word strips that said "Let freedom ring," also from the speech. Finally, I found photos online of King, and pasted them to pieces of gold wrapping paper. The circles on the tree aren't pennies, as some guessed, but prints of Nobel Prize medals. Needing a little sparkle, I added a gold star garland.
The tree was a hit, so I decided to do more. My only rule was to keep decorations as inexpensive as possible. Most items came from home (yes, I like to decorate, so I have a closet full of decorations and another of craft supplies). When I had to buy, I went to dollar and thrift stores.
Groundhog Day
Groundhog Day isn't much of a holiday, but it's a great movie. I went online to find photos from the movie, and a free sheet music download of the song Bill Murray's character learned on the piano. The records (again printed from online photos) are the Sonny and Cher song that woke him each day. I also added images of a digital alarm clock. The snowflakes were old Christmas decorations. The groundhog topper was a brown sock, stuffed with leftover quilt batting, with glued-on felt facial features.
Presidents Day
For this holiday, I went back to my elementary school experience of making presidential silhouettes. The scrolls, which didn't turn out as good as I'd hoped, are printed with quotes from Washington and Lincoln.
valentines day flowers
Boxes of chocolates and plastic champagne glasses adorned the Valentine's Day tree, with an old bottle of sparkling juice at the bottom. A red ribbon, from my gift-wrapping stash, served as garland. A piece of the wired ribbon was shaped into a heart for the top.
Daytona 500
In my book, the Daytona 500, the start of the NASCAR season, is really reason to celebrate. The decorations are toys from my collection, and pieces of track from the family race set. I wired the cars on, using twist ties that come with plastic garbage bags wrapped around the axles.
St. Patrick's Day
A real violin was the focal point of this tree, inspired by a scene from the old film "Darby O'Gill and the Little People." (I wouldn't put a good fiddle in the tree, but this one is awful.) Darby's favorite leprechaun tops the tree. I added paper shamrocks, covered with clear contact paper, and gold ornaments. I did have to buy the rainbow ribbon at a regular craft store, but got a good deal using newspaper coupons. The crock of gold is my Dutch oven. The gold is a combination of plastic coins from a party store (left over from past parties), and pieces of wood cut from a dowel and painted gold.
Spring
I had purchased packets of old flower seeds (20 for $1), to sprinkle around my yard. The weather wasn't cooperating, so I punched a hole in the packet corners and used curling ribbon to tie them to the tree. The silk flowers are from old centerpieces.
Easter
Close a plastic egg with a few fake pine needles caught inside, and it stays on the branch. The tree was covered with old eggs, and pastel curling ribbon from a dollar store.
Mother's Day
You could decorate a tree using photos of your mother, and objects that represent her. I was decorating a tree for people who don't share the same mother, so I went generic. Each pink square is printed with a letter from the word "Mother," and a phrase from the old song "M-O-T-H-E-R (A Word That Means the World to Me)." The little wrapped gift boxes represent the part of the song that says "M is for the million things she gave me," and the hearts (made from wrapping paper) are the part that says "H is for her heart of purest gold."
Memorial Day
The most important part of this tree was the names of local soldiers who died serving their country. I found information about the soldiers online, and created dog-tag-shaped ornaments with their names. The dog tags were made of thin cardboard, covered with doublestick tape and then tinfoil. The names were put on using clear computer labels. The tree was finished with wreaths, ribbons and poppies.
Father's Day
The Father's Day tree was decorated with things associated with dads -- from ties to tools to sports equipment.
July 4
I didn't have to work hard on this one. My family bought a patriotic tree years ago at the Festival of Trees, so I reused a lot of the decorations -- but the pinwheels and Thomas Jefferson action figure were mine.
July 24
Utah's state symbols covered the Pioneer Day tree. There were pompom cherries, paper sego lilies, and beehives made from rope and foam. The golden spikes were cardboard, topped with a half-walnut shell, covered in masking tape and painted. Other symbols were printed and laminated, and, yes, I included Utah's state firearm.
Hawaii Day
August is a month lacking national holidays, so I usually celebrate the day Hawaii became a state -- Aug. 21, 1959. The tree was covered with decorations from past luaus, such as leis, shells and children's sandbox molds.
Back to school
The return to school signals the beginning of fall. Our tree was decorated with school supplies, from rulers to glue, and included old schoolbooks. The tree skirt was a circle of books, and pencils (with hooks taped on) took the place of traditional Christmas icicles.
Talk Like a Pirate Day
I didn't plan a pirate tree, but found a treasure chest of pirate booty from past parties. The tree sported paper party hats, bathtub pirate ships, pirate flags, and even bad pirate jokes printed on parchment paper.
Tolkien Week
Believe it or not, my family hosts a feast each year on Sept. 22, which is officially Hobbit Day, so I created a tree to go with the event. Decorations included copies of J.R.R. Tolkien's books, a wizard's staff, plastic weapons and rings. Strips of paper bore department members' names in Elvish, and phrases from the book. Finding a dragon wasn't easy, so I sewed a set of foam wings to a stuffed "Toy Story" Rex.
Halloween
Easiest tree ever. I made the tree a Charlie Brown Halloween costume, by covering an old white sheet with a plethora of eye holes made from black duct tape. To give the tree a round head under the costume, I tied a small pillow to the top of the tree. I needed more fullness, so I stuffed wadded up plastic grocery bags into another grocery bag, and tied it on, too. The branch holding the brown trick-or-treat bag (which did hold a rock), was strengthened with a piece of wood and covered by a glove. Of course, the lights were not plugged in.
Veterans Day
Veterans were the focus of this tree, so everything else was kept simple. I nestled copies of photos of my family's veterans in the branches, and invited others to do the same. The only other decoration is red and blue ribbon.
Thanksgiving
Garlands of fall leaves provided a big punch of color for the Thanksgiving tree. There were also foam pumpkins, from a dollar store, and the sunflowers, and apples from the school tree made a second appearance. I admit I got lucky with the pilgrim dolls. I found them at a charity yard sale a couple of months earlier, for $1 each.
Christmas
After Thanksgiving, the tree was again decorated for valentines day flowers, with garlands of berries, glittering ornaments, and flickering lanterns nestled in the branches.
Now the year's done, and I think it's time to pack up the tree for a while -- I don't want people to get too used to it. But when I think about putting it in a box, I still get that same depressing feeling.
Maybe I'll avoid the temptation to leave the tree up for another year by letting Mark Saal put it away.
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