A Charlie Brown Christmas§
writer: russell j.t. dyer; posted: January 27, 2011; revised: April 2, 2018; readers in past month: 2242
I like having a Christmas tree in my home during Christmas time. However, finding one in Milan isn’t as easy as it is in the United States. Plus, I don’t have a car to haul one home. Of course, I would only want a small tree since my apartment isn’t very big. My new apartment, the one I moved into a couple of years ago can stand one, but I’d prefer the tree not be too disruptive. So, I’ve been looking for a small tree from somewhere nearby.
As a boy I used to like watching the Charlie Brown cartoon movies made for television, the ones for each of the major holidays in the U.S. The best two were, A Charlie Brown Christmas and It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown — the one for Halloween. If you remember the one for Christmas, you’ll remember how the Peanuts gang had only a small branch from a Christmas tree to use for the Christmas show. Linus wrapped the base of it with his favorite blue blanket and they put one red ornament on it, causing it to bend over a bit. Then Linus told everyone how the tree was fine since it represented the spirit of Christmas and their friendship for each other. It was very sappy, but as kids we liked it. Anyway, a small tree the size of their tree would be fine
When I was in the U.S. in December, my daughter and I discovered an artificial tree designed similarly to that of the tree in the Charlie Brown Christmas movie. It’s artificial, which I’m not a fan generally, and made to bend like their tree. It came with one oversized red bulb to hang from the top. You can see it in the photograph here. It’s so funny. I like it — despite the sad face I have in this photo.
A friend of an old girlfriend of mine went with us one year shopping for a Christmas tree. She wanted the biggest tree we could find. He pointed out the merits of having a smaller tree: not only are they cheaper, but the few small presents you might have under your tree look so much bigger and better by comparison. Incidentally, I bought myself an Amazon Kindle for Christmas, but decided not to wrap it. Maybe next year I’ll do that with whatever I buy myself so that I have something under the tree to open.