The Romantic.com

CHRISTMAS FIREPLACE

submitted by: Tim Chase

As the women in my wife’s family are allergic to pine, we’ve never had a real tree. Instead, each year we’ve been married, we’ve decorated a random article in the house.

The first year, it was a paper-chain tree attached to the door-frame to our deck. Other years, we decorated items such as a little end-table, a kitchen hutch, or a tree-lamp. This year, our first Christmas in an apartment with a fireplace, it’s the fireplace.

With birds roosting in the chimney, we don’t intend to light a fire. Instead, we now have this year’s “tree” with lights strewn around it, and our ornaments hanging from the grille & chain-mesh spark-guard.

We don’t have pine needles strewn around to be vacuumed up, nor the allergens causing her nose to run.  We don’t have to water it, nor do we need to find a place in our small apartment to store a fake tree. It’s not a fire-hazard (well, not really) and we can array packages in front of it or inside it. Each year we enjoy choosing together which piece of furniture is this years “tree”–maybe a rocking-chair next year?