When “Winter White” Leans More Toward “Yellow Snow”

Those who are closest to me know that I have a severe knee-jerk response when it comes to buying celebrity lines of products. This applies Emerilware (Emeril Lagasse’s cookware), EVOO (Rachael Ray’s olive oil), and even spreading to anything bearing a pink ribbon*. Why? Because I always suspect the quality of the product. I’m sure some are good, but for example, when I heard my niece raving about having just bought an X, Y or Z at a Pampered Chef party because it was pink, I had a sinking suspicion it would last a nano-second in an actual working kitchen.



Take my Christmas tree, for example. In the winter of 2006/2007 I bought a Martha Stewart Snowbird Mountain Tree with “winter white” branches at KMart. (Before y’all roll your eyes at a white Christmas tree, I’ll remind you that a few months before I had made felted holiday ornaments (rav link) that needed to be showcased, and they would have been lost on a green tree.) That was the same year that Target had a line of mid-century modern garlands and ornaments, resulting in a white tree that became a spectacular ode to a by-gone era.

Flash forward to year two, and the tree that was put in the box white was now an off-white. Year three, it had moved more decisively toward the yellow end of the color spectrum. Now, in the winter of 2011/12, the tree looks like this:


(Shown against a white piece of paper for comparison.)

Gross, huh! Some branches are still leaning toward the white end, while many others are decidedly not.

The second year I owned this I tried to call the manufacturer, but the phone number was no longer good, and they weren’t on the internet. My guess is that it was an import company that changed their name and number as soon as the first Christmas season ended.

Last year I tried to find a replacement tree, but white is few and far between in the best of seasons, and I started my hunt too late to find anything in stock. This season I started super-early and spent an entire afternoon doing the full rounds of stores in the capital city that might stock trees. A 7' white pre-lit tree at Lowe’s proved to be the winner:



Pre-lit wasn’t a requirement because I already owned plenty of lights, which would go to waste if not used for the tree. But this was the best tree I could find, pre-lit or non-. I keep it in a non-heated room in the house, so I’m super-glad that I had bought a special plug a few years ago that turns the tree on when the sun goes down, and is set to turn off again six hours later. Plugging and unplugging the tree may not seem like a big deal when the sun is high and that room gets so hot that the thermostat-controlled exhaust fan kicks on, but it’s a whole ’tother matter when it’s pitch black outside and in the teens both inside and out.

We went simpler on the ornaments this year because this is the first year our kitten has seen a tree. No telling what she was going to do. (Glass ornaments were definitely out.) And I’m putting extra effort into our decorations by doing a much-needed set of repairs on the Mr. and Mrs. Claus tableau. More on that in the coming weeks.

Here’s hoping that this tree, when pulled out of storage next year, is as white and wonderful as it is this year.

*For the record, while charitable giving is worthwhile, I believe it’s always better to give directly to a charity, while goods should be purchased based solely on their quality, price point (compared to budget) and suitability for the task.