On the Saturday before the Toronto Santa Claus Parade I usually set up my Christmas tree. The parade is my official permission to start Christmas preparations. This year I wanted to do something different, and for the past couple of years I have had the idea of setting up an assortment of multicolour trees instead of having just one. Instead of having one single 7½-foot green tree, I wanted to assemble a whole rainbow of colours. Space would limit me to smaller trees only, with six feet being the maximum size. Here is my living room:

My display for the greatest movie of all time, “White Christmas”:

I collect “White Christmas” movie memorabilia and I acquire something new every year. I recently got a sealed Video 8 copy in a cutesy little box (slightly smaller than a standard audio cassette box). It’s standing to the right of the animated display above. In the next picture you can see my sealed copies of the videodisc and the two versions of the laserdisc editions, as well as the box set of the movie soundtrack on extended-play 45’s:

The budgies also get the complete Christmas do-over:

My climbing Santa is in the foreground:

My house is all ready for Christmas. The only thing lacking is the presents. I do not start my wrapping until the evenings of December 22 and 23, after which there is no available room anywhere on my living room floor.