Since I moved into my own townhouse in 2002 and found myself with enough room to set up a Christmas tree, I have enjoyed decorating for the festive season early. My tradition since 2002 has been to invite my mother over and we would set up my 7½-foot artificial tree and decorate the house together.

This year I wanted a change in my tree set-up, and over the course of the past several weeks I have been looking for multicolour trees. I got a 6-foot red tree last year and for this Christmas I wanted to plant a forest of colourful trees. I was looking specifically for shorter trees, with six feet the height limit.

Christmas decorating at the Rowland house is never done in a day. With my 7½-foot tree I would spend an entire week putting hundreds of lights on it, about two thousand if I recall. Today I got the lights put on in about half an hour. While the decorating is by no means finished, I thought I’d give you a sneak peek at what I was up to earlier Saturday morning:

I always put the Christmas tree or trees in the corner, where the birdcage usually goes. The budgies Kelly, Kakapo and Grey have to move over for about six weeks. While I am assembling the trees the babies get a little spooked by the appearance of the sudden forest, and also by the sudden cage shift. Since the cage door is always left open, they fly freely, and settled for the highest point in the living room, at the top of the TV cabinet:

My mother took some photos of all eleven coloured Christmas trees arranged and lit up but I am not going to post a Christmas work in progress. When they have been decorated I will post some nighttime shots of the multicolour Christmas forest.

This is the official weekend to welcome in the Christmas season as the 107th Annual Toronto Santa Claus Parade is later today. I have just returned home–and it is after 2 a.m., no surprise for this night owl–from giving a third presentation of my North Korea photo show. If anyone who is attending the Kingston Cup Tournament next weekend would like to see the presentation, I will bring it along.