It occurs to me that leaving a Christmas tree up, day after day as it drops its needles, until the essence of the Christian spirit becomes manifest on the 12th day, is an ill-conceived ritual, or, at least, a dispiriting one ... at least it is for me.

For those of us who have followed this ritual (and *reconceive from the past) the trip to buy/cut/remove from storage a tree comes as close to Christmas day as possible, therefore making them the same ritual.

It seems that 'time' is always "getting in the way", isn't it?