By Karen
Yes, it’s true. The Christmas tree was so much work to put up — and it was Tony’s first one — that it stayed up until this past weekend. But I learned that one downside to keeping a tree up nearly two months is that the cats accept it as a permanent fixture in their world…
Deconstruction was a two-stage process. Saturday afternoon, I did the ornaments. The cats barely noticed, even though they’ve been batting around the ones at the bottom.
EVERY year, there’s this one ornament I can never find. This time I even poked through the branches with a flashlight and couldn’t see it…
I’ve finally learned not to put the ornaments back in the closet until this perennial stray turns up.
My cat ornaments don’t just get thrown in boxes, because many are fragile and have moving parts. Each one has its own box or bag for cushioning. So if I have any bags left over when I think I’m finished, I know I’ve missed something…
Saturday night, we lit the unadorned tree one last time and all the kitties took turns hanging out under it, even Max.
Sunday morning, I started on the white iridescent garland. That’s when everybody realized I was attacking “their” tree and things got ugly. While I was circling the tree undoing the garland, Tony from his nearby perch hooked my hand good, sending me screaming to the bathroom for Neosporin and a Band-Aid.
But he only delayed me until I could stop the bleeding. Next, he threw himself full-length on the garland…
This strategy proved more effective. Now all I could do was pull the garland down and let it drop in a heap on the floor around the tree because I couldn’t remove it one strand at a time. This is where Roc joined in…
Now all that was left were the lights. Max disapprovingly supervised that step from the mantel…
Martha Stewart probably has some incredible way to store Christmas lights, but I can only wrap a strand thumb to elbow and then secure each end of the coil with twist ties. Even that doesn’t stop them from being a tangled mess next time.
Tony got more frantic when the tree itself started shrinking. He planted himself underneath so I could see his distress…
He literally got in my face as I removed the last layer of branches…

Finally, it was down, the branches sorted into bags and stuffed back in their box. All that remained was vacuuming. Tony seemed to be wondering if it had all been a dream…
With the furniture back in place, it already feels like Christmas never happened. I’m sure if I decide to put the tree up again in December, the cats’ delight will be as fresh as ever. That’s the genius of being a cat — none of the work, all of the fun.