I have a whole drawer full of Christmas ornaments. This is kind of sad because the last time I had a tree to decorate, it was December 2008 in Cambridge, and my then-boyfriend and I bought a tree from a church charity and decorated it together. It’s been eight years without a tree of my own to decorate. Yet, I’ve still been accumulating ornaments that have been given as gifts to me, not to mention ornaments from traveling to areas that are famous for their Christmas markets, like Austria and Germany. These ornaments look up at me every year, wondering, when are you going to hang me up? When are you going to make use of me? Get me outta this drawer and let me breathe!

I’ve been passing by lots of corner street Christmas tree sellers, inhaling that magical pine tree smell. Passing by these streets makes me wish I had my own tree to decorate. I have no idea how much these trees cost because I’ve never been in the market, but I just heard that there are some 6-ft. tall Christmas trees in SoHo that are going for $900-2,500 each! New York City is so ridiculous for prices, but I had no idea it could be that insane just for a Christmas tree that would be up and decorated at maximum a month and a half.