I stopped putting up a tree for a few years. My daughter, son in law, and grandkids spend Christmas at her dads so I only see them long enough to open presents and have a quick meal. I get them all for Thanksgiving. The first year I decided to not put one up I was a little sad on Christmas day. The next few days after I listened to people lament about having to pull everything apart and just silently smiled to myself. A few times I said "I'm already done!".
A few years later I got a bit nostalgic and decided that I wanted one. I went and bought one of those little tabletop trees that already have the lights strung. It comes right out of the box and you just adjust the branches and put it in the stand. I bought little bells and ornaments that aren't glass and there's a gold bow ribbon at the top. It takes 30 minutes to set up and decorate and 30 mins to take it down. No mess with water or futzing with lights and I still get the atmosphere.
