In which case the season is finally settling in

It really takes some doing for me to fully get into the spirit of the Christmas Season. I think I may have determined why.
The whole thing is really irrational because the source of the problem is no longer valid. It goes way back to when I was a kid about eight or nine years old. It mostly has to do with the preparations being more like a chore than a pleasant activity.
First off, the damn tree had to be perfectly symmetrical. That meant that it took forever to even find a silvertip fir (nothing else would do) that was the right height and then had space to drill holes to add branches. Then each and every branch had to have the lights placed in exactly the right place and the bulbs had to be the right color for their location. I mean everything had to be absolutely p*e*r*f*e*c*t. Uh, no. We kids didn't help decorate. We held the box. Decorating was always done on the weekend, when all of the other kids in the neighborhood were playing. We were "decorating for Christmas."
It seems like it was some kind of competition, too, like we were vying for some kind of prize.
Now that I am old enough, it takes some doing for me to want to do it. Now that the local paper has handed out the awards, I can decorate without feeling like I will be compared.