One Christmas memory I have is of the year I was single, between husbands. I usually loved to decorate for Christmas and have been collecting ornaments for many years. But that Christmas I was pretty depressed. An old high school friend who seemed interested in being more than friends was shocked that I wasn't putting up a tree.
The week before Christmas, the grocery store was giving away free trees, trying to get rid of them. Even though I still didn't feel like putting up a tree, I thought, "well, it's free..." and crammed it into my Toyota and brought it home. I left it laying in the yard beside my house for several days, still unmotivated to bring it inside. My friend stopped by and saw the poor tree. He said "That's pathetic. You should at least put it up outside even if you don't want to decorate it." So he helped me put up the tree on the porch. Having it there, even undecorated, gave me a bit more Christmas spirit, because it smelled so good.
I went to my father's on Christmas eve. When I came home I discovered the tree was decorated. It was sparse, with lots of cheap plastic baubles, but I was very touched that my friend felt it was important to do that.
The next year I was with Greg and back to decorating a tree indoors. But since we've acquired a herd of cats, I'm not sure when we'll ever have a tree indoors again. Not that I'd have time to decorate it, but I do love a tree in the house! (I guess the people in Washington aren't saying that right now...)