It was once possible to simply waltz into the lobbies of four and five star hotels just to take pictures of their gorgeous Christmas trees.
Thanks (no thanks) to Covid, it's not so convenient now.
Sure, you can- and it's much easier these days- but it gets troublesome having to explain to the staff, and the concierge, that you're entering their property not for the sake of delivery, or dropping off a care package, or even for a meal at their restaurants, but simply to take pictures of the tree.
What's more, we do have quite a number of four and five star hotels in Singapore.
The thought of having to explain to all of them is... boggling.
It is but a slight inconvenience, however, and that hasn't diminished my love for Christmas trees.
I just run around taking pictures of them elsewhere.
Some of the most lovely ones for 2021 were taken at the public atrium down at Paragon. It's the area right near Metro where I think (on regular years) they always have the sales.
This year they had a most cozy looking setup by the escalators as well.
Subsequently I (more or less) only managed to take pictures of trees at wherever I went. Truth be told, it wasn't always convenient. For some reason people seemed a little offish when you expressed enthusiasm over what they considered simply as 'necessary' retail decor.
Those places, however, were few, and happily enough I managed to get some very nice pictures of charming (little) Christmas trees.
One such tree was at Donergy Turkish Kebab in Millennia Walk.
Theirs I particularly loved, for the way they'd arranged the decor and for the way they'd placed the tree right behind the standee menu, so no way in high heavens would you miss the sight of its green and its cute little stars.
One of the other trees I loved was at this Thai restaurant in the basement of 313 Somerset. I don't know its name (I find the place by location) but this tree had been decorated in the colors of silver and gold. Very regal, very shiny, very majestic, but also very adorable.
I mean, they had reindeer on the tree!
In shiny silver!
And then, finally, there was this tree.
The last tree of the season that caught my eye.
I saw it in a most unexpected place- right by the entrance of a Vietnamese hair salon along Jalan Besar Road where I'd gone on Christmas Eve to wash my hair.
What surprised me about this tree wasn't the fact that hair salons don't have Christmas trees or that I'd assumed Vietnamese dont' put up Christmas trees.
What surprised me about this tree was its sheer size.
Rising from floor to ceiling, the tree was complete with pretty fairy lights, silver streamers and decorations of all kinds of colors and all kinds of styles.
It was, I have to say, a very homely sight.
It didn't matter if the decor was unthematic or simple or without (the expected) glamor.
Seeing it brought back memories of the Christmas tree we used to put up at my grandmother's house, and... it made me smile.
