Christmas

Fresh fir, artificial trees and nativity figures:

most homes choose between two kinds of tree, then add something no shop sells whole. The Guatemalan fir, native to the western highlands, is bought fresh each season and fills the room with its smell; kept with its base in water and away from heat, it lasts through the holidays. An artificial tree is bought once and stored for years. The nativity scene is the Guatemalan centrepiece: a landscape of hand-dyed sawdust with clay sheep, shepherds and angels, loofah-fibre lambs, garlands of small yellow hawthorn fruit and a stable for the Holy Family, built up piece by piece over many Christmases. The same coloured sawdust comes back in the street carpets of Easter, and the decorations for the night of the 31st sit under New Year’s.

Choosing an artificial tree by height, tips and branches:

height comes first, and seven feet suits most living rooms. The tip count tells you more than the photo: two trees of the same height look sparse or full depending on whether the box says under a thousand tips or well over two thousand. PE tips are moulded from real branches and look natural up close; PVC tips are flat strips with the classic look, and the better trees put PE outside and PVC inside. Hinged branches fold down from the trunk and the tree is up in minutes. Hook-on branches go in tier by tier, take longer and give more shape. Pre-lit trees save the untangling, but their lights nearly always give out before the branches do.

A fresh fir every year or an artificial tree once:

that is the price decision that matters. A cut fir big enough for a living room runs around Q800 to Q1,000, and next season you buy another. A plain green artificial tree of the same height is around Q1,500 new, and flocked or pre-lit ones cost about twice that. A complete artificial tree that has already done a few Christmases sells for a good deal less, because the box is bulky and buyers assume the lights are tired. One shown standing and fully lit closes most of that gap.

Checking a used tree, light set or nativity set:

assemble the tree before paying, or ask to see it standing. Hook-on branches are coded by tier, so count them against the label, look for rust at the hinges and trunk joints, and make sure the stand is the original. Plug in every light set: on older incandescent strings one loose bulb can darken a whole section, and a set with a few seasons behind it often has a nicked or pinched lead. Fired clay figures chip at the hands and noses and are sometimes repainted to hide it; carved wooden ones can split or carry woodworm after eleven months in a box. Resin figures are sometimes passed off as hand-fired clay, and identical faces across the set and a mould seam give them away.

Listing a tree or a nativity set in late November:

families are still setting up then, and still looking. For a tree, give the height in feet, the tip count, PE or PVC, hinged or hook-on, and whether it is pre-lit, and photograph it assembled and switched on. For a nativity set, count the pieces, say whether they are clay, wood or resin, give the height of the tallest figure and where they were made if you know. Say which part of the city or which town you are in: a buyer in Mixco weighs the trip to Villa Nueva before the price, and a full-size tree box needs the back seat folded down. If you grow Guatemalan firs, make sure the marchamo shows in the photos.