It was the coldest day of the season so far and Lydia's hands were numb with fondling the needles of every tree they passed. Her fingers were red and throbbing. "You don't have to touch every tree.", Stiles said, quite annoyed. They had been looking for a tree for two hours now and he had lost all feeling in his limbs. But it wasn't any tree they were looking for. It was Lydia's idea of the perfect tree. At first Stiles thought it was adorable, that she wanted everything to be perfect for their first Christmas in the new house. Now he regretted his decision not to bail, when Lydia told him after half an hour into the search, to go home and simply pick her up once she called. He had stayed and was profoundly unhappy with his choice. "I do have to touch every tree. The needles are its most important feature, Stiles.", she replied, walking over to the next tree. "Uh. This one feels good.", she exclaimed. Stiles found himself hoping against hope, that they had finally found the one. "Oh, never mind. They are too grey.", she added. Stiles' hope was crushed. He turned a full 360 and put his palms on his eyes in desperation. Thinking better of saying anything that would anger her Stiles walked to the owner instead.
The man looked at him pitiful and Stiles shrugged, sighing. "Do you, per chance, have any extra special trees, that we could look at? I would really appreciate some help.", he whispered, looking over at Lydia, who was once again, shaking her head at a tree and moved on. The man gave him a small smile through his beard and gestured him to follow. He led Stiles outside of the selling area and pointed at wrapped trees on the ground. "We only open these at request from customers. They are more even, but also more expensive. Would you like to see them?" Stiles nodded. Even though he wasn't prepared to pay a huge amount for the tree, at this point he was considering everything. The salesman picked up one of the trees on the ground and headed back to his hut. He cut the wrapping open and revealed an enormous, but incredibly beautiful tree. Lydia stormed over, sensing a good pick, with her female intuition, or whatever it was. "That's lovely, Stiles.", she sighed, examining the tree from all angles. Stiles looked at it more intently and came to a devastating conclusion. "It's too big. This will never fit into our living room, honey.", he said, as he outstretched his hand, as measurement. "It will.", she said in a fierce tone and turned to the smiling salesman, "We're taking it.".
A 100 dollar bill later, they heaved the tree on top of the car, securing it tightly and drove home. The house was still mostly unfurnished and loads of boxes were lying around left and right, but still, it was their house, their home, and it felt like it too. In blissful ignorance, Lydia watched Stiles struggle to get the tree through the door. He was cursing under his breath, pushing the branches through the door, making a needle-y mess in the progress. Once through the door and into the living room, Lydia commanded him to put it up next to the fireplace. He tried to put it up, and who would have guessed, Stiles thought bitterly, it was too tall. "I told you, it wouldn't fit.", he said, trying to keep the bitterness out of his voice. Lydia examined the situation with a tilted head. The top of the tree was squashed against the ceiling, and the trunk wasn't even standing on the floor properly. "Hm.", was all she had to say to this. She walked around the tree, looking it up and down, as if trying to mathematically analyze the tree's structure, only to conclude, "It doesn't fit, you're right."
Stiles threw his hands into the air, exasperated, only realizing too late, that he had let go of the tree, which crashed to the floor with a muffled thud. His hands still in the air, eyes wide, mouth open, he looked at his girlfriend, who seemed to be perfectly surprised, at this revelation. "Well,", she went on, completely ignoring Stiles' obvious frustration, "let's get another one then.", she said, an innocent smile on her face.
"No. No, no, no, no. NO.", Stiles spat out. "You are going to cut this tree until it fits and I'm going to watch you do it!"
Lydia pouted, unhappy, but knew not to object. Stiles was on the verge of actually getting mad and she didn't want to push it. Stiles grabbed some garden scissors and instructed her where and what to cut. "Mhm. Well on the left a bit more.", were things he casually dropped, whilst Lydia cut branches off of the huge tree, propped against the wall. An hour later the tree was considerably smaller and ready to be properly put up. Stiles dug up the Christmas tree stand from one of the many boxes, littered across the room. They put the tree up and stood before it.
It was silent for a couple of seconds, before both of them burst out laughing. The tree was lopsided and looked more like a mistake, than an actual effort to make it look pretty. As if something had gone terribly wrong during transport. The two couldn't contain their laughter. They had actual tears in their eyes. Once they had calmed down and looked at it again, trying to suppress their giggles, Stiles kissed Lydia on the cheek and patted her on the back lovingly. "You did a great job, honey." At that, they lost it again.
In the end they kept the tree. After all this commitment, it felt wrong not to keep it. They came up with loving names for it, such as "The Sinking Ship" and "Stiles' First Knitting Attempt". They decorated it with all their heart, and in the end, it was one of the only fully functional objects in the house. Even though, it was, objectively, really ugly, that seemed to make them love it even more. It wasn't the perfect Christmas Lydia had imagined for them in their new house, it seemed to be everything but perfect, but maybe that's exactly why it was.
