Decorating the Christmas tree requires a pretty routine pattern. After getting the tree in place, you have to put on the lights. Most likely bottom to top so that you can get the length to the outlet right. Then garland or tinsel, then the ornaments.

And the last thing that goes up is the topper. Like the bow on the finished present.

The first problem is that the tree is already decorated and now you have to get yourself to the top and finagle the star or the angel or whatever without knocking any ornaments off. But that isn’t the real problem.

The real problem is that toppers, for all their pomp and beauty are often heavy. Not heavy like a brick, but heavy given that you are putting it on the weakest part of the tree.

Most of us have had to engineer ways to get the topper to stay up, let alone straight. Feats of engineering that are not part of the original design (of the topper…or the tree, for that matter.)

There is no doubt that a Christmas tree looks good with a topper. But the fact that we do it demonstrates both our devotion to aesthetics over function and our willingness to make it happen in spite of the conditions.

That so many of us struggle with it every year also shows our common dedication to not fixing a common a problem.