I have a phobia of CHRISTMAS TREES – every year my December is living nightmare but some people don’t believe me

FOR as long as I can remember I’ve been terrified of Christmas trees.

It means braving the festive streets this time of year is always something I have to mentally prepare myself for.

Peter Jordan

This was a very scary moment for me while I ‘pretended’ to be terrified of this huge Christmas tree[/caption]

People always ask me the same things, “Did a Christmas tree fall on you as a child?” or “Did a Christmas tree cause a big accident in your house?”

I always reply “yes”, but that is because I don’t really have a genuine answer.

All I remember is feeling a pit in my stomach as a child when I walked past the stairs from my bedroom to the bathroom throughout December.

I would see seeing the ominous, looming triangle shaped beast standing beside the front door in the darkness.

It looked like something out of a badly directed horror movie, with its ghastly misshapen branches and twisted silhouette.

And that image has brought with it a crippling fear that has followed me into my twenties.

I still close my eyes and flinch when walking past a Christmas tree.

I tell myself the same mantra every year: “It’s fine, it’s just a tree, it can’t hurt you.”

I discovered a few years ago that my – very inconvenient – phobia is called Christougenniatiko dentrophobia.

I made the discovery while trying to prove to a friend that this was in fact a real phobia.

Christmases have been ruined annually since childhood as I have been forced to brave the trees at home, at school, at work and even in shops and bars.

Some online suggestions for conquering this rather embarrassing phobia included meditating next to or under the tree, hugging it, and even speaking to it. 

Peter Jordan

I considered maybe booking myself in for some phobia tackling therapy in this moment[/caption]

Apparently, like a plant, you can build a connection to it through words.

I have tried all of the above on our plastic Argos Christmas tree – the same one that hovered menacingly at the bottom of the stairs of my childhood home – but as soon as I am within 10 steps of the tree, I can feel my heart race increase and my stomach drop.

For years, I have been trying to overcome the intense panic and sense of terror I experience when I am faced with the pointed pines, and unnecessarily large belly of a Christmas tree.

But to this day I find myself avoiding Winter Wonderland, Trafalgar Square during the festive period and many other Christmas related events. 

So it comforted me when I read in The Sun about Kerstin Shepherd – who has a fear of Brussel Sprouts.

She told how she gets hot, sweaty and shaky when faced with them.

Or the story of Garry Hollidge, who suffers from a phobia of Father Christmas figures.

He explained he gets shortness of breath and breaks out in cold sweats the second he sees a dancing Santa.

Not being able to face the things that give our loved ones the most joy at ‘the most wonderful time of the year’ can be very lonely and anxiety inducing.

So perhaps my fear of firs isn’t so daft.

But while Christmas trees bring joy to so many, it leaves me pining for the January days where these mean evergreens are locked back in basements, thrown into skips and disregarded for another 11 sweet months.

Good riddance to them!