This week's article in the Journal
One year, we ended up with a tree that was so large it
covered the double-windows! We didn’t
have enough ornaments, so it was somewhat sparsely decorated. There’s an old black-and-white picture of my
snaggletooth self, standing proudly in front of the mammoth tree, with my hair
in sponge curlers. We were so proud of
our giant tree!! (tried to find the pic for the blog, but no luck with that)
Our family room was on the back of
the house, which meant that the travelers up and down Broad Street were not
able to see our tree. One year Mamma
Lorene, my dad’s mom, gave us one of those fabulous trees made out of
aluminum. We proudly assembled the tree,
added the fuchsia-colored balls, and put it in front of the double windows in
the dining room, on the front side of the house. There was this lamp that sat in the floor,
with a rotating plastic disk of different colors. The disk would turn slowly, and the colors
would fade from one to the other. I much
preferred the live tree with the multicolored lights, but was delighted to have
TWO trees in our house each year.
As the years went by, some of the
ornaments were lost or broken. Seems
that we always managed to hang onto the ones my brother and I made at school,
and those were hung each year with love.
At some point, we swapped out the chunky lights that I loved for the
newfangled miniature lights that were becoming so popular. It was the end of an era, and even though the
tiny blinking lights were beautiful, I’ve always been partial to the old chunky
ones.
The first Christmas tree after I
got married in 1980 was a special tree.
Not a cedar tree like I had grown up with, but some kind of pine tree
that we cut at a tree farm. With little
money to spend for decorations, I opted for DIY ornaments, and our tree was
covered with homemade felt snowmen and clothes-pin reindeer, a few fake red
apples, and some candy canes. But there
were lots of colored mini-lights!!! And
because it was our very first tree together, it was the most beautiful thing I
had ever seen.
There have been many trees since
then. I remember scoring a really expensive
fake tree after the holidays one year.
It was perfectly-shaped, and looked better than some of the real ones we
had used in the past. I was so excited
to have this flame-retardant tree, meaning we could put it up earlier, leave it
up longer, and it also meant I could put my favorite chunky lights on it! I went to the store and bought a gazillion of
them, and put them on our new tree.
Couldn’t wait for the hubby to get home and commend me for our
old-fashioned Christmas tree. To my
great disappointment, he made me take them off, and return them to the
store. What with being a fireman and all,
he only saw the fire risk, and not the beautiful ambience I was attempting to
achieve. So I had to undecorate the
tree, remove the lights, and take them back.
I pouted for days, and only half-heartedly redecorated. But by then, it
was Whitney’s third Christmas, and she was at such a fun age I couldn’t stay
mad for long.
The year that she was in
first grade was the first Christmas that she and I lived alone, and we carried that fake Christmas tree with us during several moves through the years. We had a tradition on tree-decorating day –
there was an old VHS Disney tape of Christmas songs. We’d listen to it every year while we
decorated. When she was in high school,
the old tree finally died, and I replaced it with a tall, skinny tree that she
laughed at, but once decorated, admitted it was a really pretty tree.
Nowadays, it is the eyes of my grandchildren that sparkle at
Christmastime. One of my favorite spots
to photograph them is in front of a Christmas tree. Last year found me feeling a bit overwhelmed,
and not really interested in much holiday fanfare. I didn’t put up my tree until the week the
kids were out of school… which was one
week before Christmas! Normally, I’m
very persnickety about the ornaments being placed just so, but not so much last
year. Because of my indoor kitties, I
use a small 4’ tree on a table, in an effort to keep them away from it. Last year, though I kept my precious,
breakable treasures safely packed away, I let the kids decorate the tree. They took turns using the step-stool to reach
the higher branches, but 90% of the ornaments are on the lower half of the
tree. A job obviously done by
children. But… the joy I was lacking
crept back into my heart as I watched them decorate “their” tree all by
themselves. They were so proud, and the
occasion was, of course, marked by many photographs and videos. Because the tree is so small, when I got
around to taking it down (don’t even ASK!) I just picked it up and set it in an
extra bedroom. Still decorated.
So now it is Christmas 2015!!! My little tree was delivered from the extra bedroom
to its place in the living room. Still
decorated from last year. It was my
intention to undo the kids’ handiwork and re-decorate it with at least a little
symmetry in mind. But every time I reach
to take something off, I am reminded of how much fun they had decorating it
last year, and how excited they will be to see that I am using it that way
again this year.
Yes, Christmas trees are my favorite part of the
holiday. And one of my favorite sayings
about Christmas is this: It’s not about
what’s under your Christmas tree that matters, it’s who’s around it. I hope you will share special moments with
special people around a tree this season.
So, let me ask - have you put up your Christmas tree yet? Just remember....
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