How many people are there out there who can wax eloquently about their family's Christmas Tree?I am one.
I am fortunate that my youngest memories of the Season are taken up with the sight of this wonderful new addition to our living room which took up so much of my sight...both in my memory and in my heart.
All the way back to my early childhood, with my own father making the annual trek to the Tree center to pick out the best available ~ always a Scotch Pine ~ and carrying it home, hanging out the back window of the station wagon...
There was one year, as I recall, that he ventured into the world of the Colorado Blue Spruce, but the very next year it was back to his all-time favorite Pine...I never knew the problem with the former, but I was too young to care. All I knew was that the Season just wouldn't be the same without those green boughs hanging alongside the staircase as we came down each morning, and the sight of my mother kneeling beneath the branches to reach the water basin.
The first year my husband and I were married, we would have gotten our very own Tree, but for some reason, we neglected this time-honored ritual until it was too late to do anything to rectify it ~ and sadly, when my parents came over for a holiday dinner and my father noted the lack of this display, in the home of one of his very own offspring, he nearly had a stroke!
That was the first and last time we had no Tree for Christmas.
After we moved into the home we have now, twenty years ago, I ordered a 7.5' tall Tree, complete with over 2750 'points'...and believe me, every one of those is decorated!
If anyone reading this takes a look at my picture, above, they will see a Christmas Tree resplendent in all its finery ~ from the lights to the icicles to the hand-made ornaments given to me over the years by my own children.
This brings me to the present and my favorite night light, that is, my Christmas Tree.
All through the years that our sons and daughters came home on last days before their Christmas vacation, toting ornaments and cards in their wakes, and the crepe paper, the construction paper, the gold and silver dust ~ all over the house, but beloved just the same.
The wishes of children at Christmastime are the most precious thing this side of Heaven...and this is the reason I refuse to stop decorating my Tree.
I have many, many ornaments that I have made myself. Being an Artist has certainly given me ample excuse to do so...but still, my favorite ones are the ones made by my family for me, given in love and with laughing hearts.
People may think that I call this precious Tree my favorite night light because of the way it sparkles in the night...with the lights glowing and the crystal ornaments shimmering as they dangle, reflecting like so many prisms of rainbow brilliance...and this is true, to a point, but not completely the only reason why. There is a much better, more heart-felt reason, in my own way of seeing, that tells the true story.
To me, the creations of children reflect more than anything else, the spirit of the Season ~ and every elementary school teacher knows this to be true.
So does every mother...
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1 comment:
* siste…
I feel much the same way about my own Christmas Tree. There is nothing more full of serenity and peace than to sit and admire the beauty of a family Christmas Tree filled with homemade ornaments and twinkling lights. It is one of my most favorite things to admire during the Christmas Season. My tree too is filled with the children's love as well as friends and family who have contributed an ornament or two. Each year I hate to take it down, and it's one of the first things to go up right after Thanksgiving. Thanks for sharing your story and thanks for the "hello" message you left. I have been having so much fun with the kids that I have not been able to check email, or even to go up on the net! I hate to see this time end, Christmas Vacation is never long enough! Take care and God Bless!
Thursday January 3, 2008 - 09:02am (PST)
* JennD
Sandy! How great to hear from you! :)
Isn't it funny how something like a Christmas Tree can embed itself into your psyche and live there, nearly dormant, til one night, after you've put the kids to bed ~ you're standing there looking at the lights in the dark and it hits your heart like a ton of bricks...this Tree has become a symbol of everything you love about your children, especially during the time of year, and when it finally comes time to take it down, you feel like a part of your very soul has been put away...and how that means that they are now a year older, growing up so fast, too fast...
Then, when they've grown, you look back on all the years when they were making their ornaments and how they have become the most beautiful things hanging there.
I think I just might take more pix of my Tree and put it on my Picasa Web Album...so I can hold onto it for as long as I want! ;)
Take care, too ~ and Happy New Year!
Thursday January 3, 2008 - 11:55pm (EST)
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