That Christmas Tree!

Fireplace mantel view of tree

The Christmas tree seems to be staring at me, daring me to decorate it, to complete its mission and sparkle for the holiday. It’s morning, very early, the house is sleeping, it’s dark, and the outside temp is a chilly 20 degrees F. And here sits this empty tree looking all lost and forlorn and, well, undressed. The boxes of decorations are close by and certainly I could quietly unbox and hang them without waking anyone. But, no.

For now, I’ll “unbox” memories of tree decorating, I can unpack that box without waking a soul. When I was growing up, oh so long ago, we decorated with strings of huge bulbs, glass ornaments, garlands, and my favorite: tin foil icicles! What a mess. I enjoyed the time with my sister as we turned the family tree into a magic wonderland of waiting and fun. Sometime in my early teens the sense of sparkle with the tree went away and didn’t return for many years.

When Diane and I were first together we had maybe a half dozen ornaments and not much else to decorate our first trees. Our discretionary income went to buying the tree, a few decorations, and gifts. We made popcorn and cranberry garlands but we had a blast doing it and the sparkle came back. Over the years we’ve added decorations and when the children were born, we started collecting memories along with the ornaments.

Each year our growing family would spend an entire afternoon decorating the tree, laughing, joking, playing pool or foosball (when older), and watching “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.” We have ornaments from each kids first Christmas and many of the craft ornaments they made in their early years. For a few years we also had a “curated” tree we called the “Mom Tree” because the mom designed and decorated it. Pretty to look at but not as much fun as the downstairs tree where all the presents were stored.

We’re down to one tree now with half the decorations and mostly functional tree decorating. But each ornament has a memory, each memory a person, each person has our love. Someday the decorations will end up in a box on the way to the dump but for now, I want to share the joy of hanging memories on the tree. It will surely sparkle.