From
the tree trek in the woods to the hand-blown glass ornaments that Great Aunt
Pauline handed down, Christmas is just as much about family traditions as it is
about our shared religious beliefs. When we hike in hip deep snow in snow
storms up and down the side of hills looking for that perfect tree, we remember
doing this with our families or fathers when we were young. And we create new
memories with our children. Sometimes those memories are of enormous Christmas
trees that were too big for our living rooms. Somehow they always look smaller
in the fields than they do when we get them home. Think Chevy Chase’s Christmas
Vacation. I think it was last year that
we physically had to orbit our tree to get to the dining room.
One
year I learned the hard way one should always decorate all the way around a
tree even if it is against a wall. That was also the year I put up a (flimsy)
artificial tree, the likes of which hubby would never have approved. I’m sure every one of us has a memorable Christmas
tree story. Mine is about the very first (and first real) Christmas tree I had
when first married. That year we learned that one should NEVER hose down a tree
(full of road salt, of course) in 20 degree weather. It ended up defrosting all night in our
kitchen – snap-crackle-pop! Twenty-seven
Christmas trees later, it is still a surprise what kind of tree hubby brings
back and how I plan to decorate it – or attempt to cover it up! I think we’ve
had two perfect trees in all these years. Last year I picked out the tree with
one of my boys. When we got it back and in the house we discovered that from
one side in particular – it looked pregnant.
That was the one we had to orbit. But those are memories I think of when
I start to get all our Christmas stuff out of the attic. I smile reliving all that.
Sometimes
it’s about remembering all the different size trees we’ve had in the past years
and how we handled those obstacles. Sometimes it’s about reliving our childhood
and all the memories of Christmases past and turning off the television and
turning on the Christmas music and the tree lights – all eleven strands of
them! But it’s what we do together and how we create Christmas anew each year
that binds us together as families.
