Some Christmas tree ornaments do more than glitter and glow, they represent a gift of love given a long time ago. ~Tom Baker
My son and a couple of my granddaughters came to visit Saturday night and helped me decorate my Christmas tree. I’m not a tree in every room big Christmas decorator. And usually I’m not this early with getting up a tree, but I was happy to have help. Now I’ll get to enjoy the tree all through December.
When I was a kid, we always had a Christmas tree, but certainly not one we ever bought. We had plenty of cedar trees growing on the farm. So a week or so before Christmas, Dad would chop one down and bring it in or if he didn’t get around to it as soon as we wanted, we’d go out and find one and do our own chopping down. We wanted a really green one and we put it in a bucket of water. Cedar trees dry out fast. Especially when you put then up in an old farmhouse that’s heated by a wood stove.
Fast forward many years and in spite of knowing my father would have thought it a monumental waste of money, I bought an artificial tree. After all, we still have plenty of cedar trees. But the artificial tree is easier. You can leave it up longer. It doesn’t shed needles. Well, only a few plastic ones now and again.
Decorating the tree takes me down a memory trail as I hang each ornament or watch the grandkids do it. This year I told them a few of the ornament memories. There’s Molly on her red pillow. Molly wasn’t my dog, but she lived across the road with her buddy, Kasey. Every time I went outside to take a walk, the two of them would come running to go with me. I sometimes took care of them when their owners were away and so one time the owners brought me an ornament that was like Molly and another like Kasey. They’ve been on my tree ever since.
Then there’s the little boy with the puppy, a Hallmark decoration. My mother gave that to me after my first grandson was born. Each time I hook it to a branch I think of Mom and remember her love.
And of course, I have to hang the Santa frame with my first granddaughter’s picture. Her mother gave me that ornament back when that granddaughter was my only grandchild. Naturally, that’s a treasure.
Do you like the gingerbread man? A church friend made that one year in Bible School out of cinnamon. The plan for was the youngsters to make them, but things got too busy or crazy for the kids to do it. So this sweet lady made a few and gave them to the teachers. I never expected it to last, but here maybe twenty years later, the gingerbread man still graces my tree. Pat moved to another town and another church, but every time I hang that little gingerbread man, I remember her enthusiasm and Christian love.
I have a few decorations that my own children made when they were young that find a place on the tree even though they are a little worn by the years. I have decorations I’ve carried home from various trips that bring to mind the place visited and the fun had. I have decorations that were gifts from one of my Sunday school kids. Other decorations were gifts from friends and family. And I always perch a number of birds around the top of the tree simply because I like birds.
So my tree ends up lacking a consistent theme, but then again maybe it does have a theme. One of memories and love.
Do you have memories attached to some of your Christmas decoration?
As always, thanks for reading.