I finished decorating our Christmas tree yesterday. They say that when people have a close near death experience their life passes before them in flashes. For those who choose an eclectic decorating scheme, particularly when it comes to decorating the Christmas tree, something very similar happens. It is a gift of reflection in the middle of all of the holiday mayhem and time stands still for just a little while.
Each year as I haul the decorations up from the basement to begin the ritual of tree decorating, I am reminded of many things. Good times, bad times, but mostly the acquired knowledge (wisdom) and a gentle reminder that all things pass. The large blue ornament with “It’s a baby boy” stamped across the front which my mother gave me to mark the birth of my son brings me back to that fall day when we brought him home from the hospital with a warm fire, the smell of a newborn baby, and dreams for his future.
The small straw Santa, a hand-me-down given to us as part of a collection by my mother-in-law for a virgin tree as we started out as a couple with more imagination that money hangs next to the glittering Jester which spoke to me in a posh department store many years later. I love them both.
Collections are a whole other subject. I went through my Wizard of Oz period and have the tin man, wicked witch, good witch, ruby slippers, and on an on. I have my Christmas movie collection ornaments which include Miracle on 34th Street, It’s a Wonderful Life, Scrooge, which spins off into every piece of the Dickens Village and characters, Ebenezer Scrooge, Bob Cratchet, Tiny Tim… Anyway-you get the idea. I love Christmas.
These ornaments, collected over many years, represent memories of times gone by. Time spent with my friends and family, some of whom are no longer with us. They are a reminder to enjoy the journey and if you are blessed with good fortune, savor it. They show the promise that even in the worst of times “this too shall pass”. As the words echo in my head from the carol, O Little Town of Bethlehem, “…The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight”. Amen.
Did I tell you I love Christmas?