Christmas Trees

Last night as I put up our Christmas tree I realized that even in our short time as a family we have made a few Christmas memories. Christmas trees are one of my favorite things, I love Christmas. I love everything about the holiday season, everything from the food to the music. I love the family gatherings, I love the time spent together, I love the decorations, I love the church programs, I love the Christmas story, I love the meaning of the season, I love everything about Christmas, but Christmas trees stand out in my mind as a favorite thing. I love that Christmas trees always seem to tell as story about the family that put it up.  In my opinion there are two types of Christmas trees, there are the Christmas trees obviously decorated by children, covered in glitter, where the ornaments come about halfway up the tree, and popsicle sticks and glue make the cut (these are my favorite- and I am not being sarcastic), and then there are the “professionally decorated trees”, these ones are all matching, they look great but in my opinion lack some of the personality of the other type.  I love the family trees, I love that they tell a story, they are covered in memories, macaroni, and Santas, this is the type of tree I aspire to have.

When I was growing up we always decorated the tree together, as we got older it was more of something that my mom, Emily, and I did together, but every time I think of Christmas I think of that activity. I think of getting all the boxes down and selecting the ornaments for the tree. There were always a few favorites: a mailman bird with a mailbox that a Sunday school teacher gave me, clothespin reindeer my mom made when my parents were first married, the angel bell in the special box that we weren’t allowed to put on the tree, the Santa in the sardine box, and the red bear for the top of the tree. 

When Brian and I got married I wanted to make sure that someday our kids would get to make the same memories decorating the tree as I did, so we created a tradition where every family member (right now all 2 of us) picks out one new ornament each year, it can be anything, that way we acquire something fun each year, and that way when we eventually have a full size tree and children they will have fun selecting what makes it on to the tree. We are hoping to eventually have quite the collection.

Okay so back to decorating the tree. Last night I was decorating our tree and I came across several memories packed in a box, there were the candy canes and snowmen my mom painted the year before I moved away to college, there was the small nativity ornament one of my favorite professors gave me several years ago, an angel I got from a young women’s leader, the little ceramic ornaments Brian and I painted our first Christmas, and of course the ornaments that Brian and I have picked out over the years, and as I decorated the little tree (sadly we haven’t upgraded), I was happy to see that our tree was moving towards the macaroni and glitter covered variety.

Welcome to the Christmas Season readers, Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!