In a previous post I talked about some of the holiday traditions of my own childhood and of our time in New England. So in this post, I want to focus on the decoration of the tree.
I mentioned that in my family the tree was put up by Santa on Christmas Eve. I remember that it had large bulb lights, and that flashing ones were present occasionally. There also was a set of bubbler lights, colorful base with pencil thin tube of water that bubbled due to the heat of the bulb. These were always my favorites. They must have been a German tradition because I saw them on my dad’s family trees but not any on the Italian side of the family. Later on my dad went through a matching decoration phase, simultaneously with his artificial tree phase. First we went to all white lights (which I like) and all matching silk balls (which I hated). He did this because he was the ultimate bargain shopper and right after Christmas, went to the stores to stock up on the next years decorations. This gave us an almost department store look. One time I remember my dad tried angel hair on the tree, but he scratched for days after so no more angel hair EVA! Finally our tree had tinsel, put on one or two strands at a time for the proper effect.
On the New England front, our tree traditions kind of make me feel all Norman Rockwell inside. We would go out and cut our own tree, up until I had my BKA and can’t get around as well as I used to. We still pick out a real tree every year. We go smaller now but that is ok too. The decorations are ones we have made or bought ourselves over the years, many representative of a place or time or event. There are also a few old ones from our growing up families and some mindful of the ones we had as kids. No tinsel either – we use wooden cranberry strings and strands of little kid toys for the garland. Every year, after the decorating is done, we step back and say that it’s a great tree, one of the best ever and enjoy the real tree smell for days. We don’t decorate as much as we did in the past but we have come to realize that the family feelings come from each other not some plastic elf or window candle.
As for putting the tree up, we never got into putting it up too early. Now we wait for CollegeBoy to get home from school to go get it and put it up. I know lots of people get so very stressed during the holidays but we seem to have been able to just enjoy it for the good family feelings that spring from it.
(Not our baby Jesus but an incredible...)
One tradition we have, that has also caused its fair amount of tears is the placement of the Baby Jesus. This was one of my wife’s family traditions, where the youngest member of the household places a Baby Jesus on the boughs of the tree. Our first Christmas together I got to do it as I am younger than Mrsfabp (and I never let her forget that). But after that MillieJupiter got to place it 4 years in a row. Then CollegeBoy was born and it was his deal. Needless to say, MJ had a bit of trouble with this continuing interference of the new kid on the block. Sometimes I am surprised we didn’t find CB stuffed in a closet or something after another slight felt by MJ. But we got through it and now continue to do this each year. This year, MissNicole, CB’s girlfriend, who is really a member of the family will put it on the tree. Hopefully our kids will continue the tradition. Like reading the bible story of Jesus’ birth, it is a way of remembering values when most people are trying to decide iPad or iPod.
This weekend, we will go get a tree and put it up. We’ll untangle the lights, look through the boxes of ornaments for our favorites to put on the tree. I’ll find the little wool cap ornament, the penguins on ice ones, the glass light covers, the snow blower and all the rest. We’ll string the garland and then step back and say that it is one of the best trees ever. We’ll sip hot cocoa or egg nog and eat some cheese and crackers and bask in the glow of our Christmas.
1 comment:
Really well, done, Pat, thank you for sharing.
And reminding.
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