Five Things I Love About Christmas

 Part 1: Decorating the Tree

 

The long, arduous process of climbing to the attic and pulling out all the decorations is worth the amazing memories of each ornament that I put on the tree.

Decorating for Christmas has always been my “job.” Gene loves the end result but finds the process of decorating tedious. Not me. Every decoration, every ornament brings a smile. Not so much because of what the decorations are as the memories these bring.

After Gene and I were married, our first Christmas was a comedy of errors. We were in seminary then and had very little money so our first Christmas tree was a four foot artificial tree from Kmart. We purchased glass ball ornaments because they were cheap and there were 18 in a box. We added a string of lights, icicles and a few miniature candy canes. It was not very pretty but it was ours. I had to put it on a table by the door to our apartment so that we could see it from the window.

My first mistake was unwrapping the candy canes to hang them on the tree. By the end of the first night I was cleaning the glass balls because the candy canes had melted on them and the table.

The next mistake was putting the tree on that table by the door. Every time Gene came into the apartment, he would slam the door shut and knock our tree to the floor. Because I really wanted the tree by the door, it had to get knocked off the table about four or five times before I got frustrated and took the tree down. It went right back in the box it came in, along with a few ornaments that had not been shattered.

It was that first Christmas together that I decided that my children would have Christmas ornaments for the first Christmas trees. So every year since my son was born, I have purchased ornaments for him, then my girls. When Kim joined our family, I started by one for her every year.  Next came our grandson, and this year we added a son-in-law. Every year for whatever their interests, or whatever circumstances in their lives, they get an ornament. So we have homemade ornaments, Baby’s first Christmas, Elmo, Star Wars, Transformers, Legos, Cowboys, Cars, ballet, gymnastics, football, softball, Sushi, “Our First Home” and tractors. There are also violins, saxophones, flutes, guitars and violas. There are also many ornaments that we have been given over the years.

Ornaments have become a family tradition. Every year new ornaments and new stories are added to the tree, except that it isn’t just our tree now. Will, Kim and Jaxon have their own tree. Hannah and Alex have their tree this year.

I love decorating because the decorations tell our family’s story. It tells of our past, stories of our present and stories that are still to come.