An Ode to Our Christmas Tree

Christmas-7917Christmas-7914

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree, what a story you tell.

Tall and green, glowing glory, crowned atop with an angel.

Decked with ornaments, current and past.

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree, what a story you tell.

 

One year I went out and bought giant department store style ornaments, ribbons and other trim that all matched.  I decorated the tree in the most beautiful and perfect way.  Seriously, it looked like it belonged in a magazine.  I always wanted a matchy, matchy perfect Christmas tree.  It was a far cry from my first Christmas tree that I ever had on my own.  I was a young single mom, 20 years old with a 4 month old baby.  I couldn’t afford anything.  So I crocheted all my ornaments and strung popcorn and cranberries and topped the tree with a handmade paper angel. You can imagine how good it felt to have the  perfect idealistic tree, I’d come so far.

Christmas-7899

There was only one problem, my family hated it!!!!! It was beautiful but it wasn’t perfect.  It had no story to tell.  Where were the ornaments we made?  The ornaments we got growing up?  The faces of our loved ones?

Christmas-7902Christmas-7894 Christmas-7900

That year I undecorated my beautiful but not perfect tree, put it all back in their packages and returned it to the store.  Then the family and I decorated our tree with our story.

Ornaments that spoke of our careers.

Christmas-7887Christmas-7905

Places of travel

Christmas-7889Christmas-7907

Of where we’re from

Christmas-7911

Of hobbies and passions

Christmas-7910Christmas-7906Christmas-7898

Of Santa Claus

Christmas-7908

Of birds…why do we have so many birds?

Christmas-7878Christmas-7880Christmas-7881

Of little jokes that have turned into a new tradition.

Christmas-7884Christmas-7901

Of specially handcrafted and selected gifts

Christmas-7927

Ornaments that remind us of what the holiday is really about

Christmas-7912

I no longer desire a matchy, matchy perfectly decked out Christmas tree.  I have the most perfect tree of all, the tree that tells our story.

Christmas-7903

Merry Christmas, to you and your family and your own story telling tree.

Related Posts with Thumbnails

, ,

5 Responses to An Ode to Our Christmas Tree

  1. Veronica December 26, 2012 at 1:00 am #

    AW!! I really love this, that your family made you realize there’s more to it than just how pretty it is. So glad your tree tells such a wonderful story. <3

  2. Kitchen Butterfly December 28, 2012 at 7:38 am #

    Rhonda, thank you. Life really is ALL about the stories, which weave our thoughts, our memories, our hopes and dreams and our heartfelt desires.

    This year, I let my three kids decorate the tree. It was…like a tree decorated by under-10s but I left most (not all) of the ornaments where they placed them.

    I hope you have a truly wonderful one. Eat loads and be happy. Stay well X X X

    • Giggles December 28, 2012 at 4:37 pm #

      I bet your tree was delightful even though it was heavily decorated on the bottom. It’s really about the joy and the not the finished product.

  3. Debra December 30, 2012 at 11:22 am #

    I too made a “matchy-matchy” tree when we were first married. Today I am staring at our small juniper that we purchased (to plant later outside) with the few ornaments the nephews, goddaughter and godson made when they were here. Yes, it looks like a Charlie Brown tree, but I love it. (BTW, we had those glass birds on our tree at home growing up and we called them “no-no” birds for obvious reasons.!)

    Your tree is beautiful!. Hope you had a great holiday!

    • Giggles December 30, 2012 at 4:11 pm #

      A tree you can plant, give back t Mother Earth, is there a better tree? No-no birds…love it, and yes I ‘no’ why they were called that.