Oh, Christmas Tree

Holiday Traditions Grow and Change

Christmas Past (1974)

It was our first Christmas together as a married couple. Our apartment was tiny, but cozy and close enough for us to walk to the campus of Ball State University where we were finishing up our degrees. The balance in our bank account was as small as our apartment and we’d be returning to our hometown to celebrate the holiday with our families that year.  It made little sense to decorate for Christmas. I thought I’d be OK with that, but as we approached the holiday, it just didn’t seem right. I felt like Charlie Brown in the Christmas special when he said “what this place needs is a tree.”

Our Charlie Brown Tree

 A friend had given us a Norfolk pine tree as a wedding gift months before. The four-foot plant was thriving in a sunny corner of our upstairs apartment. Why not use this as our tree? We dared not put lights on it and regular ornaments would cause the boughs to bend. I made  egg-shell ornaments by poking tiny holes in the tops and bottoms of a half-dozen eggs and blowing the contents out into a bowl. The process was messy, but when the shells were rinsed, dried, painted, and varnished, they were perfect.  Plus, my craft project resulted in scrambled eggs for dinner! We rounded out the tree with a few tiny glass ornaments from the store and we had ourselves a Christmas tree.

Our Tree Traditions Grew with our Family

As the years went by, we had many types of Christmas trees in our home, each becoming the centerpiece of our holiday celebrations. When our children were babies, we set the tree up in the playpen to keep it, and the gifts out of reach of their little hands. As the kids got older, we made annual treks to local Christmas tree farms to select and cut down the perfect tree. Later, as empty nesters and grandparents, we made the switch to an artificial tree, large enough to hold the assortment of ornaments we’d collected over the years.

The artificial tree and boxes of ornaments made the move with us to Arizona when we retired. 

Christmas Present

Our kids are grown now and our home is no longer the center of their family celebrations. This year we will be traveling across the country to be with them over the holidays. No need to lug that enormous tree out of the garage, we convinced ourselves. We won’t even be here for Christmas. I thought I’d be OK with that. I tried to get in the Christmas spirit as I put out a few Christmas decorations and instructed google to find some Christmas tunes. Yet, once again, it just didn’t seem right without a tree. In the top of the ornament box, carefully wrapped in tissue, I found two egg-shell ornaments and a glass one that had survived from our first Christmas together.

A friend had recently given me a baby Norfolk pine tree.  Hmmm…

I carefully attached the fragile ornaments to the tree. Its tiny boughs bent as the ornaments rested on the dirt in the pot. Oh….

Well, maybe it will grow into its role. As Linus says at the end of the Charlie Brown Christmas Special:

“I never thought it was such a bad little tree. It’s not bad at all really. Maybe it just needs a little love.”

Merry Christmas Everyone!

(Cue the Charlie Brown chorus)

Lu, lu, lu …lu lu lu lu lu……….