Note: This post is based on my 2011 Christmas letter
The tree in the magazine was quite glamorous. Without any lights at all, it was decked out with peacock feathers and large shiny balls in deep blues, purples, and golds that matched the feathers’ colors. The presents under the tree were foil-wrapped in the very same shades. And of course, the perfectly applied ribbons around each gift were in the same color palette. The tree stylist (yes, apparently such a job title does exist) noted that “the idea is all about exotic, over-the-top-elegance.”
My tree does not look like the magazine tree. Some of the lights have come a little untucked from the live Fraser Fir branches as the tree has settled into being part of our home. Every single ornament I own is on the tree. “It’s not a Christmas tree—it’s our family’s story,” is a phrase I heard once, and it’s true for my tree.
An ornament from 1981 proclaims that to be our first year of marriage. A “Baby’s 1st—one in pink and one in blue—welcomed our new little ones to the family. My step-daughter added her painted ornaments to the tree when she was twelve. There are preschool, elementary school, and Sunday school ornaments made by two sets of tiny hands.
More “kid-made” ornaments were added when our two grandsons came along. A fragile wooden mama bird and two baby birds in a nest were a gift from my mother-in-law who told me it’s good luck to have a bird’s nest in your tree.
We actually have a Sugar Bear ornament that still (amazingly!) plays a tinny medley of the first dozen or so notes of four Christmas songs. Each year when I place him on the tree and press his belly, I hold my breath until the music starts.
In 1962 my parents decided to forego the traditional live tree and surprised me with a silver aluminum tree with purple glass balls. It was hideous. After I threw a hissy fit (as only a twelve-year-old can), I made a promise to myself that I would always have a live tree with ornaments instead of plain balls. But when one of my sisters found those purple balls in an attic in 2011 and gave me a dozen of them, I decided that those too were part of my story. They’re not on the tree, but lovingly displayed in the breakfast room.
So there sits my tree, barely able to hold one more ornament. But it suits me perfectly. I’m not an exotic and elegant peacock-feather-tree type of girl. But that style fits someone else just as well as mine fits me.
I love to hear the Head Start teacher talk about faraway countries and their different styles of dress, buildings, and animals. She asks the children, “Is that how we dress in America?” No. “Is it different?” Yes. Is that OK? Yes.
So whatever your tree looks like, even if it’s done up in peacock feathers, it’s OK!
To my readers: Tell us about your favorite ornament on your tree this year.
That is very hard to do – so many of them are from the different states and cities that we visited over the past 30 years. I have even left the price tag on many of them! There are also ornaments from family and friends that we received as gifts. I do get very nostalgic when I hang the first glass ornaments that my husband and I bought from Glosser Bros. in downtown Johnstown in 1962 – still in the original box. A dozen of them cost 87 cents! Oh, and I have 2 dozen of the purple balls that Norma mentioned on our tree, also. They are very sparkly.
Gosh, and I thought you would say the pink flamingo I bought you would be your favorite.
O.K. That’s my SECOND favorite! It does hang in the middle of my Christmas tree, along with the sheep with the missing ear that you bought for “D.” Nobody else will know what we’re talking about!