Homemade for Christmas

My husband made these and gave them to me when we were engaged 25 years ago.

I put up our tree this afternoon. It may be a little late, but I let our church use it until the three parties they had planned at the building were finished. Our house is old and we have 10 foot ceilings and a tree to match. Most people’s trees aren’t that tall, and it added a lot of festivity to the large hall where they held the parties. So I can share. After the party last night, we took it apart as minimally as possible, stuffed it into the back of our truck, took it home and immediately put it up.

Decorating the tree has not always been my favorite task. I always thought it got kind of tedious. My husband isn’t thrilled with decorating either. All of our children have left home, our baby is 21, so that left my 16 year old special needs niece who lives with us. Half way through the boredom set in for her too. “The tree looks great”,  she said as she stepped away. “But two-thirds of it doesn’t even have any ornaments on it, ” I said.

Purchased on a vacation to Yellowstone, 9 years ago.

So, once again the task became mine alone. As I started going through each one,  I realized what a treasure that box of ornaments really was. Some were mass produced, or store bought in numbers. But many were one of a kind, hand made by children who are now grown and gone, or purchased on vacations taken long ago. I cherished the afternoon of remembering old friends, old jobs, and the reasons why each ornament had come to rest in our box of decorations.

I am not a perfectionist when it comes to tree decorations, or decorations of any kind for that matter. Our tree looks a little hodge-podge. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. The beads that drape from branch to branch were all purchased at different times from different stores, and they don’t match, but blend well. We never went into wild color schemes. It was always green, red, white, gold and silver, so there’s no purple ornaments, or hot pink. Our tree changes little from year to year, and that is how I like it.

Putting up the tree is a tradition that changes in each family. Some trees are beautiful and perfect, some a little Charlie Brown. It doesn’t really matter. Whether you have a grand party and everyone helps, or you end up doing it yourself on a snowy Saturday afternoon, enjoy the time as a reflection on Christmases past and the meaningful memories that it brings.

The finished tree