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Our Christmas Tree
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| FTLComm - Tisdale - Friday, December 23, 2005 | |||||||
| For more than two decades we have developed a tradition in our household regarding the Christmas tree. It actually began when we first became parents and from then on we put up the Christmas tree at Christmas, not months, or even weeks before and for most of those years, we were able to go and select a wild tree for the purpose of giving our home a traditional tree. On those years where we had to buy a tree, I tended to delay the process up until the latest possible time, with the consequence that one year we could not find a tree left to buy. But this year I decided to give in a bit and buy the tree shortly after they became available and a nice modest tree has stood up against the house until yesterday when I brought it in to warm up.
I can see this idea of buying the tree ahead of time definitely has merit and I think it will become like those tree traditions before it, entrenched in time. What we put on that tree is very much a part of the past, some things handed down to us, some things made by our children's own hands and something new each year to add to the growing collection of decorations that tell us our history, piece by piece. I have heard it said that the Yule tree is indeed a tradition handed down from the ancient past and became part of the Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. That seems fitting, for we as a culture, must, like the collection of ornaments on the tree, grow and adapt, finding new ways of doing things, buying the tree ahead of time, things like that. Incrementally, we all are part of the ravages and glory of the passage of time and as this year ticks into its last week, it seems just right to dig out the old, polish up the not so old and add something new to what we are, have been and by so doing, establish what we will be. I always wince a little when I hear glib statements that say that Christmas is for children, when I know so well that it is for the child in each and every one of us, it is the child we once were, the simple child we are still and the child we will become. Destilled and refined, Christmas shakes off the cobwebs of confusion each and every year, giving us a chance to once more, sort out our priorities, define what is truly important and share our discoveries with each other. I will share this Christmas with my father, with my sons and we will look forward to Christmas to come with their sons. The Christmas puddy, the traditional king pedro games, father's blue cheese and we will talk of things important, the economy, politics, social changes and compare what we know, with what we will have to learn, to hold ourselves together in a vast ocean of change, and we will do that together. We will |
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| do it this year, the next and the next after that, knowing full well that we are keeping the faith of our ancestors and that those that will come after us will do the same, as these things knit us into the fabric of what we are and with that established, we know we can handle most of the troubles life will deal us in generations to come.
May you and your family share the wonders of a happy Christmas together. Merry Christmas everyone. |
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To see this QuickTime presentation click on the picture above.
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