O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Much pleasure thou can’st give me;
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Much pleasure thou can’st give me;
How often has the Christmas tree
Afforded me the greatest glee!
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Much pleasure thou can’st give me.
~Traditional German Folk Song~
Welcome back and Happy Holidays!
How’s the Christmas decorating going in your house? Do you have your tree up yet? Today, I wanted to share the story of the search for our 2019 Christmas tree, for it was fraught with indecision. With our thoughts going towards creating a simpler Christmas, with a less consumer driven bent, we went back and forth over which path to take.
Artificial tree, cultured tree, Christmas farm tree, or no tree at ALL!
Gasp!
Before I travel too far into this story, I thought I would share what I discovered about why we put up Christmas trees anyway. Where the heck did this tradition begin? Bringing evergreens into the home at this time of the year has gone back centuries, but it wasn’t until the 19th century, when Prince Albert, (Queen Victoria’s husband) who was German- born, brought his childhood tradition, of the decorated Christmas tree, to England. Soon every home in Britain had a tree bedecked with candles, sweets, fruit, homemade decorations and small gifts.
And with that, a Christmas tradition began.
Going back even further, it’s believed that Martin Luther, the 16th-century Protestant reformer, first added lighted candles to a tree. While he was walking home one winter evening, composing a sermon, he saw a breathtaking sight; stars twinkling brightly through the evergreens. Wanting to share this beauty with his family, he brought a tree into his home and set lit candles among the branches.
As the shortest day of the year approaches, when darkness prevails, it’s understandable that we want to wrap ourselves in light. Travelling even further in time, way back in history in Northern Europe, the mysterious Druids, the priests of the ancient Celts, also decorated with evergreens as a symbol of everlasting life.
In my personal history, my family always had a real Christmas tree. Today I spoke with my oldest sister B and she travelled down memory lane with me, reminiscing over Christmases when our Dad was still alive. The family would all pile into the big, old Buick and head out of our little town of Hope and into the woods. My Dad, Mom and three older sisters would all tromp through the snow looking for that elusive Christmas tree. B said that Dad was choosy too, so sometimes they had to hike for a bit.
That story reminded me of the movie, “Christmas Vacation,” when the character, “Clark Griswold,” (played by Chevy Chase) took his family on a winter quest to find the perfect Christmas tree. Finally, when everyone was freezing to death, the dad, Clark, sees THE tree at last. The choir starts to sing and the tree glitters brilliantly. That’s when their youngest son, Rusty, asks his Dad, “Did you bring a saw?” If you want a good laugh, click the link below. The clip is entitled,”The Griswold’s Christmas Tree.” This movie came out thirty years ago and is one of our family’s traditions, as it heralds the Christmas season into our home.
I was young when Dad died but I do have flashes of memory from our last Christmases together and the Christmas tree played a prominent part in the joy and excitement I felt. Of course, in those days, the tree industry was not the massive commercial industry it is today. There were no Christmas tree lots or even artificial Christmas trees in the stores. If you were to drive around our little town at Christmas you would see freshly cut fir trees standing smack dab in the middle of everyone’s “picture window,” decorated with balls, silver tinsel and shining brightly, with colourful lights.
It was a simpler time.
Our tree was far from what people would call perfect these days. It filled our tiny living room with long branches that were sparsely spaced, but oh the scent of that fragrant fir, fills me with memories of Christmas to this day.
The first Christmas tree I had as an adult was an artificial tree. Let’s call it what it was, a fake tree. I’ll never forget being five months pregnant with our first baby and going to our local Eaton’s Department Store and choosing the tree they had on display. I also bought boxes and boxes of Christmas decorations to match the decor in our newly built house. (lots of pink and seafoam green, ugh now!)
What made it special as I look back now, was having my mom come over and help me decorate. She loved our new house and all the matching ornaments since most of her life she had had to make due and be careful with her money. That Christmas, the joy I felt was from the anticipation of waiting for our new baby and decorating my first Christmas tree with my mom.
Once our children started to arrive and our family grew, we continued to put up our pre-lit fake tree in the living room. Having young children and a cat meant that I had to decorate the tree myself, ensuring all decorations were above cat’s paws and pudgy toddler’s hands.
Knowing we wanted to create lasting memories for our children, we decided early on to take them out to choose a real Christmas tree. For many years we went to a local gardening store, that turned their whole interior space into a Christmas wonderland. Our children excitedly helped us choose a cultured tree and then we would allow them to pick a keepsake ornament as well.
Once the tree was set up in our family room, the children were allowed to decorate as they saw fit. In addition to the keepsake ornaments, they filled the tree with decorations they had made at school. Over the years this tree got very full. Some years we would make popcorn strings for garland. A few years ago, our younger children made dozens of white paper snowflakes and colourful chains. When I looked at our artificial tree with all the matching ornaments and compared it with the real tree with all the handmade ornaments, I bet you can guess which one I liked better.
But as family change and grow, they also evolve and with the arrival of our youngest three children came a heightened environmental awareness. I know ironic hey! Here we were over populating the world with children and suddenly we were hyper focused on the footprint we were leaving. Once our youngest were out of the baby stage and I had more energy, I started to critically look at each aspect of our lives. When Christmas rolled around, I decided I was sick of our fake tree.
It screamed of plastic to me and didn’t represent my changing values.
In addition, it was a pain to bring in and out pf storage, it was difficult to assemble and the twinkling lights, all wired into the branches, were not all twinkling any longer. I was thrilled, when at our last garage sale someone felt they had found a treasure in our tree. A lot of our fancy Christmas tree decorations went with that tree. Goodbye pink and seafoam green ornaments!
As our old artificial tree left our property, being hauled up our driveway in a big box by two people, I felt a sudden sense of freedom. It’s funny hey, how a fake Christmas tree can lay the foundation for your family’s traditions, values and also once gone, give you the space to create a richer life.
A simpler life.
Now I had space in the storage area and space in our life to create new traditions…..but what were they going to look like?
Several years ago now, we started a new tradition of going up into the mountains and cutting down our own Christmas tree. The glistening snow, the scent of pine, cedar and fir, the fresh, crisp air all contributed to create that old fashion feeling I remembered from my childhood. I thought I was onto something, certainly it got us away from the consumer driven industry but my concerns for the environment had me thinking twice about our decision to cut real trees.
I wanted to plant more trees and not cut them down.
As I shared some of my concerns with my sister J recently, she told me how she and her husband B, visit our local municipal hall at the end of Earth day each April and then plant the seedling trees on their property. That got me thinking about how we could go up the mountains and plant a few trees each spring that would more than replace the one(s) we cut each Christmas. I was moving closer to knowing where we would get our tree from this year but I still wasn’t 100% there yet.
At the end of November and into December I stayed busy decorating our house with evergreen boughs from our yard, pine cones and dehydrated oranges. I made festive pillows and hauled all of our keepsake Christmas decor out of storage and decorated our house with twinkling lights and garland.
When I brought out the nativity set, passed down from my parents, it pushed me closer to the direction I wanted to go with regards to finding our tree. The wooden stable had been built by my Dad. He had stained it and even put little bits of straw in the animal’s feeding troughs. Above where baby Jesus would lay, he had even wired in a large bulb so the baby would shine brightly. (I’m looking for a large bulb to replace the old one which burnt out ages ago…they don’t make big Christmas bulbs like this anymore…everything is LED) My mom had filled the little stable with a little plaster nativity set, probably from Sears. I loved the nativity set as a child and as I set each figure in it’s place, I knew I wanted to recreate, a simple, REAL, Christmas for our children.
Then driving home in the dark one early evening, my ten year son William and our twin, eight year old daughters, Kathryn and Victoria, were noticing all the beautiful trees decorated around our little community. “When are we getting our tree mom?” they all chimed. I shared with them my feelings over not wanted to cut down a real tree this year. Then William, in simple straight forth language said, “but mom, won’t we have the tree chipped after Christmas and don’t they turn that into the stuff for your garden?”
That was it! We were going real and the tree would continue to live on helping to grow other things, in my garden and my neighbours gardens.
So after weeks of going back and forth weighing our options, we finally decided that we would head up the mountains once again for our tree. Last Sunday, we all dressed warmly, filled a large Thermos with hot cocoa and crammed a container with Christmas cookies. Then we piled into our old fashion, Honda sleigh and sang Christmas songs all the way to the mountains.
” O Christmas Tree, o Christmas Tree
Your boughs can teach a lesson
That constant faith and hope sublime
Lend strength and comfort through all time
O Christmas Tree, o Christmas Tree
Your boughs can teach a lesson”
It was a beautiful, blue sky, cold day when we went up the mountain and we weren’t alone. When we hit the logging road, where cutting trees is legal with a permit, there were several families like us, choosing their Christmas tree. We drove slowly up the road, the kids and I both exclaiming, “oh there’s one,” ” and there’s another.” When we came to a stretch where there were several choices, we got out of the van and tromped up and down the road.
Finally we narrowed the choice down to a large thirteen foot tree. It was perfect! Before David cut the tree though each of us touch the tree and we said a little blessing of thanks. (p.s…D left a good stump so the tree could send an off shoot in the spring)
While David cut and wrapped up the tree, the kids climbed the hill above us. By the time the tree was safely in our van the kids were at least fifty feet up the hill. Their voices and laughter echoed in the crisp air.
I finally lured them back down by waving the Thermos and container of cookies. They slid and skidded, laughing all the way down the hill and finally plopped onto a snowbank to have their treats. We clicked our cups of hot cocoas in celebration of finding our 2019 Christmas tree and while enjoying the moment, several cars and trucks carrying trees too passed us, honking and giving us the thumbs up as they passed with big smiles on their faces. I felt like we were a secret community of people who had all found the real joy this holiday season.
It was a magical experience. It took me right back to my childhood when life was simpler and everything seemed brighter. The Druids knew what they were doing when they brought evergreens into their temples as a symbol of everlasting life.
How about you? What brings you joy? What memories from your childhood linger and how are you creating those for yourself and your family this holiday season?
As you think of Christmases past, click on the link below and hear the song, “O Christmas Tree/ Charlie Brown Christmas.”
Oh that was fun and also took me back to my childhood. I always loved A Charlie Brown’s Christmas special. I want to “Thank you” for coming to visit today. As we move closer to the winter solstice, may your heart be filled with light and joy. May the simple gifts of the season come to you and your family.
Until we connect again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.
Blessing from Hope
P.S. If you wanted to know where our daughter Grace was in the Christmas tree hunt this year, the night before we went up the mountains, she had had her best three friends over to celebrate her 17th birthday party. Since the girls had stayed up into the wee hours of the night, she opted to stay home and work on her piano, do her homework and NOT tromp through the snow, but she was with us in spirit and appreciated the tree when we brought it home. Here’s a picture from her FAMILY birthday party
