Christmas Traditions

 

Oh Christmas Tree

“The Christmas tree is a symbol of love, not money. There’s a kind of Glory to them when they’re all lit up that exceeds anything that all the money in the world could buy.”

Andy Rooney (Andy Rooney: 60 Years of Wisdom and Wit)

          I’ve been feeling motivated to put up a Christmas tree this year—after many years of a decorating desert. I put lights on the Ficus tree, and before that on a tall cactus we had. But cutting down a tree to drag inside and decorate somehow tweaked a guilt complex in me. And getting a plastic tree was, well, out of the question. But, this year, something feels different. Like we need all the light we can get—or maybe I do. Maybe lighting up the world with Christmas lights is one way of dispelling the darkness we’ve experienced these last few years.

          In looking up the symbolism of the Christmas tree, I found an on-line article published in The Times-Gazette just yesterday, titled, “Christmas Traditions.” I learned that the Christmas tree tradition began in Germany in the 16^th century with something called the “Paradise Tree.” It was decorated with apples to begin with, and then Martin Luther added candles. People in Germany began cutting trees and bringing them into their homes in the 16^th century, but it was not until the 1830’s that the tradition was brought to America by German settlers. Here, these decked-out trees were thought of as pagan symbols, and sometimes even carried a fine. But when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert took a photograph of themselves with their gaggle of children around a massive Christmas tree in the 1840’s, it opened the door for more people to bring trees into their homes at Christmas time.

          One fond memory I have of childhood was making decorations for the tree—long chains of popcorn, gingerbread cookies, red striped candy-canes, and loops of colored paper. Sometimes garlands of berries and nuts were placed on mantles and over doorways. I wonder whether you did that, too. We made Christmas cards at school—on my 4^th grade card, I tried to write “Joy to the World,” and managed to misspell world. Humiliating. My teacher, Mrs. Orders, put a big red X on it. She was a sweet thing.

Interestingly, the very first Christmas card, made in 1611 by Sir Henry Cole and his artist friend, John Horsley, was more like a manuscript having four poems and a song written on it. It was a tri-fold, carried from place to place and read aloud. Christmas cards weren’t mass produced until 1875.

I wonder what your Christmas traditions are and where they come from. Do you celebrate Christmas as a secular holiday or as the birth of the Messiah? This year, more than others, I feel we need to acknowledge the coming of the light and to celebrate it in some way. Hopefully not in a retail way, but in a heartwarming one. The season is upon us. Let us rejoice and be glad.

                                                  In the Spirit,

                                                  Jane