So Much for Christmas “Treedition”
Emotions run high at Christmastime — mostly running the right way but sometimes the wrong way too. (Our biggest “fight” was when do we open the gifts under the tree? Mimi’s way? Or my way?) No doubt a marriage here or there has ended at such a time when the shear beauty of the season actually creates marriages to go. However, if a marriage has hit the rocks because of a Christmas issue my guess is it will no doubt spring (literally) from sources I’ve always felt were shallow but whose roots can run deceptively deep — issues that involve that innocent, silent, “December guest” in all our homes, the Christmas tree. A tree with a story:
A Story Too Old to be Told — Except for This Much
It’s well known that the decorated tree was a pagan symbol long before it became a Christian icon. A legend, no doubt inaccurate in detail but in substance true, dates back to 723 AD involving the venerable Saint Boniface as he was evangelizing Germany. He came across a pagan group of dancers under a decorated oak tree who were about to sacrifice a baby in the name of Thor. Boniface took an axe, called on the name of Jesus, and to the crowd’s astonishment in one swipe took down the oak. Behind the fallen tree was a baby fir tree. Boniface, noting that the little tree pointed to heaven, and it was shaped in a triangle representing the Holy Trinity, said, “Let this tree be the symbol of the true God.” It stuck. The decorated pine tree slowly became Christmas tradition throughout Europe and the Christian world.
Treedition Disclaimer
I’m focusing here on issues involving the decorated Christmas tree, not other decorations as interesting as they may be. Speaking of which Mimi and I will never forget the monarch of all displays — certainly in the U.S. if not beyond. We were new in Ft. Lauderdale and were told in December not to miss the Bayer home — home of the founder (or heir) of the giant pharmaceutical company made famous by its little aspirin. We couldn’t miss it. Covering an entire city block on the Intracoastal Waterway, from a distance it appeared the whole island was on fire. Every inch was glowing and glittering. Gaudy, but oddly in good taste.
Treedition Update
For about 200 years now the practice of adorning a pine tree or semblance thereof as the symbol of Christmas has become the norm for just about every home in America. Our country even does it jointly. As I write I’m watching on TV the annual lighting of the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center in New York City. The first one was lit in 1931 and was 20 feet tall. This one is 82 feet tall and weighs 900 pounds. So much for that story. When it comes to your tree in your house what’s your story? It could say a lot about you and yours. So, take a listen to your life as it gives back to you its Christmas tree memories. Here, to jog your memory are some of ours — born of years of natural trees but more recently artificial.
Somehow the Job gets Done
Mimi’s dad loved the tree but founding a medical school came first. So why wait for all the family to get on board. Result, the big white-flocked tree always appeared by the fireplace in December before the family even knew it was December and to boot other tree outcroppings magically appeared all over the house. At my house my dad took charge too. We all pitched in until everybody had to suddenly be somewhere else. But somehow the tree always got done. I’ve asked dozens about their memories. People are hard put to remember even last year. BUT IT GOT DONE! In the mix are crucial questions like size, kind, source, artificial or real, when to put it in, when to fold it up, and where to put it. And the lights and ornaments are key — especially what sits proudly on top. Mimi works hard at it, but her dream tree is a medium size plastic tree that’s perfectly decorated — PERMANENTLY — everything in place including the angel doll on top. The tree sits snuggly in its own closet for 11 months — on wheels. On December 1 the wheels turn, the electric plug is inserted and we’re in business. It’s been on back order from Santa for at least 60 years.
Fading Memories
Fading memories may turn out to be the best ones to work with when you go back many decades. They all fade together into a beautiful garland of the past. Sharing memories recently with one of my daughters — trying to keep in mind she just turned 60 that she’s not six anymore — we recalled the last thing we hung on our tree every year. It was the lead tensile (now a health abomination) just like on George Baileys’ tree in It’s a Wonderful Life. Whoever was still awake would then go to the other side of the room and blow with all our might. We quickly returned and waited to watch the strong magical wave of air hit the tensile. It was a full minute before the wave hit. I recall too the years we had trees you plant after Christmas. I’ve been amazed how big and how fast they’ve grown and how the yard is now nothing but tree when we’ve gone back to visit them.
The Tree and the True Meaning of Christmas
O Christmas Tree = O Tannenbaum in Germany and is a famous Christmas Carol there. Its third stanza — as sung (and transliterated) by Aretha Franklin, Let us all remember in our gift giving and our merriment, With our family and friends and loved ones, The real and true meaning of Christmas, The birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ — may be our only direct true musical Lync connecting the tree to the birth of Jesus.
Move over Aretha. Make Way for Rocky. It’s a Hoot!
On November 16, 2020, an adult female Northern Saw-Whet Owl — immediately dubbed Rocky — was found snuggly wrapped in the branches of the newly delivered Rockefellow Center tree. She had traveled three days and 170 miles. It took quite a while for her to wake up and be released on the grounds of New York’s wildlife center. When all’s said and done Rocky probably personifies the average Christmas tree sentiment — (1) Put yourself into it enough to get it done, (2) Don’t sweat the small stuff, (3) Enjoy the ride.
It’s a Hoot! MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!
