Taking It Down


Why is it that everyone is so anxious to put up the Christmas decorations, but no one wants to help take them down?  Getting ready for the magical Christmas season can be so exciting, especially for little ones.  Putting things away signals the end of the magic and the beginning of a long, cold winter.  It's no wonder no one wants to help.

Our Christmas tree is always overloaded with ornaments of every shape and color.  I took the Christmas ornaments off of our tree by myself on New Year's Day.  As I took down each unique ornament, I thought about its origin, where we got it, and who made it or gave it to us.

The first ornaments Bill and I ever received were the four hand-painted ceramic ones and three traditional balls that someone gave us as wedding gifts forty years ago. They first hung on the little tree in our apartment just three days after our wedding.  That year, we also started a rather short-lived tradition of buying one ornament a year to add to our tree.  I've repaired that little corn husk mouse a couple of times, but he still hangs securely on our tree every Christmas.

It wasn't long after I started teaching that Bill and I realized that we didn't need to buy any ornaments at all.  We found out that kindergartners loved to give ornaments to their teacher for Christmas.  As I was putting away the ornaments this week, it was easy to reflect on the hundreds of students I've taught over the years.  It's funny how a simple homemade or hand-picked ornament can trigger memories of the particular student who gave it to me years ago.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself, at least a little bit.  By our second Christmas together, Bill's Grandma Lucas gave us a couple dozen ornaments that she had made for us--simple ornaments made from old jar lids and
Christmas card pictures, and more elaborate beaded wreaths and bells.  A couple of years after that, she created several tatted and crocheted snowflakes that still hang on our tree every year.


By the time our children were preschoolers, we started a tradition of making ornaments for them to give to grandparents and teachers as gifts.  Often, examples of those gifts ended up on our tree, as well.  I smiled as I took down the foam snowman, holding his ancient (but still plastic-wrapped) candy cane.  Once again, I read the inscription on the back of a clay gingerbread man, painstakingly molded and painted for my Grandma Wegner, when Erin and Meagan were small.  I laugh every time I spy the Santa that Meagan made for me out of a bubblegum case, a bottle lid, some pipe cleaners, and a few scraps of cotton and felt.  Victoria's ceramic mitten and Levi's decorated CD will only become more special with age.  Some ornaments become keepsakes for the best memories.



And just last year, almost-two-year-old Tobin made a unique salt dough backhoe that will hang on my tree every year until it falls apart.  So, the newest generation is already contributing to my Christmas tree memories.


After the last ornament is removed from the tree, I take off the silver beaded chain, and the white macrame rope I made in a college art class.  I no longer have to remove the lights from the tree, since they are permanently woven into the branches of our artificial tree.  I don't have to drag the tree to the curb to be carted away, or take it to the church to be burned in a giant Epiphany bonfire, like we did in Michigan, because my allergies dictate our need for a tree that isn't real.  Bill will help me box up the tree and put it up in the garage rafters to wait for another Christmas.

It's sad--until I stop to remember the reason for the tree, the celebration of Jesus' birth.  Birthdays come and go, parties are short-lived, but just as we are able to spend time throughout the year with the people whose birthdays we celebrate once each year, we are also blessed to be able to spend time with Jesus every day of every year.  The Christmas tree may be gone for another year, but Christ is always with us.  Now, that's a good reason to celebrate every day, until December rolls around again, and we pull out those decorations for another party!

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.  Hebrews 13:8


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