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Between Friends

Bob Ann Breland

I cannot believe December has arrived so fast! I am thinking about going to the shed and trying to find the Christmas tree…or what was left of the one-time tree the last time I put it up in the house. Was it last year or year before last?

Isn’t it strange as we age some things may not be so important anymore? I don’t know if I will put up a Christmas tree…at least not that Christmas tree…at all. I still have time to decide.

I do get a lot of pleasure in watching the trees pictured on Facebook and some are definitely masterpieces of art. Although I consider myself an artist, decorating a Christmas tree rates along the same lines as coloring Easter eggs and not my favorite thing to do.

I remember watching a program on television of really big decorations for Christmas across the country. One was an entire farm with a lake and a huge plantation-style house…all covered with lights and decorations. It was really pretty, but goodness at the work that was involved! Every room in that house was decorated and there were trees and other stuff that would make the White House look shabby.

I could admired the creation….and others also shown from other parts of the country, but it made me a little sad that I care so little about my own tree and decorations. One would think I would find it really thrilling.

My mother loved Christmas. She loved decorating and cooking and buying and wrapping presents. Right after Thanksgiving she would put up her tree and I can remember so many pretty trees. One year – way back – she had one of the metallic silver trees with pretty shiny balls lit by a colored flood light.  It would be an antique by now.

She really enjoyed doing all the things that enthralled the children. One year it was really warm weather until Christmas and her tree was beautiful through the sliding glass doors, while outside were colorful old-fashioned petunias blooming brightly.

Way before modern times when decorations are plentiful to buy, Mama would scour the woods around our house for anything she could use for decorations. Holly with berries and long-leaf pine boughs were tops and anything else she could add to make the house pretty. She sprinkled tinsel and ornaments from the tree decoration box, and the house smelled so good.

Right now live plants don’t last very long because of our heated houses, but early on we only had a fireplace in one room and the decorations stayed pretty for many days.  Always a live tree, which she let us help decorate, but putting the tinsel in at last was her particular job.  No matter how we decorated, the tinsel evened it all up in beauty.

Happy Birthday in Heaven today to my sweet sister-in-law, Daisy Lang, who would decorate her house so beautifully for Christmas. A tree in every room with plenty of decorations. It was such a beautiful holiday house and friends would come to tour.

Maybe I should to get my tree out and in shape to add a little Christmas cheer to my house. It will bring a sweet memory of my daughter Robin, who loved Christmas and always came in time to decorate my tree, using many of the ornaments she had made for the family tree.

Christmas certainly isn’t about a tree, but may we all see it as a sweet tradition bringing our thoughts to Jesus, a Life coming to Bethlehem as a tiny Baby, to proclaim joy and a ministry to give the world new hope.