My Christmas Tree of Memories!

It’s The Holiday Season!

We’ve officially entered the holiday season, and I’m just as excited as a child on Christmas morning! I love this time of year so very much. Among the things that I love the most are Christmas carols, holiday decorations, all of the sweet treats, and of course those sappy, predictable, heartwarming Hallmark Christmas movies.

Christmas Memories and Traditions

It’s amazing to me that the older that I get, the more I regonize my own mother in my thoughts and actions. When I was a little girl, decorating the Christmas tree was a big event. After we had survived the yearly ordeal of stringing the lights and setting up our old, rickety tree stand, Mother would go and get out the ornaments. For me it was like a reunion with old friends! I loved releasing them from their slumber and allowing them to hang on that tree in all their splendor.

The thing that I most remember is the way that my mother would look at us and say, “Can you hear them giggling?” She would tell us that the ornaments were happy because they were getting to come back out again. When we would take the tree down and had packed up those precious ornaments again, she would tell us that they were going to take a long nap until next year.

I know that all of this probably sounds silly, but it has stuck with me for all of these years. I now do the exact same things. I always ask my family if they can, “hear them laughing,” and I always tell the ornaments goodnight when I put them back into the closet at the end of the holiday season.

My Christmas Tree

I am very traditional in my celebration of Christmas. While I truly admire the fancy, themed trees of others, I am adament that my tree must contain all of my important ornaments from the past! For that reason, my tree always looks just the same every year, and I like it that way.

For me, my ornaments tell the story of thirty years of marriage, and twenty-six years of motherhood. It tells the story of twenty years of beautiful children who walked in and out of my life through my years as a teacher. I have kept EVERY SINGLE ornament that I was ever given by friends, family members, co-workers, and students! Every one of them is on my tree, and I simply adore getting those ornaments out and reliving the memories of those wonderful people each and every year.

I have even been known to keep a broken ornament or two… As a matter of fact, a couple of years ago my family was gathered around the tree one evening. My youngest son, became very animated while demonstrating how to play some silly game, and he inadvertently knocked one of my favorite ornaments off of the tree. It was a darling glass snowman on skis that had been given to me years before by a co-worker. The snowman shattered, but since my mother taught me long ago to “make lemonade,” that snowman’s head still hangs on my tree! We now laugh about it, and that created a new memory!

Handmade Ornaments

In addition to keeping every ornament that was ever gifted to me, I also have kept every single ornament that my sweet boys, and also my wonderful niece have made for me over the years. They are some of my most prized possessions! I especially love the ornaments that are made from their precious little handprints. What treasures those are!

Cardinals

We lost our mother four years ago next month. On the day that we lost her, a cardinal appeared in my backyard. Since that day, cardinals have appeared at memorable and sometimes really important times. I choose to believe that those cardinals are visits from my mother. I have been purchasing cardinal ornaments in her honor for a couple of years now. That is my way of continuing to have her with us at Christmas!

A Wonderful Discovery

My sweet grandmother also loved Christmas, and she recognized the importance of family traditions and memories. She kept literally everything! She kept every letter, card, piece of artwork, and gift that any member of her family ever gave her. I think that’s where my sentimentality comes from. This summer, Sister and I had the honor of going through her closets and clearing out decades of memories. It was a trip down memory lane!

That was when I made an amazing discovery. In one of her many boxes of Christmas ornaments and decorations, I saw a small Ziplock bag. Inside the bag was a collection of ornaments that I had made for her many years before. Those ornaments had hung on her tree for years. The amazing part was that she had included a small handwritten note to me, reminding me that I had made them, and that she wanted me to take them back. Those ornaments are proudly hanging on my tree! I wouldn’t take anything for them!

The Scrooges of the World

There are some people who choose to criticize and even demonize people like me… people who love Christmas and who like to celebrate it in a big way. I have recently seen several Facebook posts from friends and even family who like to imply that there is something wrong with the fact that some of us like to decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving. Well, if loving my family, our traditions, and memories makes me an awful person, then guilty as charged! I will not apologize for creating a warm and welcoming home for my family. Thank you so much for reading! Happy holidays!

“He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.”

Roy L. Smith