What my Christmas Tree means to me

I don't have one up this year because we are temporarily displaced and will be moving back home after the New Year.

When I do have one, it reminds me of my childhood, the better times, if you will.

I also enjoy seeing the looks on my childrens' faces as they watch the lights and investigate all the bulbs.

Mostly I enjoy watching dh, who rarely gets excited over holiday things. He LOVES Christmas lights. I swear if he could afford it, he'd decorate the whole house, inside and out, to a near blinding amount of light!

I also love the smell of a live tree (I get ones with roots intact so I can plant them later, except with my lack of green thumb, it rarely works out).

The tree really changes the look of the home at Christmas time and feels quite festive. Without it, it's not quite the same...

 

madre and I celebrated our first Christmas together 29 years ago. We took the tree down in February. We had one ornament - a beaded bell that was on one of her shower gifts. I like to put the tinsel on one strand at a time. madre likes to use the shotgun approach. We don't use tinsel anymore.

We have Baby's First Christmas ornaments for our three children. There are a few ornaments from when we lived in Germany and Colorado. Most of the ornaments we hang have a story behind them - a special person or event.

10 years ago our oldest son was hospitalized with a life changing illness three days before Christmas. We kept that tree up until he left the hospital on February 2d.

I mentioned in another thread that our tree is - for us- an Ebenezer. There are so many memories of God's hand upon us through travel and travail. The beaded bell is the last ornament we put on every year. It reminds madre and me of our promise to each other - for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health. We had all of those and through it all we are reminded of God's goodness.

There is the stamped-tin Santa that was my maternal grandfather's. He died of black lung when I was 4 months old. Grandpa was saved a year before he died. I can hang that Santa in the joy of knowing, because of Jesus Christ, I will meet my grandfather face to face.
:godisgood:

 

Cant wait till DHK sees THIS one.


:godisgood:

 

To me a tree has no symbolic meaning other than the tradition of gathering with family and friends and the memories of seasons past. I can´t forget the great times of going out to a tree farm in northern MI to cut our own tree. The smells, the hot chocolate... good times.

We do not have a tree this year because I am afraid that our labrador pup will chew it and create an utter disaster.

 

Dogs and trees are not a good mix. We had a dog who mistakenly assumed we had installed indoor plumbing for him.

 

Charming!

hehe

 

I have personally experienced that as well. Hey it looks like what they use outside, what can one expect.

 

Good thread to bump...

 

Family to dog: Urine big trouble!!