Christmas trees at the mall or in other public spaces are often massive. I’m not gonna Google it, but I’m certain they come out of a warehouse, pre-decorated with giant, tastefully color-schemed ornaments distributed all over them with factory precision. These trees look depressing. Does anybody care about them? Is anybody’s heart in them? I admit, I’m ignorant of the stories that might live in these mall trees. But what can be symbolized by these massive plastic mall trees that look decent from afar, but are oh so hollow and lifeless up close?
Then, there’s my Christmas tree at home. Every year on the day after Thanksgiving, we put up the tree and decorate our house for Advent, Christmas, and (more recently) Kwanzaa. I wouldn’t say that it’s always “fun”. It takes hours and involves a lot of annoying things like moving furniture, hauling boxes out of the dirty garage, fixing lights that don’t work, replacing melted candles, vacuuming and dusting, trying to get my not-so-young daughters to get off their asses and help! But it is VITAL that this ritual takes place. The result is a Christmas tree that, to me, looks great both from afar AND up close.
It truly takes hope, peace, love, and joy to decorate for the holidays! By painstakingly decorating, we literally infuse our tree and our home with all of the hope, peace, joy and love that we desperately need during the holiday season. We have put our hearts and souls into this ritual for as long as I can remember: it’s part of our heritage. The tree, the nativity scene, the Christmas village (which didn’t get assembled this year), the Advent wreath, the kinara, the outdoor decor, and almost every single ornament has a story. Even the management of these objects becomes part of the process, as things sometimes get broken or lose their meaning. Getting rid of these things is hard, but necessary. It takes care and discernment to figure out what to keep, what to discard, and what to replace from year to year.
Like the mall trees, I wonder what aspects of our world and of our lives might be symbolized by our own ritual around the Christmas tree and other decor in our homes. This annual practice brings together so many aspects of what make our family and our lives unique. We need this ritual in our homes because it is our culture, even our legacy, embodying all of the things that make this season special.
