The question came up on Facebook last week as a friend posted, “I’ve had two people recently ask me what the “theme” of my Christmas tree is. Um ...?” I assume the ones asking the question have a theme – starry skies, angels, elves, or bobbleheads – who knows?
On Sunday afternoon yesterday, I’m was a bit late for my normal Saturday after Thanksgiving putting up of the tree. (The two grandsons next door call it a “fake” tree and flash their superiority that they have a “real” tree, but mine doesn’t shed when I leave it up until New Year’s Day.) As I have decorated, I have thought about the Facebook question since my tree varies little from year to year.
I pulled the decorations out of recycled Scholastic book boxes with tape remnants from many years and started with the handknit stockings for each family member. The oldest begins with my parents as Ma and Pa, stockings I made for them long ago for their tree and then inherited, with the youngest ending with Owen making his seventh appearance. The originals have faded a bit, but no matter.
I opened an egg carton filled with wooden Christmas ornaments from a ladies Sunday school class I taught for the three years we were in Germany. Two have vanished over the years and the handwritten puns for each one had faded so badly last year that I typed them into the computer before they were lost altogether.
Ornaments handcrafted by Aunt Dee, who died last year at the age of 100 and stood in nicely for the grandmothers I never knew, hold a special place.
An abundance of ornaments from the Christmas market city of Rothenburg, Germany and a Nuremberg Angel for the top were acquired during the three-year tour we had in the country that was then still West Germany.
There are carved ornaments, gift of a Muslim friend from Palestine, brought back when she made a trip home to visit; a multitude of teacher gifts from school children who are forever in kindergarten, second grade, or junior high in my mind; ornaments that we picked up in places where we traveled; cheap filler decorations from our early years; and gift ornaments from family members and special friends.
Remembering people, places, and live events become a big part of tree decoration. The theme of our tree for this year and always, is memories.