We set up our fake tree last night. It was meant to be an all day event BUT we decided to put it in a corner that had no baseboard trim and so such had to be found in our architectural salvage pile, cut, and installed. Then cleaned. Then the tree and accoutrement's had to be located, cleaned, sorted, and THEN the lights didn't work and had to be spliced and repaired. Not the holly jolly time we had been looking forward to.During the course of our search for our one little, tiny box of childhood ornaments the thought occurred: When did families, our families, go from decking the tree in kid made, collected, and personal ornaments to a Martha Stewart designer competition for the perfect home decor? When did our childhood art/fun ornaments get relegated to dump box in favor of plastic and glass perfection on a hook? So why am I inheriting that? I don't have to- it's a choice, not a tradition.
When did our lives get like that? How do we undo the damage of "look, don't touch/eat"?
Historically trees were trimmed with presents, food, and paper craft. Next year, when we have a new old house, we will have a real tree with real ornaments made by our very real family. This year we will enjoy what we have and add what we can. This year we added candy canes to offer guests and we will be adding more as the weeks go by. It will still be beautiful, but touchable.
we have some store bought ornaments given as gifts, but most of our tree is decorated with little stuffed animals, bows and crafts that K and i made together, oh and of course the edible candy canes. it's topped with a santa hat that i'll wear while passing out gifts on christmas morn. k loves seeing all the stuff he made decorating the tree. and he has plans to make stuff this year. when you switch over next year, you'll be thrilled with the joy in your daughter's eyes as she hangs her crafts. it's not martha stewartish, no where near as beautiful, but we like it better.
ReplyDelete