The Tinsel Tree

I love Christmas. Sometimes I wish it could be Christmas every day. I love the traditions, the family time, the special events, the food, the church services, and I love meditating on the Biblical story of Christmas. I really enjoy Christmas lights, candles, decorations and manger scenes. In fact, I collect manger scenes. I have 6 of them in my office all year round. So if you need a gift idea for me...(hint, hint)

I thing I really enjoyed as a child was laying under our Christmas tree and reading a book. Sometimes there would be a fire in the fireplace and the combination of the light from the fire, lights on the tree, the pine fragrance and a good book, were almost too much to take. Even today, that scene is vivid in my mind. Knowing this, you can imagine the shock I felt one day early in December when I got home from school and there was a tinsel tree in our living room. It was decorated with blue balls and it had a multi-colored wheel that rotated around and cast light on the tree from an irritating spotlight. I couldn't believe my eyes! No pine smell, no stranded lights, no ambience... but, I gave it a try. That night I plunked myself down next to the tree with a book. The whiring noise of the multi-colored wheel motor was distracting, the spotlight was too bright, and the lack of pine smell was just too much.

We endured the tinsel tree for a couple more years and finally the motor died, the spotlight melted the color wheel and the tinsel tree went to tinsel tree heaven. It was a wonderful Christmas again when we went back to a natural tree. In this day of technically perfect, pre-lit artificial trees, we still get a natural tree every year. Some have holes we have to hide, some are bent a little, and some droop earlier than they should, but they smell wonderful and look even better. It's just about time to select this year's tree. We always get it in the house and decorated by the second weekend in December. I can't wait...