Allow me to introduce you to the newest addition to our household: our new 9-foot Christmas tree. Its predecessor had served us faithfully for quite some time, but last year two strands of lights failed – and we knew that the dimming would only worsen with time. So earlier this year we took advantage of a sale and bought ourselves a new 9-footer – and the day after Thanksgiving was when was finally brought in from the garage and extricated from its box.
I’m not ashamed to say (well, maybe I am just a tad ashamed to say) that if I were on my own to assemble a 9-foot Christmas tree, it simply wouldn’t happen. Either I would never attempt it at all- or would miserably fail in the attempt. I just have no instinct at all for putting things together or for figuring out how something fits together – nor the patience it would require for me to finally solve the mystery. A task as simple as figuring out how a drawer slides into our freezer chest just baffles me. Thank goodness I am married to a woman who not only can do such things- but seems to actually enjoy doing such things. (If I believed in reincarnation, then I would believe that Kathy must have been some sort of engineer in a previous life.) When it has come to assembling our big trees, she is definitely the brains. And at the risk of sounding patently ridiculous, I am the brawn of the operation. It has always been my job to haul the tree up from the basement (a gargantuan task I would have gladly passed off to one of the more muscular guys in my voice studio if our messy basement weren’t strictly off limits to the rest of the human race) and with our previous trees, I also did most of the lifting of each section of the tree on to the others, which always left me both sweaty and scratched up, as though I had just been pounced on by three bobcats. In the midst of that “fun” I’ve been heard to remark more than once about us converting …. and I wouldn’t care which religion it was- just as long as it was one that didn’t involve Christmas trees! Of course, once the tree was safely assembled and I had caught my breath, I was perfectly content to retain my beloved Christian faith – and once the tree was adorned with all of our ornaments, I would wonder how I could have possibly been grumpy about such a lovely and meaningful tradition.
This time around, I didn’t even feel a twinge of such displeasure. Part of it was that the tree (still in its box) only had to be moved in from the garage- and not up from the basement (a herculean task that only grows more difficult as I grow older.) But beyond that, it turns out that this tree is lighter than any of the others we have owned- so light, in fact, that Kathy was able to lift each section of the tree into place without any help from me. There is also something almost miraculous about how something that begins its life scrunched into a rectangular box can eventually become a tall and stately tree, once it has been assembled and its branches properly plumped out.
And in what turned out to be a delightful surprise, the lights from each section did not have to be plugged into the other sections of the tree (which has always been a tricky and laborious process). You plug in the lights of the bottom section, but the lights of the other sections illuminate as if by magic when each section of the tree is lifted on to the central trunk. I don’t know how it happens – I’m just glad it does, and so is Kathy!
In a strange reversal of roles from what I suspect is the more customary division of labor, I am the person who does most of the decorating of our tree, and for me this is when all of the sweat and tears of the set up becomes completely worth it. I think part of what makes it so fun and gratifying is that each of those decorations and ornaments represents some moment from our past that we are wanting to remember or commemorate. The decorating always begins with the hand carved wooden ornaments made by Kathy’s dad, and they are each given an honored place. After that I hang the bead ornaments made by one of Kathy’s grandmothers as well as a small stitched ornament made by my mom. From there, I usually grab all of my own personal favorites- which are the ones that are especially colorful- and find places for them front and center, before filling the rest of the tree. I get strangely particular about not having two nativity ornaments right next to each other- or two Santas- or two snowmen …. although by the time I’ve hung 200+ ornaments I begin to let things slide just a bit! Once the ornaments are hung, it’s time to place a few small stuffed animals into the tree – and last but not least are the birds. It’s pretty evident by the time it’s done that we are not “Less Is More” kind of people. Our tree is a monument to excess and extravagance – not in the sense of anything being costly or elegant, but rather that we like our tree to be as crowded and crazy as our lives are – crowded with reminders of the people and places that we love and that have given us such joy.
