Christmas Again......

 "The perfect Christmas tree? All Christmas trees are perfect."
                                         -Charles N. Barnard

 Lately, I've had a LOT of company. I love having people over at Christmas.  When I was growing up my mother would have people over for sherry and shortbread, fruit cake and hot mincemeat tarts, so hot your fingers would burn! Mostly  sitting by the fire, tea in an treasured teapot and candles flickering by.I remember my violin teacher, Frona, so comfortable in the old  chair by the fire that she fell asleep......                                                                    
 One of my favourite stories of all time is the "House Without a Christmas Tree". It is a low budget movie, done in 1972. The story itself was set in Nebraska, 1946. Nothing flashy here. If you have never seen it, I suggest you do, or read the story by Gail Rock.  At one point I thought we should have done it as a play with my theatre group. It is a gentle and simple story with a sweet message .

 Like the characters in the story, we were not flashy, growing up. My mother was older, and had retired by 1974. Christmas  always came and went though. We never missed it. Even though we didn't have a lot of money.

 Like in the movie, my mother would find a way to make Christmas happen.  Would buy only just so much butter and sugar and flour. Dole it out. For  shortbread, fruit cake and tarts. And use her old china to serve them on.
     But we both knew that   Christmas was more, IS more that that.

 "The message  of Christmas is the message of HOPE..." 
                                   -Craig D. Lounsbrough
 She lived on her pension most of my life.  At Christmas she was always  pinching pennies to make sure the bills were paid,and that there was something of Christmas in the house. And something to put in the offering plate for the homeless. Yes, there are always others who need us.....

 No royal icing for her gingerbread men. Just  a glaze and raisins stuck in their bellies and eyes. Half the time, they would lose their raisins. And like in the movie, I would bite off their heads and enjoy the stickiness of the frosting.

 My father had one last Christmas in 1966. Those Christmases afterwards I would find my mother sitting by the low embers of the fire, in his old chair, with a cup of untouched tea by her side.

 The piano on the other side of her would be laden with cards and bowls of peppermint candies. She would  be looking at the Christmas tree. She would always splurge for a tree if she could.  

 "15 dollars for a tree," she would say every year. "Highway Robbery! But I guess we have to have one." Every year we toddled down to a greenhouse tucked away beside the coin shop and printers. It disappeared a few years later. But those early years you could still get a tree there, down by Christ Church Cathedral, and hear the bells pealing at the same time.

 Trees stacked like toothpicks by height and weight. The owner  knew my mother so well. He would happily haul out trees for us to see. But they had to be $15 or less. In 1972 that was just what my mother could afford.We would eventually find the perfect tree, one that smelled of pine  and pitch.

In the light of day, the sun streaming down on us,  we would carry it home. Just like in the movie. Every time I see that scene, I'm reminded that my mother never brought  the car . We would take turns carrying either the front or back end, and we would march home with our prize. Pedestrians would wish us a Merry Christmas. The walk home was about an hour. We even did it in the rain.....

 Once the tree was propped up in a laundry tub  ( from the farm), and piles of rocks it was time to get ready for the only real  Christmas party that we had. 

 My mother would budget money for a party for my friends every year.  She would tell me there wouldn't be much under the tree, but there would be food on the table. My father used to LOVE parties at the house. Christmas music flowing, food brimming over. Everyone happy to be together.
"God cupped the  hands of my soul and poured in the warmth of Christmas." -Craig D. Lounsbrough

 And on a designated night, there would be my friends, dressed to the nines, food brimming over and carols playing, dinner served with home baked treats, on the antique plates and cake stands. And it would happen every year, for years to come. And I have remembered this..........

 One year, the  money was very tight.  My mother made shortbread, of course, but she counted every single piece that she placed in the large glass jar. In the small hours, I would sneak  ones from the bottom,and add more pieces of wax paper to make it look full. But she knew.She always knew but never said much.  She would bring forth  another block of butter, and extra one,  and make more shortbread. 

 That was the year we couldn't afford a tree. As if on cue, there was a huge wind storm the week before Christmas and tops of massive pine trees came crashing into our yard. We tied up two of them into the laundry bucket with rocks, and there was a tree, festooned with lights and the Angel with the big felt feet, fastened to the  top.

 That was the year my friends and I did  a  huge night of carolling, going house to house. Back then it wasn't weird or scary to have about 30 people show up in the dark and sing "O Christmas Tree" into the night. Those were the days when people answered their door without peering out tentatively. They would come out on the front steps, throwing on coats and wraps, to be part of it.
"Christmas embodies everything I need." -C.D. Lounsbrough.

In the story "House Without a Christmas Tree" there's one point when the kids all show up to sing carols. They sing "O Xmas Tree"....the little girl in the story wants a tree so bad , wants Christmas so much, and makes a point of looking straight at her  father who has been refusing to get a tree, because of his memories. ( You'll have to watch the movie and find out what happens)...

 "Christmas is NOT about the Christmas trees or the elaborate meals served in decorated homes.Christmas is the season of the Immanuel.We celebrate the good news! " K. J. Walden

 Kindred Spirits. Joy.  Home. Family. Faith.  Strung together with everything...

 My old Bear sits in a place of honour. The one my dad gave me  so long ago. 
"The sure path to tomorrow was plotted in a manger. Christmas is a promise that  I can walk through this world and never get lost....." 
                     -Craig D. Lounsbrough

And the Tree,probably bigger than the tree in the movie, but artificial (sorry!), festooned with  decorations from long ago and  not so long ago. At the top , the ancient Angel with her big felt feet.The one my mother and father used from the late 1940's. I've given her a new dress and sewed up  her wings just so she can see another Christmas. Home made. Mended and mended again. And I can't help but wonder how many people she has surveyed from her perch, all these years........and how many Christmases that The Story never fades, and never grows old and just brings love over and over.

 "Christmas may be only one day....but LOVE is for 365 days of the year." -Anthony Hicks