Writing on Sunshine: The Joy of a Messy Tree

For many the Christmas season begins with the decoration of their Christmas tree.

I love admiring the Christmas trees of friends and family. Everyone has personal quirks that make their tree unique. Some people pull out an artificial tree they’ve saved from year to year; while others take delight in scouting out the perfect real tree and carting it home.

There's no store bought star upon the top of our tree.

Our Christmas angel, handmade by my beloved

Nanny Kay watches over us each year in her memory

I am always awed by trees that can be described as nothing other than perfection. These are the tall, fully shaped trees that look like they belong on the cover of a Martha Stewart magazine.

Artistically dispensed strands of tinsel accent sparkling glass ornaments and colour co-ordinated lights gleam brightly. Nothing is out of place on these hip masterpieces dangling with the trendiest bling.

And although they are beautiful and perfect; you will never see one of these trees in our home.

Our family tree is decorated with mainly hand-made, crafty ornaments. Each ornament tells a story and has a sentimental history attached to it. Everyone in our family has his or her own personal ornament box, and it’s like opening a treasure chest each year.

There are ornaments with secret compartments that I gleefully hide notes in annually with the hope that my children will read them one day in the future and then pass the tradition down to their own children. I like to reread these notes each year because they are like time stored in a bottle…or more precisely, time stored in an ornament.

Little handprints hug our tree year after year.

We have decorations made with little hands that eventually grew into big hands. There are angels made by tracing teensy feet and then gluing on handprint wings. We have rainbow coloured snowflakes made from popsicle sticks hanging from the branches. Diligently painted ceramics shine with their protective lacquer coating. And , of course, each year we create new family ornaments and add them to our collection.

We also have store bought ornaments that symbolize events, moments and obsessions in our lives. Dora dangles along with Elmo reminding us of our children’s first fascinations. Spiderman jingles with Angelica and Snoopy jangles with the Toronto Maple Leafs. This year I’m pretty sure My Little Pony and The Beatles are going to join the Christmas tree party.

Our tree is an eclectic collection of our children's interests

throughout the years. It's not unusual to see Dora chilling with

a walker from The Walking Dead.

And the only rule when it comes to decorating the tree is that Mommy and Daddy have to help secure the fragile ornaments. Other than that we just listen to Christmas carols and have some fun.

Inevitably we always have big clumps of tinsel along the bottom of the tree and bare patches on top. Actually, the entire bottom half of the tree tends to be way over decorated, and our youngest seems to want to put all her decorations on the exact same tree branch. But it’s all okay as long as we are having a good time.

Sometimes I envy those perfect Christmas trees and beautifully trendy decorated homes. But truth be told, a snowflake with my child’s hand print on it is going to push a glass figurine of Santa Claus out of the way every time.

In the end, I don’t mind if my tree has clumps of silver and all the ornaments seem to be piled on one side.
A messy tree is a loved tree. And that’s what makes it OUR tree. And it’s perfect for us.

Column originally published by the Welland Tribune in December 2009.