My wife Lisa and I spent the holiday weekend putting up our Christmas tree. Technically speaking, I drug the artificial tree down from the attic and placed it in the stand.
Lisa and step-daughter Jo Ellen handled the decorations. I’m not really trusted with that level of artistry – relegated to putting up the exterior lighting around the house.
One look at our tree and you can understand why. It is a work of art that’s likely beyond my creativity.
Christmas trees have been around for centuries with their exact origin debated by many historians. Among the more popular versions says the Christmas tree dates back to the 7th century. It was then a monk allegedly went to Germany to teach the Word of God.
Joel McNeece
Legend is he used the triangular shape of the fir tree to describe the Holy Trinity of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The converted people began to revere the Fir tree as God’s Tree, as they had previously revered the Oak.
By the 12th century it was being hung, upside-down, from ceilings at Christmastime in Central Europe, as a symbol of Christianity.
In the early 16th century, Martin Luther is said to have decorated a small Christmas tree with candles, to show his children how the stars twinkled through the dark night.
My earliest memories of the Christmas tree involve my father and me marching into the woods with an ax to find the “perfect” tree for the corner of our living room.
We would leave our Clinton home and most often head south toward my dad’s hometown of Raymond. It was a true shopping experience as we looked over the many cedars in their natural habitat looking for just the right one. Once the selection was made, we chopped it down and hauled it home where I would assist my mom with the decorating.
It was first covered with the large, old fashioned C9 multi-colored lights – then the boxes of ornaments, mostly homemade from my kindergarten and elementary school days. There were the gingerbread men cut out of brown construction paper with a pasted black and white picture of my face on it and other cutouts of reindeer, snowmen, elves and more elementary craftwork mixed in with the handful of shiny ball ornaments.
An angel was carefully placed atop the tree and then the boxes of icicles, (which would turn up all over the house for months after Christmas), would then be strewn all over the tree until it glistened like a disco ball reflecting all the colored lights.
The sparkle of the lights and icicles, wonderful smell of cedar, and ornaments made from my own hands remain the quintessential Christmas tree in my mind.
Today, my wife’s meticulously decorated Christmas tree looks like something more out of Southern Living than the woods of Hinds County. Lisa has an incredible collection of Santa Claus ornaments that fill our 9-foot tree. The dozens of Santa Clauses are complemented by bright white lights, sparkling ribbons, glitter covered willow and fern-like branches and other bright red and green decorations. It is one of the more beautiful Christmas trees I’ve ever seen.
The cedar smell I remember from my youth now comes from scented candles neatly placed in different rooms. It’s about as different as could be from the Christmas trees I remember as a kid, but plays just as important a role in our enjoyment of this magical season.
Email Joel McNeece at joelmcneece@gmail.com & follow him on Twitter @joelmcneece
