My Best Christmas Tree Ever
I’ve always been really big into Christmas: the music, the Christmas specials, the food, the decorations, and the Christmas tree.
Especially the Christmas tree.
When I was a kid, I oversaw the decorations in our home, and I took particular pride in the decorating of the tree. I was the one insisting that our fake tree go up in late November. I was the one who finally pressured my parents to ditch that fake tree with its labyrinth complexity (every color-coded branch needed to be inserted separately into the wooden spindles that served as the trunk; it was an afternoon’s work). I was the one who suggested getting a real tree instead (thanks, no doubt, to inspiration from Charlie Brown). And throughout the 1980s, I was the one who oversaw the decorations: garlands, ornaments, and loads of gaudy tinsel.
During most of the 1990s I was living in Vancouver, but I would still make it home several days before Christmas Eve and I always made sure to put my signature stamp on the tree.
All that changed in 1999. I was married in June. Then, at the beginning of September, my wife and I moved to London, England. We were now living in the famed London Goodenough Trust. That student residence was a Godsend: a vibrant community of graduate students from around the globe living in community with our own private square, two pubs, and two chaplains. And located a 10-minute walk from the British Library and a 15-minute walk from King’s College (my school) and the famed West End. It felt like we were at the center of the universe.
On the downside, the apartment was small … as in you couldn’t open the fridge door and the oven door at the same time small. Oh yeah, and like most post-graduate students and their spouses, we were dirt poor. With no money and no square footage, it was clear that I would need to give up the prospect of having a Christmas tree for the first time in my life.
Or would I?
One day in early December, I figured out a solution. I walked down to the local paper merchant and purchased a pad of multi-colored construction paper. And then, over the same span of time that it took to assemble that 1970s Christmas tree, I made a modest 12-inch-tall tree out of that paper while my wife fashioned a garland and some ornaments. Finally, we added a little paper fireplace and wreath for good measure.
A humble tree, no doubt. But as I look back, I think it was my, and our, best Christmas tree ever.
Merry Christmas to all!
And as a bonus, I have included below my 2014 Christmas greeting from all of us (i.e. me, myself, and I) here at the Tentative Apologist:
https://randalrauser.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Merry-Christmas-from-Randalrauser.com_.mp3
The post My Best Christmas Tree Ever appeared first on Randal Rauser.
